Watershed (television)

Watershed is a term used in the United Kingdom (as well as Canada) to describe a time in television schedules beyond which it is permissible to show television programmes which have 'adult content'. It is known in the US as "Safe Harbor". Adult content can be generally defined as having at least some nudity, explicit sexual intercourse, graphic violence, strong language, or drug references or use.

Watershed Times

United Kingdom and Ireland

According to Ofcom, the watershed on standard television starts at 9:00pm, and finishes at 5:30am the next morning. On premium film or pay-per-view services requiring a subscription, the watershed starts at 8:00pm.

There should be a gentle transition to adult material, and 18-rated material is not allowed to be shown before 10:00pm.

Canada

The watershed starts at 9:00pm, and finishes at 6:00am the next morning. Sexually explicit content, offensive or strong language and other adult material is not allowed outside the watershed.

United States

The watershed (or "Safe Harbor") begins at 10:00pm and finishes at 6:00am the next morning (all time zones), though some content (explicit human sexual intercourse and frontal nudity, for example) is never allowed by the FCC rules. Note that FCC rules only apply to channels broadcast terrestrially and not those only available on cable, such as certain restricted-access networks (like the premium channels HBO and Showtime and adult channels Playboy TV and Spice). Some of the most infamous scenes of American television (like the naked cast of NYPD Blue) happened at the 10:00pm-11:00pm hour; however, these broadcasts were before the Safe Harbor in the Central and Mountain time zones, where programming scheduled for 10:00pm EST would typically be broadcast starting at 9:00pm (using a one-hour tape delay in Mountain time).

Because the FCC interprets safe harbor times as local time, some networks would get fined for complying with the law in one part of the country, while breaking the law in other time zones, Such was the case with CBS, who was fined USD $3.63 million for a repeat episode of Without a Trace in December 2004, which was televised at 10:00pm in the Eastern and Pacific time zones (within the watershed), but at 9:00pm in Central and Mountain times (outside the watershed). It's these time zones that led the FCC to issue the fines, to be split among 111 CBS affiliates covering these time zones. ^*

In the 1970s, the ill-fated Family Viewing Hour tried to make the 8:00pm-9:00pm hour safe for family consumption, but was overturned in court due to the way it was instituted.

Australia

On Australian television MA15+ programmes are not allowed to be shown before 9:30pm at night. Unfortunately due to the presence of daylight savings in New South Wales and not in Queensland, and the fact that some stations that broadcast into southern Queensland from northern New South Wales (specifically the Gold Coast), it effectively pushed the watershed time back to 8.30pm. Due to complaints from concerned citizens these stations were forced to broadcast as per local time.

Since its inception in 1995 Pay TV channel Adults Only has only broadcast from 10:45pm (9:45pm at times) until 4:45am. Although it is advertised until 6:00am, it broadcasts only a test signal in the intervening time. However since the inception of Adults Only Select (a pay-per-view service) in 2004, it has all but eliminated the watershed time.

See also: Adult Swim

External links