Big Media: Digital TV Doesn’t Need Educational Restrictions

“Viacom Inc. has asked a federal court to overturn new rules requiring more educational TV programs for children and setting tighter limits on kids’ exposure to advertising in the age of digital television… The government has long set guidelines for broadcasters to set aside a certain amount of educational programming for children with commercials limited to 12 minutes per hour of kids’ programming… But the FCC has formulated new rules to take into account the nation’s move toward digital transmission of TV signals and the phaseout of analog broadcasting… The new FCC rules would extend the children’s programming requirements to those new channels, something the major entertainment companies are resisting.”