**DA 07-1586**

**Released: April 4, 2007**

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

Sacramento Television Stations Inc.

KMAX-TV

2175 K Street, N.W.

Suite 350

Washington, D.C. 20037

Re: Sacramento Television Stations Inc.

KMAX-TV, Sacramento, CA

Facility ID No. 51499

File No. BRCT-20060809AKX

Dear Licensee:

This refers to your license renewal application for station KMAX-TV,
Sacramento, CA.

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. The Commission also reaffirmed and
clarified its long-standing policy against "program-length commercials."
The Commission defined a "program-length commercial" as "a program
associated with a product, in which commercials for that product are
aired," and stated that the entire duration of any program-length
commercial would be counted as commercial matter for the purpose of the
children's television commercial limits. *Children's Television
Programming*, 6 FCC Rcd 2111, 2118, *recon. granted in part*, 6 FCC Rcd
5093, 5098 (1991).

On August 9, 2006, you filed the above-referenced license renewal
application for station KMAX-TV. In response to Section IV, Question 5
of that application, you certify that, during the previous license term,
KMAX-TV failed to comply with the limitations on commercial matter in
children's programming specified in Section 73.670 of the Rules. In
Exhibit 19, you indicate that station KMAX-TV exceeded the children's
television commercial limits on one occasion. Specifically, you report
that on March 21, 1999, a commercial for the Voltron action figure aired
during the "Voltron" program.

In *Children's Television Programming (Recon.),* the Commission stated
that, in order to avoid being considered a program-length commercial,
commercial matter related to a children's program must be separated from
that program "by intervening and unrelated program material."[^1] To
ensure that there was no confusion, the Commission "specifically
note\[d\] that intervening commercial matter will not suffice as a
separation device."[^2] The Commission made it clear in *Children's
Television Programming*, that program-length commercials, by their very
nature, are extremely serious, 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."[^3]

While we consider any violation of our rules limiting the amount of
commercial matter in children's programming to be significant, the
broadcast of the one program-length commercial described in your renewal
application appears to have been an isolated occurrence. 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 Sacramento Television Stations Inc. for the violation of the
children's television commercial limits rule and policies described in
station KMAX-TV's renewal application. We remind you that the Commission
expects all commercial television licensees to comply with the limits on
commercial matter in children's programming.

Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that, a copy of this Letter shall be sent by
First Class and Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested to Sacramento
Television Stations Inc. at the address listed above, and to its
counsel, Howard F. Jaeckel, Esquire, 1515 Broadway, 49^th^ Floor, New
York, New York 10036.

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

[^1]: 6 FCC Rcd at 5099.

[^2]: *Id.* at 5099 n.89.

[^3]: *Children's Television Programming*, 6 FCC Rcd at 2118.