After months of struggle with parents groups and politicians, the television industry has agreed to demands that it expand its just-implemented age-based program-rating system to include specific advisories about potentially objectionable content.
The agreement was to be signed Thursday at a White House ceremony that included Vice President Al Gore, the administration's point man on the issue.
With the exception of one high-profile holdout - NBC declared it would not join in the agreement because government has no business regulating content - all major TV networks have agreed to add codes denoting violence (V), sexual content (S), vulgar language (L), suggestive dialog (D), and children's fantasy violence (FV).
Under the age-based system launched in January, derived from the movie rating system used by the Motion Picture Association of America, the ratings include Y (for all children) and Y-7 (may be unsuitable for children under age 7); TV-G (for all ages); TV-PG (parental guidance suggested); TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under age 14); and TV-M (adults only).
This means that at the beginning of, for example, NYPD Blue, viewers will likely see the current rating of TV-14, plus the new tags of V, S, L, and D. The ratings will appear on the screen for several seconds longer than the current ratings.
As a prelude to the deal, leaders of the congressional effort to institute the new ratings scheme, including Senate Commerce Committee chairman John McCain (R-Arizona) and Representative Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts), promised not to introduce or support legislation on television content or ratings systems for three years. But McCain warned that networks that do not adopt the new system could be subject to legislation.
In a statement Thursday, NBC said that it was "concerned that the ultimate aim of the current system's critics is to dictate programming content," and that "there is no place for government involvement in what people watch on television." The network said it would continue to use the ratings system adopted six months ago, with specific advisories.
Family and parent groups involved in the negotiations included the National Parent-Teacher Association, the Center for Media Education, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
