Television With Directions: The Implications Of V-Chip Technology

By: Mitchell D. Kamarck

Periodical: The Business Of Film

Date: October 1996

Though we have marked the advent of the information age, we also have entered into the age of abrogation of parental responsibility with its telltale signs of rating systems. In the past few years, record companies, software game providers and Internet publishers have succumbed to parental pressures and agreed to institute a content rating system for their respective products. Riding the tide of this popular sentiment in an election year, Congress has enacted new telecommunications legislation combining "V-chip" blocking technology with a ratings system. By so doing, the United States has joined Canada, an early pioneer utilizing V-chip technology, and Europe and its recent revision to the Television Without Frontiers Directive (894/552/EEC) in adopting V-chip technology in order to rate television programs. The V-chip legislation, enacted in February of this year, gives broadcasters, cable operators and other "video distributors" until February 8, 1997 to establish a voluntary rating system for programming that "contains sexual, violent or other indecent material." If they fail to take action, the Federal Communications Commission will create an advisory committee to establish "guidelines and recommended procedures." Ultimately, all broadcasts will transmit a V-chip signal marking each program, except for news and sports, with the designated rating. The resulting rating system might approximate the system being tested in Canada by eleven broadcasters for the past year. The experimental Canadian system requires television shows to be rated in four categories (violence, language, sexual content and overall content) on a scale of 0 to 5 (0 being lowest). As an example, ER was rated a 2 across the board while Roseanne was rated a 2 for overall content, 1 for violence, 1 for language and 1 for sexual content. The highest rating for violence, 4, was given to Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years, a syndicated program televised on the weekend days in the Los Angeles area.

THE TECHNOLOGY AND ITS LIMITATIONS

The current plan is to send the V-chip codes on line 21 of the Vertical Blanking Interval ("VBI"), the space capacity on the analogue television sets (the closed caption waveform signal and scheduling information is already transmitted on line 21). The V-chip itself already exists in the form of the embedded closed-caption chips, made mandatory by Congress in 1993, which will need some redesigning or reprogramming to decode the V-chip signal. On the other hand, broadcasters will need to install new encoding equipment to generate the V-chip code and insert the code into line 21. Though the broadcasting group probably would prefer a wide spectrum of ratings, the existing embedded chip has a limited memory capacity (and must also perform the closed-caption function) and line 21 of the VBI is also limited in bandwidth (and must also transmit the closed-caption signal and scheduling information). Engineers estimate the existing chips can support only three or four content categories (i.e., sex, violence and mature content), with four or five levels of ratings. Thus, while the clock ticks down to February 1997, agreement regarding a rating system must comport necessarily with the technological limitations.

BOTTOM-LINE CONCERNS

As the broadcasting community grapples with developing a rating system, the primary focus will be on the bottom line - and the bottom line starts with advertising revenue. There are two schools of thought as to how the V-chip ratings will affect advertising revenues. One school believes the ratings will be utilized by self-appointed television watchgroups such as the American Family Association to target protests against advertisers. Already certain advertisers refuse to buy time in any program, such as NYPD Blue, that includes an advisory about violent or sexual themes. As Richard Cotton, Executive Vice President and General Counsel on NBC describes it, advertising support will "simply die away" from television shows labeled as violent or containing sexual content under a V-chip rating system. Paul Schulman, President of the Paul Shulman Co., agrees: "Some advertisers may deem it politically correct to avoid shows with a violent rating." Such consumer protests can greatly reduce advertising revenues. For instance, when first broadcast, NYPD Blue was subject to such a protest which resulted in 30-second spots selling for $30,000 maximum, according to William Croesdale of Western International Media. Now that the controversy has settled down, the same spots go for up to $180,000. Many in the industry believe that the V-chip will lead to blander, less-creative shows in order to avoid such protests. Ironically, Donald Wildman, head of the American Family Association, espouses the opposite view claiming the V-chip rating system will "institutionalize violence" by insulating television producers from criticism for content because each viewer will have the ability to control, through the V-chip, the content broadcast into their home. As hypothesized in the March 30, 1996 Toronto Star: "Hollywood will go wild. And all it needs do is point to the V-chip and say  'If people don't want their kids to watch, they can zap it out.'" Thus, rather than homogenize blandness, the V-chip ratings could free television producers from such concerns as providing suitable programming for children.  This freedom could enable television producers to seek higher advertising revenues by developing more "mature" programming that caters to the more desirable 18-35 year old viewers - a demographic group advertisers seek to reach. It is foreseeable that one of the fledging networks will utilize this strategy to gain viewers, advertising revenues and an identity. As the television producers cannot forecast the effect of V-chip ratings, the television producers will attempt to create a rating system that will not stigmatize television shows. Already a rating system such as the one employed by the motion picture industry has been rejected because of the possible stigma from an "R" rating. Instead, the television producers might employ only the non-stigmatizing portion of the MPAA system, discarding the "R," "X" and "NC-17" for different levels of PG ratings (i.e., PG-8). Additionally, there is some support for all dramas starting at 10:00 p.m. to be rated identically. Regardless of the rating system employed, the bottom line is the V-chip is designed to diminish viewership of certain shows. In a time of overall diminishing viewership, it is clear that the small profit margins on "adult" dramas and the like will further diminish as ratings and advertising dollars diminish. Thus, the bottom line will be affected by the application of the V-chip technology in the next year or so, and the television producers must plan for this change now.

PRACTICAL CONCERNS

On the other end of the spectrum from the bottom-line concerns is the practical concern: how do the networks rate and encode every program aired on television, especially when many shows are not delivered to the networks until shortly before they air. The current thought is the television show producers will rate and embed the V-chip signal during post-production work, with the broadcast stations serving as a backup. Another additional unanswered question that will greatly influence costs is whether the television producers rate the show for an entire season or for every single episode. The ongoing Canadian experiment demonstrates very little fluctuation between the ratings of individual episodes, supporting the view that a show should be rated for an entire season rather than for individual episodes. Rating by show not episodes will reduce dramatically the amount of work necessary to rate shows. Regardless of who initially rates and encodes new programming, the networks will need to incorporate into their existing infrastructure the capability to transmit a rating signal and an encoder for live insertion of blocking information for unrated material. Such VBI insertion equipment and encoder will need to interface with pre-existing scheduling software and traffic management systems. On top of that cost, the networks will be required to encode their entire library of pre-V-chip programming for airing. Again, the V-chip legislation has foisted additional costs upon television producers.

IMPLICATIONS

As it is likely that advertising revenues will further diminish and the costs will increase due to the necessity to rate and embed such ratings in the VBI, the V-Chip legislation will definitely affect the continued production of television shows. The loss in revenue and increase in costs will lead to certain "soft costs" (i.e., non-union salaries) to be reduced. On the other hand, if certain commentators are correct and the V-chip will lead to a greater diversity of shows, television could reclaim its status as a fertile and creative medium attracting young talent. An additional change that may be occasioned by the V-chip legislation will be contractual requirement to produce shows with certain ratings. As networks begin to create certain demographic personalities for themselves, they can employ the V-chip rating system to ensure that new shows incorporate certain traits. While the Disney Channel may require all shows and movies produced for it to not surpass a certain maximum rating in violence or mature content, other channels may require new shows to have a certain minimum level of violence or mature content. Likewise, the networks may dictate certain maximum levels of violence and mature content depending upon the time a show will be broadcast.

CONCLUSION

By choosing to abrogate responsibility for screening our children's television watching habits, we have foisted upon television producers additional costs without addressing the overall quality of television. One thing is certain, television will change, either in an explosion of new and more diverse shows or by quickening the pace that television clones bland, uncontroversial shows. Regardless of the outcome, it is the people who watch television, not the people who produce it, who are ultimately responsible for what remains on television.

Evolution of the V-Chip

APRIL 1993
Sub-Committee on Telecommunications and Finance holds hearings on "Violence on Television."

JULY 1994
Electronic Industries Association approves electronic standard for V-chip.

FEBRUARY 1995
V-chip demonstrated in Brussels at the G-7 Technological Exposition Conference.

MAY 1995
V-chip demonstrated at CCTA Convention.

JULY 1995
United States Senate approves amendment to Telecommunications Act requiring use of V-chip technology.

AUGUST 1996
United State House of Representatives approves amendment to Telecommunications Act requiring use of V-chip technology.

FEBRUARY 1996
President Clinton signs the Telecommunication Act of 1996.

FEBRUARY 1997
Deadline for voluntary creation by television producers of rules for rating the content of television shows

FEBRUARY 1998
All televisions with a picture screens 13 inches or greater in size produced after this date must incorporate a V-chip.

Mitchell D. Kamarck, of counsel to Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman, LLP, in Beverly Hills, California, specializing in intellectual property and entertainment-related litigation. Mitchell also teaches a course entitled Television Law & Practice and Policy at California State University - Los Angeles. He can be reached by email at mkamarck@rmslaw. com.

Our Litigation Department specializes in civil litigation at all levels of the judiciary, and has wide-ranging experience in litigating business, commercial and entertainment-industry related matters. We have extensive experience in accounting and partnership, antitrust, and securities and corporate litigation. Additional areas of emphasis include copyright and intellectual property, real estate and products liability litigation as well as in the appellate practice.

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