
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 4, 1990                   TAG: 9005040784
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

KIDS' PROGRAM BENDING RULES, TV GROUP SAYS

Advertisers think a new program, "Video Power," will keep kids glued to their television sets. A TV watchdog group thinks the show may be bending the law.

Although "Video Power" is not on the air yet, Action for Children's Television, the Boston-based advocacy group, complained about the show to the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday.

ACT's filing with the FCC was prompted by a report in Monday's Wall Street Journal that commercials would be inserted into "Video Power" so seamlessly that young viewers wouldn't be able to tell where the ads begin and the program leaves off.

The Journal said the half-hour syndicated show, planned to air weekdays after school next fall, would be hosted by a 14-year-old named "Johnny Arcade." Johnny, the Journal said, "will rattle off `news' items, such as countdowns of top hits in video games. Sandwiched in the minute-long countdowns will be 10-second or 20-second commercials, without so much as a pause between the news and the commercial."

ACT thinks the show as described violates FCC rules that require TV producers to clearly distinguish advertising in kids' shows and that prohibit a show's host from peddling products.

"We are requesting a public notice [from the FCC] to investigate the trend in children's TV which blatantly ignores existing FCC policy," ACT attorney Donna Lampert said in an interview.

The show will feature cartoons with characters from current video games. Some of those characters are based on video games from Acclaim Entertainment Inc., which is buying 20 percent of the show's commercial time, the Journal said.

"We're ecstatic about the format," Acclaim executive Anthony Williams told the newspaper. "Children change channels during commercials. For one thing, their concentration span is shorter than that of adults. This, we think, is a good way for both producer and advertiser to sidestep that problem."

Neither Acclaim Entertainment nor the producers of "Video Power" could be reached Thursday.

The FCC in 1984 lifted rules that limited the amount of advertising that may be shown during children's shows. At the same time, however, the commission reaffirmed its 1974 rules on host selling and ad-program separation in children's shows.

by CNB