Disney has been awarded the Parents Television Council "Seal of Approval."
PTC President Tim Winter delivered that news at a Disney shareholders meeting. PTC often shows up at such meetings to rake media companies over the coals, and PTC wasn't giving Disney a clean bill of media health, exactly, but the majority of its comments were positive.
Specifically, PTC praised the "absolutely superb" programming on the Disney Channel--which was the one getting the seal--and praised the Walt Disney company for where it placed its own advertising, and gave Disney CEO Bob Iger props for ABC's move of Lost to 10 p.m., though Winter suggested it should do the same with other "more graphic, adult-themed programming," including Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives.
Disney has arguably been the least active company in the push-back on the PTC-powered FCC indecency/profanity crackdown, dropping its challenge to the commission's recent profanity findings after the FCC reversed itself and sponged away the finding against NYPD Blue, though PTC criticized the FCC's decision.
Winter said the group still had problems with some of the programming on ABC Family Channel, much of which he said was not family-friendly, but the general tenor was praise for the company.
“The PTC frequently attends shareholder meetings in order to communicate directly with the chief executive, the board and the shareholders of publicly traded corporations which produce, broadcast or advertise on television," Winter said. "And usually our message is one of concern or condemnation for what we see as irresponsible behavior. But this morning, I'm here mostly to applaud you, sir, and to applaud this corporation for doing some very good things."
Winter told B&C that Iger's response was "cordial thanks."
