In revamping its children's television rules, the FCC sought comment on whether it should allow broadcasters to meet their obligation.  

Related: FCC Provides KidVid Compliance Guidance 

In July 2019, a politically divided FCC voted Wednesday (July 10) to give broadcasters more flexibility in providing educational/informational (E/I) programming for children, changes Democrats said dis-serve kids. 

An accompanying Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking sought comment on a regime that would allow broadcasters to satisfy their kids programming obligations by, in part, producing or funding programs that aired on another station in their market, kind of like the regulatory equivalent of the Civil War option of paying someone else to fight. 

But in a meeting with FCC commissioner Michael O'Rielly, who championed the KidVid revamp, Patrick Butler, president, and Lonna Thompson, executive VP and general counsel, at America’s Public Television Stations (APTS), asked the FCC to revise its tentative conclusion that the station partnerships result in new or expanded programming.  

Instead, they said, commercial broadcasters should be able to fulfill that mandate by increasing the accessibility, availability, and image quality of E/I programming already airing on noncoms. That would include providing ad avails for promoting that noncom programming on the commercial station, covering the cost for smaller stations of airing kids programming in HD, or helping cover the cost of getting a TV signal to an MVPD.  

Given that the HD option could cost cost $150,000-$175,000 and getting a signal to an MVP could be $20,000 per year, commercial broadcasters might not be covering all those costs, but could help defray them.  

"APTS urges the Commission to adopt a broader understanding of “support” in its sponsorship rules to enable noncommercial stations to use funding from local commercial stations in one or more of these proposed ways that would promote and help increase awareness of noncommercial children’s programming, or that would benefit the quality, accessibility, or availability of curriculum-driven children’s programming," they said. 

That curriculum-driven point is particularly salient given the study-at-home nature of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Netflix has renewed Kong: King of the Apesfor season two, debuting next year, and also said it will launch five original animated shows for kids over the next two years.

The first of the new five shows, action-comedy Skylanders Academyfrom Activision Blizzard Studios, follows the adventures of a ragtag group of heroes protecting the Skylands universe from evildoers. Eric Rogers (Futurama) runs the show, with voice help from Justin Long, Ashley Tisdale and Breaking Bad tough guy Jonathan Banks. Thirteen episodes debut this fall, with a second season in late 2017.

The other four shows include Llama Llama, based on the book series by Anna Dewdney and set to premiere in 2017; Spirit Riding Free, inspired by the film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, about a wild mustang that could not be tamed, also coming out in 2017; Spy Kids: Mission Critical, based on the family film franchise of the same name and due in 2018; and Hilda, based the Luke Pearson graphic novels about the journey of a fearless blue-haired girl, coming in 2018.

Read more about the shows at broadcastingcable.com.

The channel will stream all 29 episodes of Om Nom Stories, the Web series about the life of the candy-munching star of the hit mobile game "Cut the Rope" from game developer Zeptolab.

The channel also offer episodes about drawing animated characters as well as three behind-the-scenes vignettes.