Parent Groups Lambaste TV Ratings Board, as Do Many Viewers

NAB, NCTA and MPAA, the three trade groups that control the board and take turns leading it, were the board’s only defenders. They said the board maintains “a high level of accuracy and consumer satisfaction” despite the rapidly increasing amount of content it oversees. NCTA CEO and former FCC Chairman Michael Powell currently heads the oversight board.

“I cannot turn my TV on without wondering if soft porn or worse is going to come into my house,” commented Gary Ward of Dallas. “Ratings don't seem to mean anything.” Since the ratings were introduced, “G-rated programming has virtually disappeared from prime time,” commented Melissa Cambest of Glenshaw, Pennsylvania. Numerous other comments used the same or similar phrasing.

The TV ratings system should be overhauled to be less industry-controlled, said Parents Television Council (PTC), Concerned Women for America (CWA) and numerous other commenters. The legislation that prompted the FCC’s call for comment is narrow in focus and the agency doesn’t have the authority to change the ratings system, said NAB, MPAA and NCTA: “Any attempt to assert greater governmental involvement in rating television programming would exceed statutory boundaries” and raise “significant First Amendment questions.”

Though Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in support of the proceeding and is seen as behind the legislation that spawned it, he also distanced himself from PTC’s position. “I do not believe the government needs to enter the business of regulating the entertainment industry,” Lankford said in the letter. Industry officials said they don’t expect the FCC’s proceeding to lead to much beyond the required report to Congress. Lankford said the ratings board should accurately rate content and is overdue for an assessment.

The oversight board has a financial interest in rating content TV-14 rather than TV-MA because many advertisers don’t want their spots to run beside mature-rated content, PTC said. TV networks profit from inaccurate content rating, yet their employees are tasked with accurately rating content, PTC said. “Parents have virtually given up on the ratings system, increasingly asking for guidance from non-profit organizations,” said CWA, calling the ratings system “self-serving.” The system “arguably incentivizes content creators to provide as lenient a rating as possible,” said Plugged In, published by Focus on the Family.

NAB, MPAA and NCTA cited studies showing “high levels of use” of the ratings system and “favorable marks” from parents on the system's accuracy. PTC called these “the type of polling results that might be found in a North Korean election.” Studies by the Kaiser Foundation showed most parents don’t understand the TV ratings system, said the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. PTC and CWA criticized the transparency of the board, arguing its meetings should be open to the news-media and public. ”There is no record of their meetings, when and how often they meet, what is discussed -- everything is secret,” said CWA.

NAB, MPAA and NCTA included a footnote listing the organizations represented on the board. They include 21st Century Fox, Call for Action, Hulu, Entertainment Industries Council and Sony. Call for Action and Entertainment Industries Council are “industry-controlled and industry-funded organizations that have nothing to do with parents, families or advocacy about age-inappropriate content,” PTC said. Since the board is required to have five non-industry members, this “composition violates both the spirit and the letter of the FCC’s Report and Order,” PTC said.