Children’s TV Mandate to Be Eased Under Proposal From the FCC

Federal regulators intend to ease requirements for television broadcasters to air children’s programming, saying a decades-old mandate has become outdated in an era of abundant kids’ shows on cable and online.

The Federal Communications Commission is to vote July 10 on allowing children’s programming to be shown an hour earlier, at 6 a.m., and for a portion of required fare to appear on secondary digital channels rather than the main channel seen by most viewers. Critics said such changes would undermine the goal of ensuring availability of three hours of educational children’s programming weekly.

Broadcasters such as CBS Corp., Fox ...