The scarlet R

With $1.4 billion in box-office ad bucks on the line, networks jump to defend, revamp movie ad policies

By Steve McClellan -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/18/2000

TV networks last week scrambled to deflect criticism and avoid the loss of movie advertising revenue. They were responding to a Federal Trade Commission report that condemned movie studios for marketing their violent R-rated films to teens and warned the networks not to be a party to it.

It's the younger-skewing networks-including The WB, UPN, MTV, FOX, Comedy Central-where the potential impact is greatest. FOX, WB, MTV and Comedy Central defended their current practices. UPN and its parent, Viacom, declined comment.

Movie advertising is big business. The major studios spent $1.4 billion to advertise movies on TV in 1999, according to Competitive Media Reporting. Unknown is how much of that promoted R-rated films, the target of the FTC report.

The report declared that networks should not air R-rated film ads in shows where 35% or more of the audience is under 18. In prime time, according to the Nielsen Media Research data for May, UPN was the only one of the six broadcast networks to average a 35% kid-teen audience across the 8-9 p.m. hour, although WB was close at 32%. MTV far surpassed that mark, with a combined 44% kid-teen audience across prime time. From 8 to 11 p.m., UPN averaged a 33% kid-teen comp, followed by 31% for WB and 20% for FOX. CBS and NBC average about 8%, and ABC about 13%.

The report prompted policy reviews throughout the TV industry and changes at both ABC and NBC. Disney-owned ABC vowed not to air commercials for R-rated movies before 9 p.m. It also introduced last Friday a new public-service-announcement campaign designed to combat youth violence. NBC pledged not to accept advertising for R-rated films for any program on its schedule where children make up 30% or more of the audience.

Competitors ridiculed both the ABC and NBC policy revisions. "Doing it by time period is the stupidest way to go," said one competitor. "We're no longer living in an age where kids are watching at 8 but not at 9."

Another network executive scoffed at NBC's statement as a non-event because no Big Four series in prime comes close to a 30%-kids audience.

For CBS, the issue is largely moot because it doesn't reach many youngsters in prime time. Indeed, the FTC report didn't even mention CBS, the oldest-skewing network of the Big Four.

MTV's own research shows that its total-day audience is 46.8% kids and teens. The percentage drops to 44.1% in prime time.

"We do accept commercials for R-rated movies," said an MTV spokeswoman. "We have in the past 'dayparted' R-rated commercials [to avoid younger audiences], but we don't do it all the time."

Commercials airing on MTV get reviewed by standards and practices, although there is not a written set of standards per se on what spots are acceptable.

A WB spokesman said, "We are very proud of our track record of responsibility from day one. We have always tried to live up to being family friendly. Thus, on shows like 7th Heaven; Sister, Sister; and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch-things that are clearly family shows-we have never run an R-rated-movie trailer, and we never will."

As for R-rated ads that might appear in shows before 9 p.m. and reach many kids, blame the parents, not the network, the WB spokesman said. All such shows have appropriate parental warnings. "The wording changes on different shows, but those shows are not geared for kids."

Bashing the entertainment industry during election campaigns is a time-honored tradition, and many industry executives believe the issue will fade once the voting booths close on Nov. 7.

"Any kind of controls over our First Amendment rights just seems absurd," said one network executive. "It just seems typical, predictable, political saber-rattling before the elections, and, ultimately, I think it's going to be harmless."

But some TV and movie executives think the FTC has a point. "The studios were incredibly stupid for test-marketing 13-year-olds R-rated movies," says a senior-level network TV executive.

One studio president agreed. "The FTC is right. To a large degree, we as an industry need to be more responsible. And I think you are starting to see people stand up and acknowledge that. TV gets rolled in, in terms of what kinds of advertising broadcast networks are going to accept and when. They won't get away scot-free, and that's the way it should be."

A FOX spokesman says trailers for R-rated movies are probably the most carefully scrutinized of all spots that go on the network's air. While audience composition is a factor, it's not a hard-and-fast rule. "Generally speaking, we don't run R-rated spots in family programming like The Simpsons and Malcolm in the Middle," the spokesman said. "But we have plenty of shows that are appropriate for R-rated trailers that movie companies want to buy into." Three examples: The X-Files, Ally McBeal and Police Videos.

At Comedy Central, a spokesman said the network gets a lot of movie business, "but we're an adult network. Eighty percent of our audience is 18 to 49."-With reporting by Deborah McAdams, Joe Schlosser and Susanne Ault