Ofcom Public Attitudes Survey

Ofcom is legally obliged to apply general standards to broadcasting. It assesses standards for sexual content by commissioning independent research based on representative survey groups; old, young, male, female, libertarian, conservative.

While Ofcom can interpret the results, particularly where they are unclear, they cannot go against a survey in either direction, unless some other clear legal consideration applies.

Here is a summary of the June 2009 survey, Attitudes towards sexual material on television

Due to the length it has been split into a Summary, followed by posts focussing on one subject area. Together these summarise the legal basis for permitting/banning sexual content on FTA channels.

Note that since Sept 2009 the FTA Adult channels have been classified as Teleshopping and Editorial Justification is no longer a consideration.

Summary

Time
Stronger material should be reserved until after 11pm.

Nudity
Non-explicit nudity is OK late enough.

Genitals
Genitals can be shown, but only if desexualised and unaroused. A prolonged open legged “cone-on” shot would not be acceptable. A brief glimpse while turning around or a naked presenter dancing in long-short would be acceptable. Genuinely accidental glimpses are acceptable. (Editorial justification does not apply to FTA Adult channels classified as Teleshopping).

Sexual Intercourse
Non-explicit real and realistic sex is acceptable on FTA Adult channels. It must be after 11pm. Fetish, group or anal content drastically reduces acceptability. 2-4-1s featuring side-on oral sex and didlo use would be acceptable.

Anal & Fetishes
Depictions of anal, sado-masochism, bondage make content much less acceptable. “Happy sex” is more acceptable, for example two presenters who clearly enjoy each others company.

Channel
There are no grounds for saying that strong sexual content on a channel in Adult section of the Sky EPG exceeds viewer expectations.

Time

Quote:stronger material becoming more acceptable after 22:00 and especially after 23:00. At 21:00 participants said they did not expect to see much more than a brief sex scene or brief nudity. (page 66)

What This Means For FTA Babeshows:
Stronger material should be reserved until after 11pm.

Nudity

Quote:They believed this type of material to be acceptable on television without access restrictions (either mandatory or voluntary) in place, after the watershed as long as the imagery was not too prolonged, close up or gratuitous, and if the image was justified editorially. The more time that had passed since 21:00, the more acceptable this imagery was seen to become. (page 39)

What This Means For FTA Babeshows:
Non-explicit nudity is OK late enough.

Genitals

Quote:Participants were split in their perceptions of whether or not it was acceptable to show images of genitals on television without access restrictions (either mandatory or voluntary) in place. An approximately equal proportion of participants said they believed that images of male or female genitals should appear after 21:00 if the context demanded, compared to those who said that such images should not be shown without mandatory access restrictions.

Those participants who said they thought it was acceptable to show material of this nature on television without any access restrictions (either mandatory or voluntary) in place said they would expect to see these images in a desexualised and editorially justified manner, such as on educational programmes (e.g. the recent Sex Education Show on Channel 4). In discussion it was clear that views depended on how graphic the material was. If male genitals were depicted in a state of arousal, this was nearly always seen to be unacceptable. (pages 39, 40)

What This Means For FTA Babeshows:
Genitals can be shown, but only if desexualised and unaroused. A prolonged open legged “cone-on” shot would not be acceptable. A brief glimpse while turning around or a naked presenter dancing in long-short would be acceptable. Genuinely accidental glimpses are acceptable. (Editorial justification does not apply to FTA Adult channels classified as Teleshopping).

Sexual Intercourse

Quote:While participants drew the line in different places, generally scenes showing or depicting sexual intercourse which focussed on the less sexual parts of the body (such as arms and backs) were seen as more acceptable. However scenes showing more private body parts (especially breasts, vaginas and penises, but also to some extent buttocks) were seen as less acceptable with the majority of participants saying they did not want or expect to see such material on television without some form of restriction. (page 40)

Quote:Participants also felt that programmes showing scenes of sexual intercourse should either be signalled by information or guidance, or it should be reasonably implied from the programme title that stronger sexual material was likely to occur. (page 40)

Quote:participants said that stronger images showing sexual intercourse should be shown well after 21:00 (i.e. 22:30 or 23:00) to protect the under-eighteens. (page 41)

The survey group was shown 5 clips containing non-explicit real or realistic sex. Despite the strong content, 4 of these were rated overall more Acceptable than Unacceptable.

Clip 7, a Playboy One sex drama with repeated non-explicit real intercourse and oral sex, was rated Unacceptable by 29% and Acceptable by 40% - an overall positive Acceptability score of +11%.

Clip 9, was a FTA trailer for RedHot 40+ repeated images of non-explicit real sexual activity. It was rated Unacceptable by 26% and Acceptable by 43% - an overall positive Acceptability score of +17%.

Clip 3 was a sex scene from the BBC2 drama “Rome” featuring realistic non-explicit intercourse. It was rated Unacceptable by 24% and Acceptable by 47% - an overall positive Acceptability score of +23%.

Clip 5 was from a Virgin 1 sex-documentary and had an overall negative Acceptable rating of -26%. This was broadcast at 10pm (11pm would have been more acceptable) and featured anal sex and 4-way sex that counted against it.

Clip 6 was from a Virgin 1 sex-documentary broadcast at 11pm featuring blurred and pixellated images of oral sex. It was rated Unacceptable by 27% and Acceptable by 47% - an overall positive Acceptability score of +20%.

What This Means For FTA Babeshows:
Non-explicit real and realistic sex is acceptable on FTA Adult channels. It must be after 11pm. Fetish, group or anal content drastically reduces acceptability. 2-4-1s featuring side-on oral sex and didlo use would be acceptable.

Anal & Fetishes

Quote:Almost all participants showed more tolerance for images showing consensual sex between two people, and less tolerance for even a ‘mild’ image that differed from this, e.g. group sex or sex involving fetishes. (page 41)

Quote:Many participants said that images of anal sex, group sex and sex involving fetishes were also personally offensive and this made them less acceptable. (page 41)

Quote:the couple in the clip were clearly making a choice as to whether they wanted to appear on television having sex. For some participants this made a difference compared to clip 7, where the couple having sex were apparently “acting”; (page 65 clip 9)

What This Means For FTA Babeshows: Depictions of anal, sado-masochism, bondage make content much less acceptable. “Happy sex” is more acceptable, for example two presenters who clearly enjoy each others company.

Channel

Quote:The less widely available the channels were, the more acceptable stronger sexual material was perceived to be. The strongest tolerance for sexual content was on premium subscription adult-sex channels. (page 32)

Quote:The name of the programme signposted the content: it included the word “sex” which served to signpost the nature of the content to participants and so managed their expectations.” (page 61 in relation to Clip 7, a Playboy One sex drama with repeated non-explicit real intercourse and oral sex).

Clip 8 was a FTA trailer for Spice Extreme containing strong fetish material that the survey group disturbing and unacceptable for the time of day (8pm). Despite this, the fact that it

Quote:was located on an adult channel in the adult section of the EPG (albeit free-to-view), which some participants felt limited the likelihood of both under-eighteens and adults stumbling across it or similar material by accident. They considered that this managed viewer expectations (page 63)

What This Means For FTA Babeshows:
There are no grounds for saying that strong sexual content on a channel in Adult section of the Sky EPG exceeds viewer expectations.

It's a shame that broadcasters are unable/unwilling to cut & paste your posts and defend themselves against Ofcom.

A quality piece of work Eccles and very informative. Have you forwarded it to Ofcom?