As part of the 2019 overhaul of the children’s television programming rules, the FCC did away with quarterly children’s television programming report filings. To satisfy the new, annual filing requirement, stations must file a children’s television programming report within 30 days of the end of the preceding calendar year (i.e., by January 30 each year). For 2020, however, the FCC has extended the due date for filing the new annual report until March 30, 2020.
For the initial annual filing (due March 30 instead of January 30), the reporting period will only cover September 16, 2019, to December 31, 2019. Broadcasters may wish to reach out to legal counsel to ensure compliance with the new rules.
Children’s Television Programming Reports reflect efforts made by the station during the relevant reporting period to serve the educational and informational needs of children. These reports must be filed through the FCC’s LMS filing system, which is available at https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/login.html. Once the report is filed, the FCC is supposed to automatically populate the station’s online public file in the OPIF system (https://publicfiles.fcc.gov) with the filed report. Full power and Class A television stations should confirm that the report is accessible in the station’s online public file within 24 hours after filing the report.
