As most of us are aware, all broadcast television stations are required to carry three hours of programming with the "E/I" designation (educational and instructional).
ABC has been making it easy for its affiliates to comply with this rule by offering a four-hour "ABC Kids" block, three hours of which are considered "E/I": the animated "Emperor's New School" (9 AM ET); the animated "Replacements" (9:30 AM); an hour of the live-action "That's So Raven" (10 AM); the live-action "Hannah Montana" (11 AM); and the live-action "Suite Life Of Zack & Cody" (11:30 AM). (The hour of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" that follows at Noon is neither educational nor instructional.)
However, while perusing an ABC affiliate's schedule for next weekend, I noticed that ABC is scheduled to carry - produced by ESPN, of course - one of the final rounds of FIFA World Cup Soccer on the morning of Saturday, July 3. In fact, it is scheduled to start at 9:30 AM, right after "Emperor" at 9 AM. Apparently, there is a locally-scheduled half-hour from 12-12:30 PM, based on some of the ABC affiliate schedules I've looked at for July 3. Then from 12:30 to 2 PM, is ninety minutes of more "ABC Kids" programming - E/I qualifying, of course - before another World Cup match is scheduled for 2 PM. Looking at the schedule for the following day, July 4, ABC is offering "Downfall" at 2:30 PM before an auto racing telecast at 3:30 PM. You'd think they'd have scheduled one more hour of E/I-qualifying programming in that timeslot, but that does not appear to be the case.
So, I guess all of the ABC affiliates are left to fend for themselves next week to make sure the necessary three hours of E/I programming are scheduled, since the mothership will be coming up short this weekend. Of course, now that the USA is out of contention for the World Cup, perhaps a quick fix would be to schedule that game on ESPN instead? There had been games previously scheduled at 9:30 AM on Saturdays for the past few weeks, and I believe all of these games had aired on ESPN, if not ESPN2.
ABC has been making it easy for its affiliates to comply with this rule by offering a four-hour "ABC Kids" block, three hours of which are considered "E/I": the animated "Emperor's New School" (9 AM ET); the animated "Replacements" (9:30 AM); an hour of the live-action "That's So Raven" (10 AM); the live-action "Hannah Montana" (11 AM); and the live-action "Suite Life Of Zack & Cody" (11:30 AM). (The hour of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" that follows at Noon is neither educational nor instructional.)
However, while perusing an ABC affiliate's schedule for next weekend, I noticed that ABC is scheduled to carry - produced by ESPN, of course - one of the final rounds of FIFA World Cup Soccer on the morning of Saturday, July 3. In fact, it is scheduled to start at 9:30 AM, right after "Emperor" at 9 AM. Apparently, there is a locally-scheduled half-hour from 12-12:30 PM, based on some of the ABC affiliate schedules I've looked at for July 3. Then from 12:30 to 2 PM, is ninety minutes of more "ABC Kids" programming - E/I qualifying, of course - before another World Cup match is scheduled for 2 PM. Looking at the schedule for the following day, July 4, ABC is offering "Downfall" at 2:30 PM before an auto racing telecast at 3:30 PM. You'd think they'd have scheduled one more hour of E/I-qualifying programming in that timeslot, but that does not appear to be the case.
So, I guess all of the ABC affiliates are left to fend for themselves next week to make sure the necessary three hours of E/I programming are scheduled, since the mothership will be coming up short this weekend. Of course, now that the USA is out of contention for the World Cup, perhaps a quick fix would be to schedule that game on ESPN instead? There had been games previously scheduled at 9:30 AM on Saturdays for the past few weeks, and I believe all of these games had aired on ESPN, if not ESPN2.
