• by Wayne Friedman , September 27, 2007

NBC Universal and Telemundo owned-and-operated stations said they would ban all local TV commercials for unhealthy food during children's educational programming.

A ban on national advertising for unhealthy food ads on NBC Universal's Qubo, the kids' educational programming service that services NBC and Telemundo stations, already exists.

NBC did not outline how it would determine what constituted health. But an NBC spokeswoman said since the unhealthy food advertising policy for local ads goes into effect next year--June 2008--the media company had plenty of time to set guidelines.

Qubo has been banning unhealthy food ads since the service launched last year. Much of this push is helped by many of the biggest kids' food marketers, which have been self-regulating when it comes to advertising unhealthy food products.

NBC also announced it would launch a series of public service announcements under NBC's "The More You Know" PSA campaign, touting better nutrition and physical activity. Telemundo will also be airing Spanish-language spots alerting families to the dangers of childhood obesity.

Other national kids' networks have focused on banning unhealthy food ads, such as Discovery Kids, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. In addition, all have bowed to pressure about contributing to the obesity epidemic by also curtailing the licensing of their characters for marketing unhealthy products.