NATO Continues Strong Showing
FTC Releases Fifth
Media Violence Report
by Jonathan Yarowsky
NATO Washington Counsel
With very little media
hype, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on July 8 released
its fifth report
on the marketing
of violent entertainment to children. In its report, the
FTC updated its June 2002 findings, which focused on ad
placement and ratings information dissemination. The report
also summarized the October 2003 FTC Workshop on Media
Violence. As you may recall, the FTC’s most recent “mystery
shopper” statistics were announced at the October
workshop – the same gathering at which both NATO
president John Fithian and Regal Entertainment Group’s
Randy Smith participated in a roundtable focusing on media
violence issues affecting entertainment retailers.
In conjunction with the
new report, the FTC announced the creation of a new Website – http://www.ftc.gov/ratings – dedicated
to educating parents and children about entertainment ratings
enforcement. At the same Website, the FTC will be collecting
complaints regarding advertising and sales of entertainment
products to children.
A brief review of the FTC’s findings concerning theatre
owners in the July 2004 report:
"Both in its public
announcement of the report, and in the accompanying executive
summary,
the FTC has positive
remarks
about the efforts of theatre owners to improve ratings
enforcement activities at the theatre venue. While
NATO members were generally briefed on these results
last
fall, the new report reiterates, “the Commission’s
undercover shopper survey of children’s access
to tickets for R-rated films indicated significant
improvement
by movie theatres, as only 36 percent of the 13- to
16-year-old shoppers successfully purchased tickets.
In contrast, DVD
retailers – included for the first time in this
survey – sold
R-rated DVDs to 81 percent of teen shoppers seeking
to buy them.”
The FTC’s press release further comments: “the
Commission found noteworthy that although movie theatres
are doing much to restrict children’s access to R-rated
motion pictures, DVD retailers of the same movies appear
to be doing little to prevent such sales.”
As to other subject matter
addressed:
Trailers: In the wake of the
FTC’s first media violence
report issued in 2000, movie studios pledged to “request
[that] theatre owners not show trailers advertising films
rated R for violence in connection with the exhibition
of G-rated films.” On its own initiative,
NATO refined the policy even further, pledging
not to show trailers
advertising R-rated films in connection with G-
or PG-rated feature films, as well as ensuring
that R-rated trailers
connected to PG-13 rated films would be consistent
in tone and content with the feature film being
shown.
In its July 8, 2004 report,
the FTC concludes that “studios
largely are complying with their commitments. With respect
to the films studied, marketing and other documents show
that the studios attached or requested that trailers for
those films be shown only before features rated R or PG-13,
with one exception.”
Ratings Information Dissemination: In
response to the 2000 FTC report, NATO members pledged
to seek
innovative
and
useful ways to disseminate “ratings reasons” to
the public. In the 2004 report, the FTC reviewed the Websites
of 15 major movie theatre circuits and three online movie
ticket sellers “and found mostly positive
results.”
The report outlined: “All of the theatre sites displayed
the movies’ ratings and the rating reasons. Particularly
with respect to rating reasons, this finding marks a significant
improvement over previous reports. Six sites (40 percent)
provided information about the MPAA rating system, and
five of those sites (33 percent of total sites) also linked
to rating information sites – comparatively lower
percentages than previous reports found. One of the theatre
sites offered movie tickets for sale directly, and nine
others offered visitors the opportunity to purchase tickets
through a third-party site.”
“The Commission’s review of three movie ticket sites
yielded comparable results. All three Websites displayed
the films’ official ratings, and Movietickets.com
and Fandango.com also displayed the rating reasons. All
three provided information about the MPAA rating system,
although none linked to any of the rating information sites.”
Ratings Enforcement: In
its October 2003 report on media violence, the FTC released
findings
of its
mystery shopper
survey. The July 2004 report reviews,
but does not update, the findings of that survey.
Conclusion: Looking at
the motion picture industry as a whole, the FTC concludes: “Movie theatres have shown
improvement in barring unaccompanied children under 17
from purchasing tickets to R-rated films.” More particularly
for the exhibition sector, the report notes that the “movie
theatre industry has made real progress in this area ...
but there remains room for improvement” in
ratings enforcement by retail establishments.
If you would like to review the FTC’s
report in its entirety, you may access
it at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/07/mvreport.htm.
