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ACMA aware of movies classified twice by Nine

Media watchdog is watching networks splitting movies into two parts and is considering it.

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Media watchdog the Australian Communications and Media Authority has recently become aware of networks splitting movies into two parts -coded separately as M and MA- and is considering it.

Nine has been dividing some movies into two parts including Casino Royale, classified as PG / M and London Has Fallen as M / MA. To comply with regulations Nine runs brief credits at the end of Part 1 and the start if Part 2.

For viewers watching films it is an unusual interruption into the screening. Films are also listed twice in EPGs. The level of violence, language and sexual references can also suddenly escalate in the second portion of a film, which began with a lower classification.

Nine’s Chief Classification Officer Richard Lyle recently told TV Tonight there was frustration that movies do not enjoy the same classification timezones as TV shows.

“Programming felt it was a way of finding a family friendly movie that we could show earlier that they could watch from 7 or 7:30pm rather than waiting until 8:30pm at night,” he said.

The Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice allows TV programs classified M from 7.30pm and programs classified MA 15+ from 8.30pm.

But movies are in the Broadcasting Services Act which allows M classification from 8.30pm and MA 15+ from 9.00pm.

This anomaly is planned to be removed by the Communications Legislation Amendment (Deregulation and Other Measures) Bill 2018 which was presented to Parliament in 2017, but is yet to be passed.

A rival network source did not have a problem with Nine’s new strategy because it was equally frustrated by the imbalance between TV shows and movies in classifications.

Despite classifying in two parts, Nine has also not coded twice with OzTAM. But an OzTAM spokesperson said, “OzTAM data users can analyse and report ratings data for any time band they wish, so long as the time band referenced is clearly noted.”

While networks have become creative in their frustration to address movie classification timezones, ACMA is now considering the new practice.

14 Responses

  1. And so the childish game of “Inconvenience” continues. The Networks could easily remove the “M” parts of a movie that would appear in a PG timezone and I’d doubt that many viewers would notice.
    I will assume that their “hopes of addressing classification concerns with new Minister of Communications Paul Fletcher” in July haven’t resulted in the ability “to show what we want when we want to compete on a level playing field with Pay & SVOD.”
    But doesn’t each network have it’s own SVOD platform?
    I must look up the definition of “hypocrites”.

  2. I initially didn’t like the idea of splitting up a movie into two – even if it was just for a few seconds of credits. But I kind of get it why Nine does it. And surprised its taken them this long to find a loophole in airing movies at an earlier timeslot.

    But the inconsistence of the television ratings annoy me more. Nine airs various shows that have one title – and code them into several segments for the ratings (News, Hot Seat, Today, Today Extra etc), but when the movies have two parts – they code it as one. Hmmm!

  3. This is blatant loss-leading. What child/teen, having watched half a movie, is going to submit willingly to parents who say that they can’t watch the second half. The whole idea is to sucker in the viewer and their parent with a low rating, on the expectation that no one watches half a movie (unless they are not liking it).

  5. The networks will do whatever they want. Many years ago, when the Commonwealth Film Censor suddenly stopped classifying TV programs, I was classifying the series Highway to Heaven for regional television stations and classified an episode about abortion as “Adults Only” for a series that was usually scheduled in PGR time at 7.30. When checking with the 10 Network as to what they were doing, they told me they were calling it “a hard PGR” and were still scheduling it at 7.30. Similarly, BTQ 7 screened some AO episodes of Family Ties (also about abortion) at “the special time” of 9.30 and six months later screened them as a “G” strip at 7pm. Do what you think you can get away with is the networks’ motto.

  6. What the hell are they talking about? “Family friendly?” I doubt mum, dad, and the kids are going to be watching these sorts of action movies together, and judging from their offerings on 9GO and the like, they certainly have no shortage of “family friendly” films in their library that they could be playing instead.

    I suppose I could understand breaking up the Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings films, which are mostly M rated (albeit on the low end of the scale) and appeal to families, but there’s no need for realistic violence, profanity, and sexual activity during typical family viewing times.

    I don’t see any problem in excising the single F-word that frequently results in movies being rated M in order to be able to play them in a PG timezone though. Frankly, I think it’s stupid that so many films throw in a single F-word merely to bump up the rating.

  7. You mention credits are being run, I would assume various approvals must be needed from the title owners. I couldn’t imagine Spielberg or any major studio appreciating the integrity of their titles being edited in such away.

  8. Thanks David, I was wondering why this was happening. It seemed odd watching it in 2 parts..
    Ended up just finding it online and watched it without ads..

  10. I was going to say that it interrupts the flow of the movie, but then again, it is commercial TV after all.

    Though I was disappointed last week – watching Kingsmen: The Golden Circle on one of Channel 7’s channels, and even though it was played late at night, they still censored it.

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