ABC is in hot water nearly five years after airing an episode of “NYPD Blue” that showed a woman’s bare rear, with the Federal Communications Commission announcing Friday that it plans to fine the network $1.4 million.

The FCC filed a notice Friday saying the Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network had distributed the offending episode on 52 television stations in the Central and Mountain time zones at 9 p.m., thus violating federal time restrictions.

No “obscene material” is to be broadcast between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., in order to protect children from material not appropriate for their age. The “NYPD Blue” episode that has brought ABC under fire includes one scene where a young boy walks in on a nude woman about to take a shower; the FCC said it received “numerous complaints” about the scene.

The 52 ABC stations in the Central and Mountain time zones were each assessed a $27,500 fine, thus bringing the total to $1.43 million. Stations in the Eastern and Pacific time zones were exempt because they broadcast the February 25, 2003, episode at 10 p.m. local time.

ABC responded in a statement of its own, saying it had broadcast the episode and others from the series with appropriate parental warnings and with V-chip enabled program ratings when they were available.

“ABC feels strongly that the FCC's finding is inconsistent with prior precedent from the Commission,” the network said, arguing that, after nearly ten years of airing “NYPD Blue,” the public was now familiar with “the realistic nature of its storylines.”

Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate said Friday that the episode in question does not respect current regulations for primetime broadcast TV. “If a broadcaster makes the decision to show indecent programming, it must air between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. This is neither difficult to understand nor burdensome to implement.”

“We find that the programming at issue is within the scope of our indecency definition because it depicts sexual organs and excretory organs, specifically an adult woman's buttocks,” the FCC wrote. “Although ABC argues, without citing any authority, that the buttocks are not a sexual organ, we reject this argument, which runs counter to both case law and common sense.”

ABC said it plans to appeal the fine.