NBC To Debut Saturday Preschool Block

[DToTheJ]

Of course, like the other networks' Saturday morning E/I efforts, they won't be utilizing their own resources for this programming. The new "NBC Kids" block, scheduled to debut July 7, will be powered by Sprout, of which NBC Universal has an interest. Programming will include the popular "Wiggles."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ar...s_Saturday_Morning_Preschool_Block_July_7.php

 

[nathannah]

This will definitely set up something interesting since PBS stations still hold Wiggles and Caillou rights...there's going to be one market where you'll see one of the shows both on PBS and NBC at the same time .

Makes me wonder though how much NBC is commited to Qubo now though...if they take their ball and go home and do the same thing with Telemundo's dubbed block, Ion's going to have to go it alone with Scholastic, and with a lower budget too, seeing as Scholastic is now looking for the next Hunger Games and Harry Potter over younger-targeted books like Judy Moody. Already Qubo is seeing cutbacks as they acquire some of the lower-quality DiC product that sustained UPN and WB stations for their E/I commitments in the early 2000's.

 

[Bill_W]

This will definitely set up something interesting since PBS stations still hold Wiggles and Caillou rights...there's going to be one market where you'll see one of the shows both on PBS and NBC at the same time .

Haven't seen the Wiggles on PBS. The Wiggles used to be on Disney Channel here in the US and then went to Sprout which is majority owned by Comcast. PBS is also one of the minority owners of the channel. Sprout is run by Comcast here at the Comcast HQ in Philly. Comcast bought 51% of NBC. It seems like that the Wiggles are Comcast programming here in the US.

 

[Mario500]

The description "preschool block" reminds me of my wish for the repeal of the Children's Television Act passed by the Congress of the United States in 1990. If more folks were aware of the law and they were to contact their legislators, there would be a great chance of this law being repealed, thus leaving broadcasters without obligations to broadcasting educational and informative programming programming. It may not lead to the return of the traditional Saturday morning programming of the past immediately, but it would mean less government regulation of content broadcast.

As for educational and informative programming in general, there was enough of it before and after the passage of the Children's Television Act. PBS provides plenty of it along with cable TV and satellite TV broadcasters. Local and national news programs are educational and informative too; they may not be made especially for children or any specific audience, but they serve the same purposes as the programs labeled with the letters "E" and "I".

 

[FreddyE1977]

Won't be seen in Pittsburgh, as WPXI likes to pack their weekend schedule with what seems
like 137 hours of local news...

 

[crainbebo]

This will definitely set up something interesting since PBS stations still hold Wiggles and Caillou rights...there's going to be one market where you'll see one of the shows both on PBS and NBC at the same time .

Haven't seen the Wiggles on PBS. The Wiggles used to be on Disney Channel here in the US and then went to Sprout which is majority owned by Comcast. PBS is also one of the minority owners of the channel. Sprout is run by Comcast here at the Comcast HQ in Philly. Comcast bought 51% of NBC. It seems like that the Wiggles are Comcast programming here in the US.

Think the Wiggles are only on Sprout now. Never have seen it on ANY PBS stations.

-crainbebo

 

[kilamanjero]

Won't be seen in Pittsburgh, as WPXI likes to pack their weekend schedule with what seems
like 137 hours of local news...

Do you blame WPXI for doing such considering local news brings in more money than this mess? Cox does this with their large and medium market stations (KTVU, WSB-TV, WFTV, and WSOC-TV).

 

[JeeperOne]

The description "preschool block" reminds me of my wish for the repeal of the Children's Television Act passed by the Congress of the United States in 1990. If more folks were aware of the law and they were to contact their legislators, there would be a great chance of this law being repealed, thus leaving broadcasters without obligations to broadcasting educational and informative programming programming. It may not lead to the return of the traditional Saturday morning programming of the past immediately, but it would mean less government regulation of content broadcast.

Which is EXACTLY what corporations IN EVERY INDUSTRY want

OTA broadcasters want less content restrictions so they can remain competitive with their counterparts on cable/satellite (At least those that aren't owned by the OTA network parent companies that is)

As for educational and informative programming in general, there was enough of it before and after the passage of the Children's Television Act. PBS provides plenty of it along with cable TV and satellite TV broadcasters.

While it's true that PBS (And the member subchannels), Sprout, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network & the Disney Channel cluster provide plenty of children's programming, there's no reason to believe there's no more room for more channels like them

Local and national news programs are educational and informative too; they may not be made especially for children or any specific audience, but they serve the same purposes as the programs labeled with the letters "E" and "I".

No they don't. Local & National news programs are just that - Local & National news programs. Nothing more & nothing less

JMO.....

Cheers & 73 ;D

 

[anotherguyTN]

I've said before I'm not a big E/I fan but it's the only thing keeping Saturday mornings from becoming all news and sports at the best or trash talk and infomercials at the worst.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

I've said before I'm not a big E/I fan but it's the only thing keeping Saturday mornings from becoming all news and sports at the best or trash talk and infomercials at the worst.

it's useless when shows like Saved by the Bell qualify

 

[FreddyE1977]

Won't be seen in Pittsburgh, as WPXI likes to pack their weekend schedule with what seems
like 137 hours of local news...

Do you blame WPXI for doing such considering local news brings in more money than this mess? Cox does this with their large and medium market stations (KTVU, WSB-TV, WFTV, and WSOC-TV).

You can only watch the story about "An elderly Wexford man falls prey to door-to-door scammers"
or "The Steelers look to bolster their lineup for next season, find out how they'll do it coming up after the break" so many times before lunch.

 

[dxtrfn]

I've said before I'm not a big E/I fan but it's the only thing keeping Saturday mornings from becoming all news and sports at the best or trash talk and infomercials at the worst.

it's useless when shows like Saved by the Bell qualify

I think every show Disney Channel has shown has aired in its quote on quote Cable In The Classroom block on the first Tuesday morning from 3am-5am and its not educational at all. Just a way for viewers taping a series at 3am and to see this instead to throw off their series.

 

[imhomerjay]

Won't be seen in Pittsburgh, as WPXI likes to pack their weekend schedule with what seems
like 137 hours of local news...

Do you blame WPXI for doing such considering local news brings in more money than this mess? Cox does this with their large and medium market stations (KTVU, WSB-TV, WFTV, and WSOC-TV).

You can only watch the story about "An elderly Wexford man falls prey to door-to-door scammers"
or "The Steelers look to bolster their lineup for next season, find out how they'll do it coming up after the break" so many times before lunch.

And few watch many consecutive times. The point is making it available for different audience segments when it's convenient for them.

 

[TexasTom]

The description "preschool block" reminds me of my wish for the repeal of the Children's Television Act passed by the Congress of the United States in 1990. If more folks were aware of the law and they were to contact their legislators, there would be a great chance of this law being repealed, thus leaving broadcasters without obligations to broadcasting educational and informative programming programming. It may not lead to the return of the traditional Saturday morning programming of the past immediately, but it would mean less government regulation of content broadcast.

There's not really much chance of it being repealed, since I can't imagine there being much of a groundswell of people writing to their legislators on this particular issue. Most folks simply don't care one way or the other.

In any event, even if it were repealed, the chances of it resulting in the "return of the traditional Saturday morning programming" is somewhere in the general vicinity of zero. Saturday morning cartoons did not disappear because of the Children's Television Act -- they disappeared because children's advertising mostly moved to cable channels. The revenue just wasn't there to motivate stations to continue running kid's shows. So the strong stations ran news (which was more profitable) and the weak stations started running infomercials. The only way that changes is if stations think that they can sell advertising during children's programming.

 

[azumanga]

There's not really much chance of it being repealed, since I can't imagine there being much of a groundswell of people writing to their legislators on this particular issue. Most folks simply don't care one way or the other.

Apparently, broadcasters seem to be apathetic about the issue as well -- even though they're finding the cheapest ways to satisfy E/I, they're in no hurry to get their lobbying group in Washington to pressure the congresspeople to abolish E/I.

The revenue just wasn't there to motivate stations to continue running kid's shows. So the strong stations ran news (which was more profitable) and the weak stations started running infomercials. The only way that changes is if stations think that they can sell advertising during children's programming.

Technically, stations still can run ads during kids' shows, but with so much strings attached as to what ads can and can't be broadcast, it's hardly worth it. For that reason, "Litton's Weekend Adventure" has pharmaceutical ads and PI commercials, all focused on adults in general, during the breaks.

 

[crainbebo]

I've said before I'm not a big E/I fan but it's the only thing keeping Saturday mornings from becoming all news and sports at the best or trash talk and infomercials at the worst.

it's useless when shows like Saved by the Bell qualify

I think every show Disney Channel has shown has aired in its quote on quote Cable In The Classroom block on the first Tuesday morning from 3am-5am and its not educational at all. Just a way for viewers taping a series at 3am and to see this instead to throw off their series.

You barely see "Cable in the Classroom" used anymore. Teachers have the ability to pull up videos online (or VHS prerecorded if necessary).

-crainbebo

 

[nomadcowatbk]

I've said before I'm not a big E/I fan but it's the only thing keeping Saturday mornings from becoming all news and sports at the best or trash talk and infomercials at the worst.

it's useless when shows like Saved by the Bell qualify

I think every show Disney Channel has shown has aired in its quote on quote Cable In The Classroom block on the first Tuesday morning from 3am-5am and its not educational at all. Just a way for viewers taping a series at 3am and to see this instead to throw off their series.

You barely see "Cable in the Classroom" used anymore. Teachers have the ability to pull up videos online (or VHS prerecorded if necessary).

-crainbebo

A lot of the of the videos we watched in school were just shows taped off the local PBS affiliate.

 

[TexasTom]

The revenue just wasn't there to motivate stations to continue running kid's shows. So the strong stations ran news (which was more profitable) and the weak stations started running infomercials. The only way that changes is if stations think that they can sell advertising during children's programming.

Technically, stations still can run ads during kids' shows, but with so much strings attached as to what ads can and can't be broadcast, it's hardly worth it. For that reason, "Litton's Weekend Adventure" has pharmaceutical ads and PI commercials, all focused on adults in general, during the breaks.

The problem isn't with the advertising that they're legally allowed to run -- the problem is that the advertisers simply aren't interested in buying advertising during children's programming on local stations. That's why the PI commercials run...the stations can't sell the time to anyone else. And it has nothing to do with the Children's TV Act, which was in effect long before children's TV on broadcast stations dried up. In fact, the strongest years for kids shows on both Fox and the WB occurred during years in which the act was already in effect.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

The revenue just wasn't there to motivate stations to continue running kid's shows. So the strong stations ran news (which was more profitable) and the weak stations started running infomercials. The only way that changes is if stations think that they can sell advertising during children's programming.

Technically, stations still can run ads during kids' shows, but with so much strings attached as to what ads can and can't be broadcast, it's hardly worth it. For that reason, "Litton's Weekend Adventure" has pharmaceutical ads and PI commercials, all focused on adults in general, during the breaks.

The problem isn't with the advertising that they're legally allowed to run -- the problem is that the advertisers simply aren't interested in buying advertising during children's programming on local stations. That's why the PI commercials run...the stations can't sell the time to anyone else. And it has nothing to do with the Children's TV Act, which was in effect long before children's TV on broadcast stations dried up. In fact, the strongest years for kids shows on both Fox and the WB occurred during years in which the act was already in effect.

Nickelodeon and CN don't show blatantly educational programming other than possibly Nick News (wasn't that sydicated to local station as an E/I show), school age kids won't watch them. Kids that actually want to watch educational shows watch PBS

 

[anotherguyTN]

If Saved by the Bell qualifies as E/I then whay can't Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, or even the Three Stooges?

But I agree that even if E/I is repealed, the networks will never go back to Saturday morning kid's shows like they used to be, and will probably be more likely to drop them completely.

The best thing that I can see coming out of E/I being repealed is that perhaps college football and basketball will start earlier in the day. :