With the proliferation of digital broadcast channels, things are looking up for distributors of FCC-friendly children's educational or instructional (E/I) programming. After a long battle with broadcasters, the FCC during the Clinton years mandated that every TV station air at least three hours of E/I programming each week. The broadcast networks relieved most stations of the chore by supplying such programming. In 2006, the FCC extended the three-hour E/I obligation to any new digital channels offered by stations, regardless of format, but granted stations some flexibility in meeting it. A station could repeat some of the E/I programming on more than one channel and, more important, it could shift all or part of the three-hour obligation from one channel to another. As stations have approached the Feb. 17, 2009, deadline for shifting from analog to all-digital broadcasting, an increasing number have begun airing one or more digital channels and, incidentally, increasing their E/I obligations. And that has meant more business for producers and distributors of E/I programming. They are supplying it to networks like MGM's This TV that are seeking carriage of digital channels as well as directly to broadcasters that have created their own channels. The E/I business has also been buoyed by news that Fox is dropping its four-hour children's block on Saturday mornings and returning two hours to its affiliates. The move leaves every Fox affiliate a half-hour short of the required three hours of E/I programming. (Most of the Fox kids block was not intended to meet the E/I obligation.)
