During children’s programming, both broadcasters and cable operators must abide by certain advertising time limits and restrictions in order to protect children. These limits apply to programming originally produced and aired primarily for an audience of children 12 years old and younger. The rules state that in an hour program, the advertisements are not allowed to exceed 10.5 minutes on the weekends or 12 minutes during the week. The commercial time limits do not apply to non-commercial educational stations because these stations are prohibited from airing commercials.

A program is considered a "program-length commercial" when an advertisement for a product is aired in a program associated with that product. In such cases, the entire program is counted as commercial time. An example of this would be a cartoon program that aired a commercial for the dolls of its characters during the program broadcast. A television show may also be considered a "program length commercial" when a commercial announcement is made primarily for a product otherwise unrelated to the program, but makes references to or promotes products related to the program. An example of this would be an advertisement for a cereal that has no relation to the program, but the promotional toy inside the box is related to the program.

"Host selling," which also is prohibited, is any character endorsement that may confuse a child from distinguishing between program and non-program material. An example of "host selling" would be a promotion for a theme park or restaurant using a character in the program being viewed.

Read our fact sheet on Children's Educational Television...