FCC Report on TV Ratings Unlikely to Lead to Further Action
An FCC proceeding on TV ratings isn’t likely to lead to agency action beyond its congressionally required report (see 1902260059) but could put public pressure on programmers, said attorneys and content-industry officials in interviews. Though the PN released last week seeks comment only on the ratings and ratings board, longtime rating system critic Parents Television Council wants the proceeding to lead to pressure on the programmers comprising the ratings board and possibly the FCC's dissolving the system. PTC’s influence is seen as a reason for the directive in the 2019 Consolidated Appropriations Act ordering the FCC to report to Congress by May 15.
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Content companies have an “inherent financial interest” to rate their shows as age appropriate for prime time (for ages 14 and over), said PTC President Tim Winter. Since the rating oversight body -- the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board -- is made up of the same programmers that make and rate the shows, there’s no reason for programmers to accurately rate their content, Winter said.
The ratings oversight board regularly reviews its guidelines “to ensure uniformity and consistency in applying the ratings,” emailed a spokesperson. A 2018 survey shows 95 percent of parents as satisfied with ratings accuracy. Ratings board member companies such as CBS and Viacom wouldn't comment, and neither did its chairman -- NCTA CEO Michael Powell. NCTA, NAB and MPAA rotate two-year terms running the board. Powell took over from NAB CEO Gordon Smith Jan. 1.
A TV show's creators typically decide on a show's rating, with networks having ultimate responsibility for the ratings their shows receive, a content industry official said. Most networks have standards and practices departments that work with content creators to rate shows. If the oversight board then determines a show is inappropriately rated after receiving complaints, it can ask a network to change the rating. If a network didn't change a rating at the board's request, the board would announce that it disagreed with the rating, a ratings board spokesperson said. "To date no network has failed to change a rating pursuant to a Monitoring Board’s recommendation so the public notice mechanism has not been triggered," the spokesperson said.
It’s not clear the FCC has authority to make any changes to the ratings board or ratings system, said lawyers and an official who has worked with the board. The FCC accepted the voluntary ratings system proposed by industry in 1998, and Winter believes the agency has authority only to reject the system as a whole, not edit or change it. He supports “starting over.” Broadcast attorneys said the FCC doesn’t have continuing oversight authority over the ratings board, and it’s not clear it could shift positions now after having accepted the system two decades ago.
If the proceeding doesn’t lead to the FCC's rejecting the current voluntary, industry-led ratings system, change could require congressional action, said Winter. PTC’s success in getting that clause in the budget law shows it has some pull on Capitol Hill, but legislation substantially altering the TV ratings system would likely be a much heavier lift, content industry officials said.
Outside of PTC, it’s not clear that there is a groundswell of concern about the TV ratings system or the accompanying V-chip, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast lawyer Howard Liberman. “Very few people use it, very few understand it.” With so much content available now, parents feel overwhelmed trying to decide which shows are appropriate for their children, said Nell Minow, who runs a website of movie reviews for parents. The daughter of former FCC Chairman Newton Minow, she supports PTC efforts to fix the ratings system. Parents shouldn’t have to worry about “bad surprises” when choosing programming for their kids, she said.
The sheer volume of TV content would make a ratings process that used an outside party difficult to implement, officials on both sides of the issue told us. The movie rating system has to deal with a more manageble amount of content, programming industry officials said. Nell Minow said it's not uncommon in other industries for companies to fund non-biased audits or inspections of their products and companies. Winter said it could be possible for the content creators to still rate their own product if outside parties administered the oversight process.
Government action to regulate content would have a difficult time surviving court challenge, said Fletcher Heald First Amendment attorney Kevin Goldberg. Even if the FCC or Congress were seeking only to compel content companies to air certain content during certain times, it would face a tough time in court, he said.
If the FCC or Congress acts to compel industry to take action on ratings, it’s likely to raise First Amendment concerns, attorneys said. That’s an area the FCC has generally avoided, lawyers said. “We’re not talking about prohibiting speech; we’re talking about properly labeling content,” Winter said.