Monday, January 28, 2008
Time zone tomfoolery
The time-zone lunacy of "safe harbor" has apparently slapped 52 ABC stations with the maximum $27,500 fine for indecent content. I remember watching the 2003 episode of NYPD Blue that contained a gratuitous nude scene, with the actress barely covering her naughty bits, but living in the Eastern time zone I witnessed the show at 10:03 p.m. Through no fault of their own (my opinion), the Central time zone ABC affiliates (all 52 of them) played the scene at 9:03, based on decades of precedent where primetime runs from 7-10 p.m. local time.
The lunacy stays with the policy-makers in Washington, DC who somehow believe that everyone has the same clock., that somehow a show that runs at 9 (outside the old family hour) will magically appear after 9 in the mid-section of the United States. Or that more adult content in primetime will run after 10, when virtually all affiliates in the CST are doing local news leading into their 10:30 Leno/Letterman/Nightline.
With the exception of live events, I guess the non-East Coast stations will have to be more careful about content. And the networks and Congress can go on pretending that everyone lives under the same clock.
The lunacy stays with the policy-makers in Washington, DC who somehow believe that everyone has the same clock., that somehow a show that runs at 9 (outside the old family hour) will magically appear after 9 in the mid-section of the United States. Or that more adult content in primetime will run after 10, when virtually all affiliates in the CST are doing local news leading into their 10:30 Leno/Letterman/Nightline.
With the exception of live events, I guess the non-East Coast stations will have to be more careful about content. And the networks and Congress can go on pretending that everyone lives under the same clock.
Labels: time zone ABC television FCC
