The Prime Time Access Rule (PTAR) was an American television broadcasting regulation enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from September 13, 1971, to August 30, 1996. It was instituted under concerns that television networks controlled too much of their affiliates' programming, and that there was not enough competition in program production and distribution. Under the regulation, commercial television networks were prohibited from airing programming in the 7:30 p.m. ET/PT half-hour on weekdays and Saturdays, and the 7:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. ET/PT half-hours on Sundays, on stations in the top 50 media markets. Despite only applying in the largest markets, the PTAR was practiced nationwide.
In the prime access timeslots, stations were expected to schedule local programming; the FCC prohibited reruns of networked programming from airing in the prime access timeslots. In practice, the early-evening fringe became a lucrative time slot for first-run syndicated programming, including game shows, entertainment series, and variety shows. A second regulation—the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules (fin-syn)—was introduced alongside the PTAR, which prohibited the major networks from owning their prime time programs or having co-owned syndication divisions. The PTAR was partially loosened in 1975, allowing the networks to re-claim an hour of programming they had lost on Sunday evenings, provided that the 7:00 p.m. hour be used to schedule either news-based or family-oriented programming. In 1996, the PTAR was repealed by the FCC, which deemed it to be no longer necessary.
The regulations had a major impact on the television industry, with some of its effects still felt today: the PTAR moved the traditional start of prime time programming on the Big Three networks on weekdays and Saturdays from 7:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.—a scheduling pattern that has remained to this day, and was adopted by later entrants such as Fox, The WB and UPN, and their joint successor The CW. The PTAR was a factor in the mass cancellation of various programs popular among older and rural audiences, as the networks sought to target younger audiences more desirable to advertisers. Some of these cancelled shows—such as Hee Haw, Lassie, and The Lawrence Welk Show—resurfaced in first-run syndication, and were often picked up in the slots created by the PTAR. By the mid-1980s, many stations began to also air syndicated programming in the 7:00 p.m. slot to form a full "prime access hour".
Even with the repeal of the PTAR, the Big Three networks did not reclaim the 7:00 p.m. hour on weekdays in part because the repeal of fin-syn allowed the networks to purchase the syndicators who were filling the airtime, meaning they would profit either way; they have largely maintained a status quo in the time periods to avoid confusing (and losing) viewers by changing the schedules of established syndicated hits.
Issuance
After lobbying by Donald McGannon of Group W Broadcasting (and thus known as the McGannon Rule), The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued the Prime Time Access Rule (PTAR) in 1970 and was implemented at the beginning of the 1971–1972 television season (the week of September 13–19, 1971). It was re-examined periodically, and it underwent several modifications since its initial implementation.
The PTAR was instituted over a stated concern, by television-reform activists and other parties, that the three major television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) dominated the television program production market, controlled much of the programming presented to the public, and inhibited the development of competing program sources, especially independent syndicators and local stations. 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, especially in the evening hours when most households were watching.
To ensure that independent companies would have access, the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules (commonly known as "fin-syn") were instituted at the same time by the FCC. This prohibited networks from owning syndication arms. Networks that did operate existing syndication divisions were forced to divest them, converting them into new companies independent from network management (such as Viacom, which was originally created by CBS to distribute its content and eventually expanded outside of program syndication and distribution in the succeeding years after the spinoff).
Implementation Initially, the rule required the commercial networks to cede one half-hour of their nightly programming to their affiliates (or owned-and-operated stations) in the 50 largest markets, Mondays through Saturdays, from 7:30 to 8 p.m. Eastern (6:30 to 7 Central), and a full hour on Sundays, between 7 and 7:30 p.m. (6 to 6:30 Central) and 10:30 to 11 p.m. (9:30 to 10 Central). Because it would have represented a large if not prohibitive loss of advertising exposure for the networks to have their programs excluded from the largest stations (and thus not reaching half or more of the U.S. population), the networks opted to relinquish those timeslots to all their stations, not just those required by the text of PTAR.
Regardless of the night of the week, the National Association of Broadcasters instituted a decree that the early evening programs not portray violent, sexual, or profane content unsuitable for younger audiences. This was made in conjunction with the family viewing hour networks were encouraged to program in the hour following access; this decree was ruled to have been made under illegal duress in fall 1976. Exceptions to the PTAR applied for live sports telecasts that overran into the access slots, and "special news, documentary and children's programming, and certain sports and network programming of a special nature".
With fewer time slots available, networks issued a higher-than-normal number of cancellations in the summer of 1971. The networks, CBS in particular, disproportionately removed shows that were popular among rural and older audiences as part of their cancellations—a phenomenon known as the "rural purge"—in an attempt to revamp their lineups. The networks aimed to appeal more to younger, urban and suburban viewers with more disposable income and less product brand loyalty than older, non-metropolitan Americans—two things advertisers of the time strongly desired.
The FCC and supporters of the ruling had hoped, at least publicly, that stations would make every effort to air programs of either a public-affairs or educational orientation, particularly in the 7:30 p.m. time slot on weekdays and Saturdays. In practice, the weekday and Saturday access slot was often used for first-run syndicated game shows; they were often "nighttime" versions of network daytime game shows, usually with different hosts and higher prize budgets to differentiate them from the network versions (such as The Price Is Right with Dennis James; CBS had passed on James in favor of Bob Barker to host the daytime version), as well as revivals of former network shows such as To Tell the Truth (Garry Moore) and Truth or Consequences (Bob Barker). Many of the game shows were distributed by companies that before 1971 had been subsidiaries owned by the networks (such as the former CBS property Viacom and former ABC property Worldvision Enterprises) and packaged by the same production companies at the same studios as their daytime counterparts. Depending on the frequency of their production, those shows were aired either on a weekly basis, (allowing a different program to air each night, not unlike the networks' own schedule), or as a daily "strip".
After their cancellations in the "rural purge", series such as Lassie, Hee Haw, and The Lawrence Welk Show successfully migrated to first-run syndication. All three shows often aired in fringe timeslots created by the PTAR, with Hee Haw, Welk, and the newly established Soul Train (which focused on R&B, soul, and hip hop music targeting an African American audience) usually airing on Saturday nights.Chapman, Aida. Soul Train: A Billboard Spotlight Billboard, September 28, 1974. Accessed December 17, 2018. Some stations used the timeslot to present a locally produced newsmagazine; KSL-TV in Salt Lake City aired such a program—fittingly titled Prime Time Access (PTA)—until 1988.
Television critics almost uniformly denounced PTAR, holding that its stated aim to improve and diversify programming had backfired (i.e., the substituted programming basically circumvented the purpose of the ruling since most of the shows were not particularly original) due to economic realities, things they and others felt the FCC had not taken into consideration when enacting the regulation. Needless to say, the networks were not pleased with the results, either, believing the true motivation behind PTAR was nothing more than a plot by the Nixon Administration and its sympathizers in the FCC (and the U.S. Congress) to deprive them of ad revenues, as a political retaliation against their news divisions' generally adverse coverage of the White House's policies on the Vietnam War and against the social turbulence of the time.
Also, ABC, CBS, and NBC were especially sensitive to declining ad sales due to the Federal Government's prohibition of broadcast cigarette advertising (with loopholes permitting other tobacco products to continue commercials until the 1980s) in January 1971, once a lucrative source of revenue, and the beginning of the recessions that would plague the next dozen years after that. NBC's 1973 effort to compensate by extending the broadcast day another hour into the overnight with The Midnight Special and Tomorrow with Tom Snyder was a modest success (enough to continue programming the time slots indefinitely afterward) but not enough to recover the lost revenue. As such, the networks resolved to agitate for either outright repeal of PTAR or to get back one or more nights per week of the time lost in 1971. The window of opportunity for that opened when Richard Nixon left office in 1974 due to the Watergate scandal. During that time, Nixon's animosity toward the American media was discredited due to revelations of his and his associates' abuse of power which, in turn, vindicated to many Americans (though not all) the critical stance the networks appeared to take toward him over the years. With a more media-friendly president, Gerald Ford, in office, and probably new appointees on the FCC, the networks thus gained leverage to attempt to restore their lost air time. In Ford's first year in office, it happened through a compromise.
Sunday night revision While the networks hoped to have PTAR done away with entirely, their affiliates opposed such a move due to profitable local spot ad revenues on Mondays through Saturdays, so they settled for a revision by the FCC instead in 1975. That modification allowed networks to reclaim the hour on Sunday nights lost in 1971, from 7 to 11 p.m. (6 to 10 Central). Then as now, the night of the week with the largest potential audience was Sunday, due to competing forms of entertainment (e.g., movie theaters, nightclubs) being mostly closed on that night in much of the country because of long-standing religious-inspired blue laws, and the networks, if forced to choose only one day of the week for restoration, would certainly choose it. The Sunday return of network time came with one overweening condition: programs between 7 and 8 (6 to 7 Central) or, if necessary, beyond 8/7 Central if the show continued, had to either have news/informational content or appeal primarily to a family audience with children, meaning that adult subject matter (especially sexuality and violence) was not permitted during that time period.