FCC TO PROBE NEW NICKELODEON KID SHOW

The FCC has agreed to look into complaints by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood that the upcoming Nickelodeon cartoon series Zevo-3 violates the 1990 Children’s Television Act which limits the amount of commercial time in children’s programming to 10.5 minutes per hour. The show, sponsored by Skechers, the shoe company, uses characters from Skechers commercials and is entirely produced by the company’s in-house production unit. The CCFC argues that because of the use of the Skechers characters, the entire show amounts to an advertisement. Children’s programming is one of the few areas of cable content in which it has legislative autority to oversee. Nickelodeon on Wednesday issued a statement saying that it does not believe that the show is a commercial, “nor do we agree that its transmission would violate the Children’s Television Act or any of the Commission’s rules or policies.”