The Children's Television Act of 1990, 47 C.F.R section 73.671(a), and later legislation, oblige television broadcast licensees to serve, over the term of a license, the educational and informational needs of children. Commercial television stations must report their children's educational and informational broadcast programming efforts to the FCC by electronically filing FCC Form 398, Children's Television Programming Report, each quarter. Non-commercial television broadcast stations are exempt from this reporting requirement.
The Children's Television Reporting System is the FCC's computer system for accepting, retaining, monitoring, and publicly disclosing Children's Television Programming Reports. Forms 398 filed with the FCC are recorded in a database. Members of the public can monitor children's television programming aired on commercial television broadcast stations by accessing the database.
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Contact Information
To support stations’ timely and accurate filing, the Commission has included KidVid Support within the Children’s Educational Television Reporting – Form 398 information page to provide troubleshooting guidance and FAQs.
If stations require further assistance, support is available via Internet and phone. Via the Internet, contact FCC eSupport at https://esupport.fcc.gov/request.htm. Filers must select “Children’s Television Reporting System (LMS)” from the “FCC System” dropdown menu.
Via phone, contact FCC eSupport Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. ET (except Federal holidays), at 1-877-480-3201 (TTY: 1-717-338-2824) and select Option 2.
The Children’s Television Programming Reports identify the programming that a commercial television station has aired to serve the educational and informational needs of children.
For more information pertaining to the Children’s Television Programming Report (Form 398), please call: (202) 418-1600.
For more information on Television broadcasting, please visit the Video Division website.
FCC > Media Bureau > Engineering Division and the Video Division.