Prime Time Access Rule


The Prime Time Access Rule was a broadcasting regulation that was instituted in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission in 1970 to restrict the amount of network programming that a local television station either owned-and-operated or affiliated with a television network can air during "prime time". This rule was repealed by the FCC in 1996.

Issuance

The PTAR was issued in 1970 and was implemented at the beginning of the 1971–72 television season. It was re-examined periodically and underwent several modifications since its initial implementation.
The PTAR was instated over the concern that the three major television networks dominated the television program production market, controlled much of the programming presented to the public, and inhibited the development of competing program sources. The FCC believed that PTAR would ultimately increase the level of competition in program production, reduce the networks' control over programming decisions made by their affiliates, and thereby increase the diversity of programs available to the public.
To ensure that independent companies would have access, the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules was instituted at the same time by the FCC. It prohibited networks from owning syndication arms. Existing syndication divisions operated by the networks were forced to be spun off as new companies independent of network management.

Recent

Immediately prior to its repeal, the Prime Time Access Rule applied only to owned-and-operated or affiliated network stations in the 50 largest television markets. It restricted these stations from broadcasting more than three hours of network programming during the four-hour prime-time block each evening and established the first hour of prime time as the "prime access hour".
By the early 1980s, the PTAR had introduced a policy amendment prohibiting stations in the 50 television markets with the highest prime time viewership from broadcasting more than three hours of network programming during the four-hour "prime time" block. Stations had to find original programming to fill during the "prime time" fraction. However, the rule exempted certain types of programming, such as overruns of live sports events, special news, documentary and children's programming, and certain sports and network programming of a special nature.
To comply with the PTAR, most local television stations presented at least one syndicated game show between 7:00 and 8:00 pm; ironically, these were usually additional episodes of existing network daytime game shows, distributed by companies that before 1971 had been subsidiaries owned by the networks and produced by the same production companies at the same studios as their daytime counterparts, effectively circumventing the purpose of the rule. Other programming that was often scheduled in these time slots were revivals of Hee Haw and The Lawrence Welk Show. Still others used the hour to carry their local evening newscast, a tradition that continues to this day.
The loss of the extra hour forced networks to eliminate a significant amount of its programming schedule; this led to an exacerbation of an already-existing trend in television programming known as the "rural purge", where programming that targeted less affluent, rural or older viewers was cancelled by the networks.

Elimination

The PTAR was eliminated on August 30, 1996, the commission having determined it was "no longer necessary" as a tool to promote independent production or affiliate autonomy. While the major networks have not reclaimed the traditional "access" period in early primetime, this is most likely due to pressure from affiliates to retain control of one of the more profitable parts of their programming schedules. Several syndicated programs are still broadcast in the "prime access hour", and have earned audiences equal to or greater than many network shows. Other broadcast stations have expanded local news operations to carry local newscasts in the said hour. In 2010, Fox was allowed to present World Series games that started around 7:30 pm. Eastern Time, presumably under the hope that games would not run into the 11:00 p.m. hour. In 2014 and 2015, CBS moved its Thursday prime time to start at 7:30 p.m. for the first eight weeks of the season to allow for a full pregame show for Thursday Night Football, a move which was emulated for NBC and Fox's carriage of the same package.
Smaller networks such as Pax TV launched with full 24-hour schedules after the rule change. Some networks, though, had programmed the "access" hour despite the rule, particularly Spanish-language networks that hold responsibility for the majority of their affiliates' programming schedules, such as Univision and Telemundo.

Sunday nights

A 1975 revision to the PTAR allowed networks to program the 7:00 p.m./6:00 p.m. time slot on Sundays, and the majority of the major networks have done so ever since. A consequence of this time slot is that the show has to be either a news or information program or a show that is both accessible to all ages and have some educational content.
ABC has programmed America's Funniest Home Videos in the slot for much of the time since 1993, while CBS has shown 60 Minutes in the slot consistently since 1975 except on very rare occasions. NBC has mostly broadcast Dateline NBC in the slot since 1996, though since regaining NFL broadcasting rights in 2006, during football season the network airs Football Night in America in the slot as a pre-game show to its NBC Sunday Night Football broadcasts. Most of the Winter and Spring, however, NBC has aired programming in this time slot that is not a news or information program. Such programs are either re-edited versions of shows that normally would air in the 8–11 PM Prime Time slot, or theatrical films intended for family viewing.
Even today, some networks still air aural and/or visual bumpers in the 7/6 PM Central time slot for younger viewers to understand the difference between a program and a commercial—these bumpers, one of the original requirements of the time slot, is exempt from news and information programs such as the aforementioned 60 Minutes.
The slot has been used by the networks to broadcast run-over programming from NFL games, since the NFL broadcasting contracts require the games to air in their entirety. While CBS "shifts" its Sunday evening schedule to start after its NFL coverage concludes, Fox has utilized a different approach: the network completely pre-empted its lineup until the last game it held the right to broadcast in each region had finished until 2004, upon which it joined its prime-time lineup in progress. Similarly, if necessary, major tournaments in professional golf are also treated in this manner; since 1987, The Masters Tournament has begun to finish into the hour. The U. S. Open and Men's PGA Championship, depending on the region, also can be overrun into the time slot, with Pacific Time Zone tournaments allowing networks to run into prime time hours.
Since 2005, Fox has aired the post-game show, ', in the slot as "filler" programming between its NFL coverage and The Simpsons at 8:00 pm, with its length depending on how late the final game ends, since NFL games with a 4:25 p.m. start time almost always end by 8:00 pm, even if the game goes into overtime. Fox has continued the practice for Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races, as the Daytona 500 and on occasion, a West Coast Swing event such as the Auto Club Speedway round, was designed to creep into the 7:00 p.m. hour, and the U. S. Open, typically held on the Sunday closest to the longest day of the year, will also do such. Before that, the 7:00 p.m. hour on Fox was seen similar to that of the Friday night death slot on all of the networks, as several shows near the end of their runs were scheduled to air in the time period but ultimately got pre-empted by Fox's NFL coverage. This tradition has continued during the off-season, with the most recent examples of shows burned off on Sundays at 7:00 p.m. half-hour being Til Death and Sons of Tucson during the spring and summer of 2010, and Mulaney'' in 2014.
On October 7, 2018, The CW resumed programming a prime time lineup on Sunday nights. However, unlike its previous effort to program that night from the network's launch in September 2006 until it ceded the timeslot to its affiliates in September 2009, The CW opted to only to offer programming during the "common prime" slot offered on weekdays and Saturdays by the conventional broadcast networks that have launched on U.S. television since Fox's expansion to include prime time program offerings in April 1987. This move marked the first such instance of a major U.S. television network not programming that hour since the 1975 PTAR revision was implemented.