Pay television content descriptors

Development and implementation

Like the TV Parental Guidelines, which this system predates and is used alongside, the content ratings were established as a voluntary participation system, with the assigned ratings for each program determined by the individually participating subscription television networks. The system's creation was spurred by concerns from parents over the amount of violent content in television programs, particularly those seen on premium cable channels. Prior to the system's implementation, premium services only provided information on potentially objectionable content via the listings magazines that were supplied to their subscribers. In January 1994, representatives from the cable television industry decided to develop a voluntary rating system for television programs, with premium channels ultimately opting to develop a system to rate all types of program content that may be considered inappropriate for children.

Prior to the creation of the content descriptions, premium television services did not reference the content within a film, television series or special on-air (though program guides provided by the pay cable channels did reference the type of content in each program); instead pay channels usually only used vague explanations of adult content using the program rating (for example, "The following movie has been rated "PG-13" by the Motion Picture Association of America, some material may be inappropriate for young children, parents may wish to consider whether it should be viewed by those under 13"). After the announcement of the content system's development, Time Warner-owned premium channels HBO and Cinemax, and Viacom-owned Showtime and The Movie Channel (both now owned by CBS Corporation) began incorporating text descriptions during ratings bumpers aired prior to the start of a film, television series or special, immediately after information on the rating and features (i.e., the inclusion of closed captioning, a second audio program language feed and/or stereophonic sound) of a program (in either a single-page or dual-page format, depending on the service).

The current iteration of the content system, which introduced a uniform set of coded icons and text descriptors, was first introduced on June 10, 1994 by HBO and Cinemax; it was then implemented on Showtime and The Movie Channel the following month. Liberty Media's then-new Starz network, which was established earlier that year, and its sister network Encore began implementing the system by the fall of 1994, and select pay-per-view services (such as Viewer's Choice and Request TV) began using the system in early 1997 (since then, Flix, Sundance Channel – which no longer uses the system after its purchase by Rainbow Media in 2008 and conversion into a basic cable channel, MoviePlex and Epix have also utilized the system). The descriptors are similar to the content sub-ratings that were applied to the TV Parental Guidelines in July 1997, though they provide a more precise account of the content within a program. By this point, most services using the descriptors showed them in a secondary bumper page separate from the program's rating.

Each premium channel labels its own programs separately; because of this, it is conceivable that a film that obtains a "GV" rating for graphic violence on HBO and Cinemax would only get a "V" rating for moderate degrees of violence if the same film aired on Showtime and The Movie Channel; McAdory Lipscomb, former executive vice president of Showtime, described about how the advisories are applied, "It is possible that [Showtime] would rank something different than HBO, but we both recognize our dual responsibility to provide information to our subscribers about what is graphic or perhaps unsuitable for children, and we think the common language we've developed will provide an acceptable parameter."

Though the use of announcers to read aloud the program ratings was commonplace at the time the descriptors were introduced (its use having decreased since that point), only Showtime and The Movie Channel utilized verbal references to a program's content during ratings bumpers between 1994 and 1997 (which were read by longtime staff announcer Bill St. James on Showtime and by 1996, The Movie Channel).

Content descriptions are also used on certain video-on-demand services operated by pay television services; currently, HBO, Cinemax and Starz are the only premium channels using descriptors on video-on-demand content, due to the services utilizing ratings bumpers seen on each of the services' linear cable channels prior to the start of a program selection. More recently, Comedy Central, despite being only a basic cable channel in the United States, has started to use the "Graphic Language" advisory on its series South Park and Workaholics, however, not all television guides choose to carry this.

Examples

Virtually all softcore pornographic adult films broadcast on pay television networks are given content ratings for strong sexual content, nudity, adult content and adult language; although occasionally, an adult movie may be tagged for a scene that contains some degree of violent content, if included. G-rated films, however, are typically not given content ratings as most movies assigned with that rating do not feature any objectionable content.

Anywhere between one and five content ratings can be assigned to a program. A key example is with the 2010 comedy Get Him to the Greek, which made its premium cable debut on HBO and Cinemax in 2011; the film (originally rated "R" for its theatrical release, but assigned a "TV-MA-L,S,V" rating by HBO and Cinemax, due to its broadcast of the unrated version of the film) was tagged for adult content (due to its pervasive sexual dialogue, drug references, moderate alcohol and drug use, and crude humor, including two scenes involving vomiting), strong sexual content (due to two scenes in which Jonah Hill's character Aaron Green is seen having intercourse with two different women on two separate occasions, neither of which included any nudity, although one featured Green getting a dildo inserted in his mouth and rubbed on his face), graphic language (due to the inclusion of over 100 expletives in the film) and nudity (because of two scenes involving topless women, and one scene including partially exposed male buttocks).

Design variations

The original default font used for the content descriptor icons is a variant of the Chicago typeface, either displayed with white type on a black blackground or black type on a white background, on a rectangular box with a simulated drop-shadow. Currently, only certain multiplex channels owned by Showtime Networks (with the exception of the main Showtime channel, Showtime 2, Showtime Extreme and Showcase) continue to use the original 1995 version (the aforementioned exceptions utilize an italicized DIN font); Sundance Channel also used the 1994 icons until coming under the ownership of Rainbow Media and transitioning into a commercial-free basic cable channel.

HBO uses Gotham Regular and Cinemax uses Gotham Bold Italic for their ratings icons, matching both channels' current imaging text. Starz use variant icons with a Helvetica font on a square background, while Encore and certain pay-per-view services use variant icons with a Helvetica font used for the descriptions on a circle. Epix uses the Blue Highway font for the descriptors and is the only premium channel to display the content descriptors alongside the film/program rating instead of after the rating information.