United States pay television content advisory system information
Content-based television ratings system in the United States
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The United States pay television content advisory system is a television content rating system developed cooperatively by the American pay television industry; it first went into effect on March 1, 1994, on cable-originated premium channels owned by the system's principal developers, Home Box Office, Inc. and Showtime Networks. The voluntary-participation system—developed to address public concerns about explicit sexual content, graphic violence and strong profanity that tend to be featured in pay-cable and pay-per-view programming[1]—provides guidance to subscribers on the suitability of a program for certain audiences based on its content.[2]
Used with standard age-based ratings issued per the Motion Picture Association film rating system and the TV Parental Guidelines, the system incorporates ten "content descriptors" (up to six of which can be used for an individual program) providing detailed information about the types of objectionable content contained in a motion picture or television program being aired on a particular service, including categories covering sexual content; different levels of violence, profanity and nudity; and a general-purpose category covering crude and mature humor, innuendo and/or the use of alcoholic beverages, tobacco products or drugs.
Like the TV Parental Guidelines, content ratings are determined by the individually participating pay television services. Ratings are applied to most original and acquired television series, theatrically released and made-for-cable films, documentaries and specials rated PG/TV-PG and above; until regularly televised sports events on premium cable ended with the December 2023 closure of Showtime's sports division,[note 1] they were also often applied to certain sporting events on general-entertainment-formatted pay services, primarily to account for fleeting expletives or other mild objectionable material that could occur during the broadcast. The ratings themselves have no legal force, and are not used during promotional advertisements. While bearing similarities to the content sub-ratings added to the TV Parental Guidelines in July 1997, the advisories in this system are relatively more succinct in ascribing the mature material incorporated into a program.
Similar content guidelines have since been introduced by regional pay television industries or individual pay services outside of the U.S. (including Canada, Asia and Latin America). Within the United States, Comedy Central—which operates as a basic cable channel—has assigned "Graphic Language" advisory indicators for content bumpers on select TV-MA-rated original series (including South Park and Workaholics).
^Richard Katz (January 17, 1994). "Cable agrees to monitor violence". Multichannel News. NewBay Media. Archived from the original on May 22, 2013. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
^"Ratings for Program Content: The Role of Research Findings" (PDF). The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. May 1998. Retrieved August 2, 2017 – via Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
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