Gephyrophillia | Watch This Space #131

Originally Posted on 06/08/2005 by Jeff Harris

WEB-14

Usually, I refrain from using ratings on my WTS articles or anything I write on the site. The web ratings system was inspired by the TV ratings system, a flawed content guideline that parents rarely used, not unlike the video game ratings system nor the motion picture ratings system. However, for this rant, I feel I have to use the web rating system to make a point about the idiocity of a group of vigilantes calling themselves the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. So, for the duration, this rant is rated WEB-14. It contains ranting, adult language, immature adult humor, rabblerousing, and something to think about, in other words, stuff kids REALLY like. Parental guidance is suggested and seriously recommended.

The television industry has become insane.

There's no plainer way to say it. I could go on and on (and I will, too), but that would only punctuate that basic statement. On May 31, 2005, television saw its last day with the insipid ratings system plastered once during an episode, twice during an hour-long episode. On June 1, insanity set in the entire industry as the ratings became prevalant throughout the entire duration of an episode after every commercial break.

At the beginning of every episode, a large television ratings icon is seen in the corner of the screen. The new larger ratings icon takes up between 1/4 and 1/20th of the entire screen as opposed to 1/40 of the screen as before. After the commercial breaks, the television rating pops up again at the 1/40 original size. With no explanation of WHY they changed the ratings icon size, networks within the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the organization who sanctioned the changes, just ran with it, not giving a damn what the viewers think.

WEB-14

Okay, here's the real story behind the new larger ratings icons. Many people think that the new sizes were implimented to inform parents about what kind of rating a series has. The fact that, after numerous revisions and the option of using the V-chip to block out certain ratings, the television ratings system still looks like a Martian language to 80% of parents isn't going to make them understand it anymore. In fact, all they'll say is "Dang, does that corner logo look bigger to you?" or "Didn't they show that corner logo earlier in the show?" Just because you make something bigger doesn't mean that they're going to understand it any more. You could type out "YOUR DUMB ASS CAN'T READ BINARY CODE" in binary code on a Times Square billboard, but if folks can't understand it, they still won't understand it just because it's bigger. And if you repeat that same billboard on a bus stop bench a block away and they still don't understand it, they still won't understand what the sign said.

The real reason they made the ratings repetitive and bigger is because the television industry's owners, mostly entertainment and publishing companies, couldn't get a digital flag for their high definition signals. The flag would have been instrumental in preventing unauthorized copying in the age of TiVo and Bit Torrent. No flag, people could record and distribute anything and spread it everywhere. The Seven Old Men and Two Old Ladies of the Supreme Court said a couple of weeks ago something on the lines that the was unethical and pointless. The entertainment industry tried the same thing back in the eighties trying to stop makers of video recorders and cassette decks from selling their products. The entertainment industry also tried to stop people from burning CDs and DVDs. With the advent of P2P sharing beginning in the 2000s, people are sharing everything from MP3s to actual TV shows. Though the television industry didn't give a damn about MP3s, they did care about P2P users sharing television programs. And since the digital flag didn't get Supreme Court approval, they basically used the one thing that they could get away with.

They could use the television ratings system already in place.

WEB-14

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association decided to put the television ratings icons throughout the duration of a show, inspired by a practice ABC first used in the 2003-04 season. Much like the ads between and in the middle of scenes of shows to prevent TiVo users from scrolling past the commercials as well as get around the FCC's new "self-promotional time IS commercial time" law (call me crazy, but that's a dang good law on the FCC's end), the ratings icons might tick off a lot of viewers who otherwise wanted to look at a whole show. Instead, when people look at a show now, they are bombarded with a ratings icon, an scrolling animated ad banner (honestly, how many people really enjoy ad banners?), and a semi-transparent or very opaque network logo. People, like Pavlovian dogs, anticipate a DVD release that will contain shows uncluttered. That's why you're seeing more TV-to-DVD releases of classic shows and modern shows.

The fact that nobody's talking about this in the media, even on that tech network that Comcast hijacked and turned into a video game network, is appalling. Afterall, the average viewer just wants to see a show. The average viewer knows about the television ratings system. Those that don't understand the television ratings system need to be educated about the system, not have a ratings icon scream at you at the beginning of a show. The television industry should just "man up" about why they mandated the changes throughout the industry. They couldn't get their digital flag, so they got their next best thing. And in the end, they just proved that they just don't give a damn about their viewers anymore.

*end transmission*

Jeff Harris,
Webmaster/EiC/Lead Writer, The X Bridge
June 8, 2005