NBC Holds Firm Against New TV Ratings

Despite threats of government reprisal, NBC reiterated its opposition Wednesday to the new parental warning labels that the rest of the television industry has put into effect.

In a letter to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, NBC President Bob Wright said the network will continue its use of age-based ratings categories without adding new labels denoting sex, coarse language, violence and suggestive dialogue.

“We will maintain the use of the age-based ratings system because we feel it provides parents with the most reliable and consistent information possible,” Wright said. “We have always understood that the system you are endorsing is voluntary and that each network has the prerogative to adopt the system we believe is best for our viewers.”

McCain said he was disappointed in NBC’s response to his call for the network to employ the same ratings system that the rest of the industry began using Wednesday. “How can they call it censorship to add a system that everybody else in their industry has agreed to do?” he asked.

The extra letters of S, V, L and D (for sex, violence, coarse language and suggestive dialogue) were added under pressure from members of Congress and parents’ groups who said that the industry’s six original age-based categories (ranging from the all-inclusive TV-G to TV-MA for programming intended for mature viewers) did not provide enough information to help parents screen objectionable programming for their children.

McCain said that he will meet with supporters “to decide on a course of action” in response to NBC’s decision.

In a letter to Wright earlier this week, McCain said he would urge the Federal Communications Commission to consider revoking the license of NBC stations if they do not provide the enhanced ratings. He also threatened to move forward with a bill that would limit violent programming to late-night hours on any station that does not adopt a content-based ratings system.

NBC West Coast President Don Ohlmeyer told reporters Wednesday that “If you read the threats he [McCain] puts in his letter, how can anyone say this is ‘voluntary?’ ”

Meanwhile, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said Wednesday that he will send a letter to each of the general managers of NBC’s more than 200 affiliated stations, urging them to rate shows for families in their communities.

“We may be able to get a significant number of [managers] to challenge New York” on the network’s policy, he said.

In the letter, Markey asks stations to consider putting the enhanced ratings on NBC’s shows themselves.

“For the sake of your local audience, I hope you will do everything in your power not to balkanize the [enhanced] ratings system by simply passing through the flawed rating scheme that NBC is attempting to force you to do,” Markey writes.

Hall reported from New York and Jackson from Washington. Staff writer Brian Lowry also contributed from Los Angeles.