Broadcasting Act 1990
Section 6 (1)(a) of the Act requires the ITC to do all that it can to secure that every licensed service complies with the requirement “that nothing is included in its programmes which offends against good taste or decency or is likely ... to be offensive to public feeling”. This has been a requirement since the Television Act 1954.
ITC Code
The ITC programme code (Section 1.6) contains guidance on the portrayal of sex and nudity. Any portrayal of sexual behaviour must be defensible in context. Before the watershed, any sexual portrayal should be appropriately limited and inexplicit, with nudity only justifiable in a non-sexual and relevant context. Generally, representation of sexual intercourse should not be shown until after 9pm. Family Viewing Policy states that before the watershed (normally 9pm) nothing may be shown which is unsuitable for children. After 9pm there may be a gradual and progressive move towards more adult programming, with more graphic and prolonged scenes limited to much later in the schedule.
ITC Research
Research is one method of finding out if viewers have been offended and what they find acceptable. The ITC’s annual survey now called Television: the public’s view has, since 1970, consistently asked a national sample of viewers whether they have been offended by what they have seen or heard on television. Although a majority are not offended by anything, those that are offended are asked (unprompted) what offended them. The nature of the offensive material has also been very consistent over the years. ‘Bad language’ usually heads the list, followed during the 1970s by sex and violence. Since the beginning of the 1980s, violence has overtaken sex as a source of offence on ITV, and since 1993 the same trend has been seen on Channel 4. This trend has continued since 2000.
% of viewers who have seen anything sexually offensive
(all TV viewers)
2000 2001 2002
8 19 21
(Source Television: the public’s view. ITC)
Pornography. Much recent research – ege.g. Broadcasting Standards Commission (1999), British Social Attitudes (2000) - has shown that public attitudes have become more permissive over the years. 78% of people in the BSC study, for example, would not want sex removed when it is relevant to the storyline. In 2002 76% of respondents to Television: the public’s view considered that people should be allowed to watch sexually explicit programmes on subscription channels.
Proscription Orders
The ITC has powers, under the 1990 Act (Section 177), to notify the Secretary of State that the content of a foreign satellite service is unacceptable and should be the subject of a proscription order. This makes various actions such as the supply of decoders and programme material and advertising in support of a proscribed service criminal offences. Following ITC notification in April 1993 in relation to Red Hot Television, a pornographic service showing the most explicit sexual material licensed initially in the Netherlands and then in Denmark, a proscription order was imposed on the service. Several further services have subsequently been proscribed by the Secretary of State following notification by the ITC. For further details see ITC Note 44.
Complaints
The ITC programme complaints and interventions report publishes statistics on viewers’ complaints by categories. In 2002 complaints on sexual portrayal rose to 223 from 120 in 2000. Of these, though, 170 viewers complained about the gay kiss in The Bill – the largest number of complaints on any one programme in 2002. The ITC did not uphold these complaints.
Further References
ITC Publications
* ITC Library bibliography: Sex and broadcasting
ITC programme code. 2002.
Programme and findings report. Monthly.
Sancho, Jane and Andy Wilson. Boxed In: offence from negative stereotyping in television advertising. ITC, 2001.
Television advertising complaints report. Monthly.
Television: the public’s view. ITC. Television on Trial: citizens’ juries on taste and decency. ITC 1998.
Television across the years: the British public’s view 1970-1997. University of Luton Press, 1998 (based on the annual IBA/ITC survey of attitudes to broadcasting from 1970 to 1977).
External Publications
Broadcasting Standards Commission. Matters of offence. BSC briefing update, 2000.
The Foreign Satellite Proscription Order 1993. (S.I. 1993/1024) London: HMSO, 1993.
MILLWOOD HARGRAVE, Andrea. Sex and sensibility, Broadcasting Standards Council research monograph, 1999.
British Social Attitudes, London, Sage, 2000.
April 2003
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