Cable Demurred After Genachowski Aide Suggested Networks Rate Online Content

Absent from the initiative were any cable channels, though industry executives said some of those networks already were or since then have included ratings with shows on the Web. Broadcasters too had been rating some of their linear content when placed online, so the initiative partly supplements voluntarily what the industry was already doing in a lower-profile fashion that wasn’t synchronized across multiple companies, TV executives said. Gottheimer’s suggestion that cable programmers might add ratings to shows when placed online wasn’t implemented in an across-the-board way as the broadcast content rating plan was, media industry executives said. An FCC spokesman declined to comment.

Broadcast and cable networks responded differently to Gottheimer’s suggestion because of different regulatory and business considerations, executives said. The officials noted that Gottheimer didn’t make the request to all major cable channel owners -- some major programmers and the NCTA weren’t contacted -- while he did communicate with top broadcast networks. Some cable and broadcast programmers share corporate parents, and in some instances those companies said they rate programming placed on those firms’ websites regardless of the type of linear channel from which it originated. Fox and Disney rate all cable content put online from channels they fully own, their representatives said.

That there are fewer major broadcast networks -- the Big Four of Disney’s ABC, CBS, News Corp.’s Fox and NBC that’s part of Comcast’s NBCUniversal -- than major cable channels made the plan easier to get top executives to review and approve and for the companies to implement, broadcast and cable industry officials said. They said broadcast networks also have historically faced more attention in Washington on parental ratings than cable. The executives said cable programmers had fewer reasons to undertake voluntary industry-organized initiatives to potentially increase FCC goodwill. Third parties that provide reviews and ratings of broadcast- and cable-TV programs said demand for such information is high. The TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board system ranges from “TV Y” for all kids to “TV MA” not targeted at people younger than 17 (http://xrl.us/bnkpo7).

Broadcast networks at the time Gottheimer made the private request were awaiting a Supreme Court ruling in the commission’s indecency case against ABC and Fox, and were keen to ensure they kept up good relations, industry officials said. The high court ruled June 21 that the commission violated constitutional due process rights when the agency fined ABC stations that aired brief nudity on NYPD Blue and censured Fox for unscripted celebrity cursing on Billboard Music Awards shows. Since the ruling only applies to so-called fleetingly indecent content that aired before the commission in 2004 put broadcasters on notice they could be fined in such instances, executives said they hope for goodwill when the agency processes over a million pending indecency complaints. “NAB supports the broadcast networks’ initiative,” a spokesman said in June (http://xrl.us/bnkpr6). “This represents a voluntary, good faith effort from distributors of the most popular programming to empower and educate parents in monitoring the viewing habits of children.” The association declined comment for this article.

Fox began this summer including on Fox.com and Hulu.com ratings on all new full-length programs that were rated for broadcast and cable showing, a spokesman said. A Disney spokeswoman said the ABC network and its Disney ABC TV Group cable channels “all provide TV ratings on their digital offerings.” CBS was included in the broadcasters’ June commitments, a spokeswoman said. Comcast and NBCUniversal agreed, to win FCC approval in 2011 for the cable operator buying control of the programmer, “to ensure that program ratings information will be included on produced or licensed programming that Comcast-NBCU provide for online distribution, including over Hulu.com,” the agency’s approval order said (http://xrl.us/bnkpqp). That condition was implemented by Oct. 28, as the order required, NBCUniversal has said. Hulu is the broadcast and cable video streaming website whose owners include Disney, Fox and NBCUniversal.

Cable channels may yet expand outside of any formal initiative ratings of linear content on websites, and some have been adding to the amount of Internet programming that has ratings falling under the board’s system, executives said. Scripps Networks Interactive is among the cable programmers unaffiliated with broadcasters that include such ratings, our informal survey found. “We do provide parental ratings to some partners” that provide the company’s channels to online viewers, an SNI spokeswoman said. HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel and Great American Country “are among the most popular family-friendly networks on cable TV,” she said. Discovery Communications doesn’t stream full-length shows online, a spokeswoman said. Time Warner Inc. and Viacom had no comment.

"Cable networks for many years have been providing viewers and parents with relevant information to help families make decisions about the appropriateness of television programming,” an NCTA spokesman said. “As consumers view more television programming via the Internet, many cable networks already offer ratings information for these programs, and we understand that others are exploring doing so.” Residents of U.S. households ages 2-11 spent an average of two hours 18 minutes watching video on the Internet during Q4, while those 12-17 years old spent four hours and three minutes, Nielsen said (http://xrl.us/bnkpov). Fourteen percent of online video viewers are 2-17 years old, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said in June, citing Nielsen (http://xrl.us/bnkpsg).

The ratings portions of the websites of Focus on the Family and Parents Television Council are the most visited among their entire sites, representatives said. PTC uses a red-yellow-green stoplight ratings system for broadcast-TV content (http://xrl.us/bnkpny), and Focus on the Family uses the board’s ratings like “TV 14” for shows not suggested for kids younger than 14 (http://xrl.us/bnkpsv). Focus’s Plugged In website, which has qualitative reviews of content, gets about 1.3 million visits monthly, though the “lion’s share” is for movie information, said Bob Waliszewski, who directs that department for the group. “You can’t trust the ratings” that follow the board’s system because networks “don’t think like a lot of families think” in judging the appropriateness of content, he said: That’s why parents go to the site.

The 1996 Telecom Act required there be a TV ratings system, though participation isn’t mandatory, said PTC Public Policy Director Dan Isett. “A good bit” of cable networks carry over what they rate linear programs to those shows when put on the Internet, “certainly some if not most,” he said. “The entire system is entirely voluntary.” Though Isett supports a voluntary system, he said that because not all linear content is rated online, “there are big holes in the system that we have.”