FCC Rule Boosts Education on Digital TV

A recent accord between the television industry and children’s advocacy groups over federal rules promises to ease the transition of TV programming for children into the era of digital broadcasting.

Until last month, the two sides had been in dispute over the industry’s obligation to provide expanded educational and informational fare for children younger than 16. Congress mandated those obligations in general terms in the Children’s Television Act of 1990 but left many important details to be worked out by the Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC has issued several sets of rules that have made the broadcaster’s obligation’s increasingly precise, such as an order in 1996 that said that TV stations, to renew their broadcast licenses, must broadcast a minimum of three hours of children’s educational and informational programming at popular times every...