**DA 07-1585**

**Released: April 4, 2007**

**[CERTIFIED MAIL -- RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED]{.underline}**

Media General Communications Holdings, LLC

WYCW(TV)

333 East Franklin Street

Richmond, VA 23219

Re: Media General Communications Holdings, LLC

WYCW(TV), Asheville, NC Facility ID No. 70149

File No. BRCT-20040802BAY

Dear Licensee:

This refers to your license renewal application for station WYCW(TV),
Asheville, NC.

In the Children's Television Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-437, 104 Stat.
996-1000, *codified at* 47 U.S.C. Sections 303a, 303b and 394, Congress
directed the Commission to adopt rules, *inter alia,* limiting the
number of minutes of commercial matter that television stations may air
during children's programming, and to consider in its review of
television license renewals the extent to which the licensee has
complied with such commercial limits. Pursuant to this statutory
mandate, the Commission adopted Section 73.670 of the Rules, 47 C.F.R. §
73.670, which limits the amount of commercial matter which may be aired
during children's programming to 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and
12 minutes per hour on weekdays.[^1] The commercial limitations became
effective on January 1, 1992.[^2]

On August 2, 2004, you filed the above-referenced license renewal
application for station WYCW(TV). In response to Section IV, Question 5
of the renewal application, you stated that, during the previous license
term, station WYCW(TV) failed to comply with the limitations on
commercial matter in children's programming specified in Section 73.670
of the Commission's Rules. In Exhibit 1 and in a March 6, 2007 amendment
to the renewal application, you stated that station WYCW(TV) exceeded
the children's television commercial limits by 30 seconds on October 21,
2006. You attributed this overage to human error and maintained that
station WYCW(TV) has taken steps to prevent further overages.

You also reported that on December 23, 2006, station WYCW(TV) aired a CW
Network commercial for Post Cereal's Cocoa Pebbles during the "Xiaolin
Showdown" program. You stated that this commercial contained images from
Post Cereal's postopia.com website, including images of the website's
navigation bar. You indicated that the navigation bar included "very
small images of characters from the "Xiaolin Showdown" program." You
maintained that these characters were visible for a very short period of
time. You contended that "other than the fleeting appearances of the
small images of characters from the "Xiaolin Showdown" program," there
is no connection between the "Xiaolin Showdown" program and the
postopia.com website or the Cocoa Pebbles commercial. As a result, you
asserted, this occurrence appears to constitute a violation of the
Commission's host-selling policy. Nonetheless, you argue that you should
not be sanctioned for this incident because as a CW affiliate, station
WYCW(TV) was "not involved in the selection, planning or approval of the
network-provided commercials" aired during the "Xiaolin Showdown"
program. Also, you contended that a sanction would be inappropriate in
this instance since station WYCW(TV) could not have anticipated that the
CW Network would broadcast material that would violate the children's
television commercial limits.

As a preliminary matter, we note that Congress was particularly
concerned about program-length commercials because young children often
have difficulty distinguishing between commercials and programs.[^3]
Thus, the Commission made it clear that program-length commercials, by
their very nature, are extremely serious violations of the children's
television commercial limits, stating that the program-length commercial
policy "directly addresses a fundamental regulatory concern, that
children who have difficulty enough distinguishing program content from
unrelated commercial matter, not be all the more confused by a show that
interweaves program content and commercial matter."[^4] Accordingly, in
interpreting and applying the Commission's policies regarding
program-length commercials, we are concerned about and dealing with the
cognitive abilities of young children, not adults.[^5]

With respect to station WYCW(TV)'s broadcast of the commercial for Cocoa
Pebbles during the "Xiaolin Showdown" program, although you stated that
characters from the "Xiaolin Showdown" program appeared briefly during
the Cocoa Pebbles commercial, it is well-established that the
determination as to whether a particular program is a program-length
commercial is not dependent on the duration of the appearance of the
program-related product in the commercial announcement. The Commission
has stated on numerous occasions that, where a commercial announcement
includes a product related to the program in which the commercial is
broadcast, then the program is a program-length commercial regardless of
the duration of the appearance of the program-related product in the
commercial.[^6] Moreover, we think that there is the potential for
confusion between the Cocoa Pebbles commercial and the "Xiaolin
Showdown" program since the commercial includes images of characters
from the "Xiaolin Showdown" program.

In addition, the reason offered for the program-length commercial does
not mitigate or excuse it. Specifically, the fact that the
program-length commercial was inserted into the program by station
WYCW(TV)'s television network, does not absolve Media General
Communications Holdings, LLC's responsibility for the violation. The
Commission has consistently held that a licensee's reliance on a
program's source or producer for compliance with our children's
television rules and policies will not excuse or mitigate violations
which do occur.[^7] Moreover, although you asserted that the 30-second
overage resulted from human error the Commission has repeatedly rejected
human error and inadvertence as a basis for excusing violations of the
children's television commercial limits.[^8] While corrective actions
may have been taken to prevent subsequent violations of the television
rules and policies, this does not relieve you of liability for the
violations which have occurred.

Based upon the record before us, the violations of Section 73.670
described in your renewal application appear to have been isolated
occurrences. Although we do not rule out more severe sanctions for
violations of this nature in the future, we have determined that an
admonition is appropriate at this time. Therefore, based upon the facts
and circumstances before us, we ADMONISH you for the admitted violations
of Section 73.670 of the Rules described in station WYCW(TV)'s renewal
application.

Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that, a copy of this Letter shall be sent by
First Class and Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested to Media
General Communications Holdings, Inc. at the address listed above, and
to its counsel, Kevin P. Latek, Esquire, Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, PLLC,
1200 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W., Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20036.

> Sincerely,
>
> Barbara A. Kreisman
>
> Chief, Video Division
>
> Media Bureau

[^1]: *Children's Television Programming*, 6 FCC Rcd 2111, 2118, *recon.
    granted in part,* 6 FCC Rcd 5093, 5098 (1991).

[^2]: *Children's Television Programming,* 6 FCC Rcd 5529, 5530 (1991).

[^3]: S. Rep. No. 227, 101^st^ Cong., 1^st^ Sess. 24 (1989).

[^4]: *Children's Television Programming,* 6 FCC Rcd at 2118.

[^5]: *See, e.g.,* *Scripps Howard Broadcasting Company (KNXV-TV),* 9
    FCC Rcd 2547 (1994), *aff'd* 12 FCC Rcd 19504, 19505 (MMB 1997).

[^6]: *UTV of San Francisco, Inc. (KBHK-TV)*, 10 FCC Rcd 10986, 10988
    (1995); *see also WPIX, Inc.,* 14 FCC Rcd 9077 (MMB 1999)
    (commercial for "Spirit of Mickey" home video showing brief image of
    Donald Duck on cover of video aired during "Quack Pack" program);
    *Act III Broadcasting License Corp. (WUTV(TV))*, 10 FCC Rcd 4957
    (1995), *aff'd*, 13 FCC Rcd 10099 (MMB 1997) (commercial for a fast
    food restaurant promoting a trip to Disney World as a contest prize
    contained a brief image of Goofy and aired during the program "Goof
    Troop").

[^7]: *See, e.g., Max Television of Syracuse, L.P. (WSYT(TV))*, 10 FCC
    Rcd 8905 (MMB 1995); *Mt. Mansfield Television, Inc. (WCAX-TV)*, 10
    FCC Rcd 8797 (MMB 1995); *Boston Celtics Broadcasting Limited
    Partnership (WFXT(TV))*, 10 FCC Rcd 6686 (MMB 1995).

[^8]: *See, e.g., LeSea Broadcasting Corp. (WHKE(TV))*, 10 FCC Rcd 4977
    (MMB 1995); *Buffalo Management Enterprises Corp. (WIVB-TV)*, 10 FCC
    Rcd 4959 (MMB 1995); *Act III Broadcasting License Corp., supra;
    Ramar Communications, Inc. (KJTV(TV))*, 9 FCC Rcd 1831 (MMB 1994).