Industry Unveils Its Ratings System for TV Programs

The television industry officially unveiled its historic TV ratings system Thursday, marking a milestone in the ongoing debate over the evolving standards of the culture’s most pervasive medium.

For the first time, parents will be provided labels on all entertainment programs that are designed to help them decide what their children watch. The action was taken reluctantly, under pressure from Congress and the president and already has come under fire for not going far enough.

For that reason, industry executives, who had remained largely silent in recent weeks while details of the system were worked out, sought to defuse criticism from advocacy groups and legislators with surveys showing public support for its approach.

Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, who has overseen development of the ratings, confirmed that most broadcast and cable networks will begin providing on-screen labels during the first 15 seconds of each entertainment program as early as Jan. 1--before the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to review the system and rule on its propriety. The fledgling WB network said that it will begin broadcasting the ratings Sunday.

Most shows will get one of four ratings--TV-G (for all ages), TV-PG (parental guidance suggested), TV-14 (may be inappropriate for children under 14) and TV-M (for adults). Programs made specifically for children will be rated separately as either TV-Y (suitable for all youngsters) or TV-Y7 (appropriate for children 7 and over).

Ratings will appear in the upper left-hand corners of TV screens and will be made available to run with program listings in newspapers and magazines. The industry also will distribute information defining in general terms the level of sex, violence or foul language in each ratings category.

“This is a huge step forward over what we have now, which is nothing,” President Clinton said after meeting with industry leaders.

But critics repeated their complaints that the system does not make a necessary distinction of whether sex, violence or language is responsible for a given rating.

“It’s a good first step [but] doesn’t give parents enough information,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), one of the early advocates for a TV ratings system. Advocacy groups such as Children Now also condemned the ratings as inadequate.

Markey has been a leading proponent of the so-called V-chip--a device that can be put in TV sets and will allow parents to block any shows with ratings that they find objectionable. Congress has mandated that V-chips be available by 1998 and manufacturers have said that they could begin installing them before the end of 1997 if the FCC acts quickly to set technical specifications.

Valenti and network chiefs came to Thursday’s press conference in Washington armed with public-opinion surveys favoring their system, which was modeled on the movie ratings used by the MPAA.

One poll indicated that 84% of 1,207 parents surveyed said that they understand the MPAA movie code and that 79% consider it helpful. A second study found that while more than four in five adults support both content- and age-based ratings systems, given a choice they prefer the latter MPAA-like plan by a 54% to 41% margin.

“We did a lot of careful polling and research and we met with dozens of organizations. What kept coming back was that people wanted a system that was easily understood and easy to use,” said Kay Koplovitz, chairman of USA Networks.

Valenti and others on his committee have chafed under charges leveled against them by children’s advocates and lawmakers after details of the plan were leaked to the press.

“I’m exasperated because someone representing 24 people in a phone booth . . . is criticizing our system without evidence of their own and we’re being trashed in editorial pages,” he said in an interview.

Beyond the formula itself, some opponents argued that the television industry cannot be trusted to police itself. Network officials, however, contended that no other method is viable based on the sheer volume of programming televised each day--roughly 2,000 hours, including broadcast and cable channels.

Though each network, cable channel and syndicator will be responsible for self-rating (through standards departments that already review each show), there will be safeguards, Valenti said, including an oversight committee allowing the public as well as competing networks to complain about ratings viewed as too lenient.

Network executives also will not have the last word, according to National Assn. of Broadcasters President Edward Fritts, who pointed out that individual TV stations would have veto power in assigning ratings. A station in Mississippi thus could give a more restrictive rating to a show like “NYPD Blue” if the local broadcaster believed that the network designation was not appropriate.

TV-M is likely to be primarily limited to movies on pay services such as HBO and Showtime. But NBC will use that designation in February, when it airs the Holocaust-themed movie “Schindler’s List” virtually uncut.

Network officials said that the new system will not change their current content parameters. Nevertheless, ratings could constrain programming if advertisers do not support shows in more restrictive categories. In the past, groups such as the American Family Assn., headed by the Rev. Donald Wildmon, have targeted advertisers that sponsor shows the group believes contain excessive sex and violence--though usually with no discernible results.

Dick Wolf, producer of “Law & Order” and “New York Undercover,” said that the guidelines put the onus where it belongs, on parents.

Such labels “are not destructive to the creative ability of producers while satisfying all but the most irrational [critics],” he said, adding that a more specific, content-based system, given the subjectivity involved, “would have been an unmitigated disaster.”

ABC President Bob Iger predicted that few advertisers would pull out of shows with unfavorable ratings and advertisers echoed that forecast.

“I think the advertising connection with TV ratings is very much overrated,” said John Kamp, senior vice president of the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies. “Only nonprofessionals like Ed Markey think [ratings] will have a huge affect on advertiser dollars.”

Both Valenti and network officials echoed Clinton, saying that they hoped the system would be given a chance to work. They also stressed that the input they received from children’s groups helped in forming the guidelines, though a committee member acknowledged that an alternative to the MPAA-based system was never seriously considered.

“This was the only system the whole TV industry would agree to,” the committee member said.

Lowry reported from Los Angeles and Hall from Washington. Times staff writer Jube Shiver Jr. contributed from Washington.

* NO GIANT LEAP FOR TV: The TV ratings system is a first step but not a full stride, Howard Rosenberg comments. F1

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Ratings System

These ratings will appear at the beginning of shows as soon as Sunday.

Y: Material suitable for children of all ages.

Y-7: Material suitable for children 7 and older.

TV-G: Material suitable for all audiences.

TV-PG: Parental guidance suggested. Some violence, suggestive sexual situations, coarse language.

TV-14: Material may be inappropriate for children under 14. May contain sexual content, more intense violence.

TV-M: For adult audiences only. May contain graphic violence, explicit sexual content, profane language.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Where These Shows Rate

Examples of how some current programs will be initially coded under the TV ratings system announced Thursday:

TV-Y

“Winnie the Pooh” (ABC)

“Life With Louie” (Fox)

“Feed Your Mind” (TBS)

****

Y-7

“Power Rangers Zeo” (Fox)

“X-Men” (Fox)

“Goosebumps” (Fox)

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (CBS)

“Gargoyles” (ABC)

“The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest” (TBS)

“Are You Afraid of the Dark?” (Nickelodeon)

****

TV-G

“Home Improvement” (ABC)

“Family Matters” (ABC)

“Touched by an Angel” (CBS)

“Cosby” (CBS)

“The Parent ‘Hood” (WB)

****

TV-PG

“ER” (NBC)

“Friends” (NBC)

“Seinfeld” (NBC)

“The Simpsons” (Fox)

“The Drew Carey Show” (ABC)

“Ellen” (ABC)

“Cybill” (CBS)

****

TV-14

“NYPD Blue” (ABC)

“Melrose Place” (Fox)

“The X-Files” (Fox)

“Married ... With Children” (Fox)

Most daytime soaps

****

TV-M

Uncut “R”-rated movies on cable

Certain original cable shows.

Researched by BRIAN LOWRY / Los Angeles Times