Ofcom Discussion

Dont expect consistency, especially from Channel 4 as it exists to target different audiences. One week it will be the blue rinse and set brigade, another week the same crew will use the same slot to target disaffected teens. What one audience tolerates, even requires to stay watching will turn the other off.

There are two problems here, apart from shelf censorship.

One is that there is no way for a broadcaster to test the boundaries without risking a fine. They can repeat a show weekly for 5 years without incident, and then get hit win a Breach notice because one toerag complained.

Ofcom refuse to watch a show in advance and say if it is "legal" or not because "they arent censors". The few times advance guidance has been given it has backfired - Playboy was told something would be OK by a duty officer only to fall foul or the rules. Ofcom said guidance had not been given, and even if it had been it would not have been official, yah boo sucks.

The result is that broadcasters selfcensor, and most will play safe rather than push at the boundary of acceptability. Noone will have reached a senior editorial role by being a dangerous revolutionary who gets their employer heavy fines or loss of licence.

Second there is no mechanism to complain about bland content or not being offended. Its a oneway street. Generally push to stronger content comes from audiences voting with their feet and broadcasters reacting to get them back.

Comedy gets ruder until it gets too hot or a fraction of the audience gets offended and leaves (Frankie Boyle/Mock The Week). Horror and drama get more violent, more aggressive, more threatening if it pulls in audience (True Detective, Whitechapel, Braquo, Penny Dreadful, the Horror Channel). Teen sitcoms get ruder and swearier (The Inbetweeners).

But none of these risk a serious telling off, fine or loss of licence. Its just a question of hitting the commericial sweet spot between pulling in audience who like to be challenged and losing disaffected audience with different tastes.

However when it comes to sexual content Omfoc is intolerant, a small but vocal section of the population are intolerant, a shit stirring paper knows what headlines sell, some MPs will jump on the bandwagon and no MP will stand up and say their constituents like sex.

Result a oneoff minor infringement of a severity that would be tolerated for a different type of material attracts punishment first time.

Swearing at a music festival one daytime TV? Slapped wrist. Violent scene broadcast in daytime, explanation accepted. Dodgy charity collection, dont do it again. Graphic horror, Jew baiting, mocking the disabled, supernatural scariness, nonstop swearing after 9 - all OK with a warning. Wearing a bikini - threaten licence withdrawal, demand a visit to head office to be lectured about compliance.

Offence - complaint mechanism exists
Boring content -> no complaint mechanism -> inconsistency

Ofcon are pandering to the easily offended but very loud brigade. Sex is normal. People enjoy it. I am however offended by two dickheads beating eachother to a pulp at 9pm on BT Sport in a MMA match with 500 braindeads sitting around the cage baying for blood.
People are going topless on UK beaches, never mind at Benidorm so what is wrong with a beautiful body? Art is full of statues of Greek and Roman gods with no clothes on and nobody is asking for the British Museum to be closed. Right off to perv at Susanah and Charlotte on ITV....

Well folks, where do we go from here? has Ofcom finally won the war? well with current state of affairs they might just get there way. Since the coalition has been in power since 2010 they've done sod all, and like all bullies Ofcom smell blood and have become stronger and stronger and stronger. They've even managed to get there claws into Babestation which is owned by a dutch company!
With the lack 241's handthongs, etc etc the current content is so tame, that even if a teenager were to stumble on these channels they'd probably laugh. We've all seen all the channels reduce there prices for obvious reasons, clearly they are feeling the pinch big time.
It's to late to bring up the past we all no the channels could've done a lot more but they didn't, and now we're down to this.
Ofcom have scared mongered everyone to thinking that nudity and a womans vagina is pure evil, and it clearly isn't. So with a general election looming in the distance can we aspect any action from any party elected? the answer is probably not, which means Ofcom will remain in power systematically doing everything in its power to destroy are adult channels once and for all, the only one which might survive Babestation, however even with a Dutch license it seems Ofcoms power stretches far and wide.
In the last 5 yrs Ofcom have ruined the channels with fines and breaches, so much so that they've had to shut down. My concern is what the next 5yrs will bring? Well if the last 5yrs is anything to go by i reckon by the year 2020 they'll be nothing left of our adult channels, instead they'll probably replaced by shopping channels instead!
So much for 21st century Britain "Yeah right"

I tink Ofcon's strategy IS to keep sex off UK tele. If we want it we have to go to the webb for it, unfortunately.

There once used to be a time when I'd regularly make daily rants about ofcom, these days its not so much, its not that I don't care anyway, I just get fed up repeating the same cycle of discussion over and over again.

Lately I've noticed a lot of things and one thing I have noticed is that ofcom don't appear to be batting much of an eyelid these days with regards to the babe channels. Last night for the first time in ages we finally got to see a nude 2 for 1 on Babestation.

Over on Storm the past few weeks we've had both babes naked at the same time on the bed, ok - It's hardly been explicit but its a start.

At the start of April out went Colette Bowe and in came Patricia Hodgson to replace her as chairman of ofcom. So far I've heard nothing from the new chairman with regards to the 900 channels, it's like she knows they exist but is happy to turn a blind eye to them.

Under Colette the babe channels went through periods where they'd been hammered and battered with fines and warning galore. Ed Richards still remains but even he appears to have also turned a blind eye to them as his main focus now is getting the top job at the BBC.

On the 5th April ofcom even published it's survey that less and less people were now offended by sex and violence, the last time ofcom had any issues with the babe channels was on the 5th March and it was for promotion of related porn websites on their channels and nothing to do with the actual content on the telly.

You have to go back to the 7th February the last time ofcom had any issues with the babe channels. We are now half way through July and so far so good. The censors at the moment seem to be laying off and that can only be good news for the long term future of the channels.

Lastly this section has been really quiet and I'm happy for it to remain that way

Hopefully the channels only go up from here

Could someone please tell me why studio 66 have lost one of there channels?

^^^ They haven't.

(16-07-2014 08:39 )Digital Dave Wrote:  ^^^ They haven't.

What do you mean they haven't? I thought they had 4 channels in the UK? Maybe I'm mistaken, and I apologise if I've got my wires crossed, but I'm sure they had more then that have now?

(16-07-2014 08:47 )continental19 Wrote:  

(16-07-2014 08:39 )Digital Dave Wrote:  ^^^ They haven't.

What do you mean they haven't? I thought they had 4 channels in the UK? Maybe I'm mistaken, and I apologise if I've got my wires crossed, but I'm sure they had more then that have now?

One of them has been rebranded Play TV and the other Studio 66 USA. They're all still from the same team though.