FCC

Clients often ask why it is necessary to add the paid programming disclaimers to their programs. This has been of particular concern for some ministry clients who prefer not to have “paid for by” disclaimers leading into their program, some have chosen to use a short disclaimer to make note of the “partners who are supporting the program.”

The standard answer is “FCC Regulations”, but I wanted to dig a little deeper and shed more light on this often-asked question. 

The objective of the rule is to ensure that viewers know who is paying for the messages that they are seeing.  By setting the rule, and its accompanying fines to stations that do not comply, the FCC brings a higher standard to advertising transparency.  For example, in 2007 a television station in Pittsburgh was fined for airing programming for which it was paid $100 per episode to air but did not identify that the programming was paid for and by whom.  They should have aired a “disclaimer” that the program was sponsored by the individual who paid them to air the program.  They did not and ended up paying $32,000 in fines.

Situations where there is a ‘barter’ type arrangement are exempt from the requirement to give sponsorship identifications.  Barter situations occur where the program supplier provides the station its program which the station purchases by allowing the program provider to use some or all of the advertising during the program.  The broadcaster purchases the programming in exchange for advertising. This scenario does not trigger the sponsorship rules. 

Where the station accepts money for playing a program, regardless of the content of the program, then it must identify who gave it the money to play the program. Accepting the money is not the issue – its making sure that the public knows who paid the money.

Many stations have chosen to take the “better safe than sorry” route, and require the sponsorship identifications on all the programs, even if they may not strictly be required.

Aubry Winfrey has purchased and planned media for a wide variety of accounts including Universal Studios, Atlas Van Lines, TriVita, and Disney. Aubry has an MBA and has written for DRTV Industry newsletters. She brings a strong analytical skill set to the Newton Media team and handles the media buying out of our Texas office.

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