Networks Will Battle New Ratings, At Least At First

So, how’s the new television ratings system going over in your household since its Jan. 1 debut?

Perplexed? Annoyed? Or Even unfazed by the seemingly ubiquitous ratings graphic in the upper lefthand corner of the television screen?

Truth is, it’s probably too early to tell what the real impact of the new TV ratings system is because there isn’t a whole lot of screaming and hollering on the part of anyone who’s been involved in the long fight, with just a few weeks into the new year.

The conventional wisdom, however, is that the major television networks probably have a leg up in the ratings debate, given the fact that prime time programs are now carrying parental guidance (TV-PG) and general audience ratings, much like the movie industry.

Broadcasters, whose television ratings move is strictly voluntary, fought long and hard with parent and educational groups for the movie-like programming distinctions, ostensibly to avoid driving off potential advertisers - and ultimately their viewing audience.

But the TV ratings battle is far from being over.

Few doubt that children’s advocacy groups will keep the heat on networks to rate their programs by the levels of violence, sexual content and language. The betting is that if these special interest organizations don’t eventually get their way, they will end up taking their battle to the Federal Communications Commission, the industry’s regulatory agency, and maybe even again to Congress.

After all, it was these same groups that put heat on federal lawmakers last year in an effort to force the major television networks to come up with some meaningful programming reform.

While no one in the children’s advocacy organizations is jumping up and down over the outcome in terms of what’s now in place, they are convinced the skittish broadcasters can do a whole lot better.

My nearly 30 years of experience in the broadcasting business tells me such likelihood is not entirely out of the question.

True, broadcasters have to strike a delicate balance between the business side of their companies - profit margins, they are called - and assuaging the concerns of their television audience. But if there’s any predictability in this business - or any other corporate setting, for that matter - it’s that the networks do respond to their viewers, not to mention industry rumblings on Capitol Hill.

And the way the tide has been turning this past year to get broadcasters to do more about sex and violence in prime time shows, it’s obvious network officials have been listening.

My guess is that the recalcitrant major television networks will end up embracing a ratings system similar to the one now in use by HBO, Showtime and some of the other cable networks, in which violent, sexual and language content is revealed at the beginning of a program.

In other words, the networks will relent. They often do, but not until they are convinced they have no other choice. For broadcasters, as incredible as it might seem, this really is business as usual.

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