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Nine in trouble over Ramsay classification

It must be the day for it. Channel Nine is found to have incorrectly classified episodes of naughty Gordon Ramsay -again.

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The Australian Communications and Media Authority has found QTQ9 breached the Code of Practice for incorrectly classifying two episodes of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares as M (Mature) instead of MA (Mature Audience).

The Kitchen Nightmares episodes (‘Ruby Tates’ and ‘Dillons’) contained multiple instances of coarse language deemed to be not important to the storylines.

“Following recent breach findings related to the broadcast of other Kitchen Nightmares programs by Nine Network affiliates, ACMA has met with the Nine Network to discuss remedial action aimed at ensuring that these programs are correctly classified, taking particular account of the level of coarse language they contain,” said Lyn Maddock, Acting ACMA Chair. “ACMA expects to finalise these discussions in time to ensure that future broadcasts of the series comply with the code.”

QTQ has accepted the breach findings and will classify such programs as MA under the code in future.

Last month ACMA found Nine and WIN affiliates in breach of the Code for three Ramsay episodes incorrectly classified as M when they should have screened in a later MA time slot.

Source: ACMA

4 Responses

  2. The free-to-air commercial television networks are bound by the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice, which is created by Free TV Australia but has to be registered by ACMA. For reasons unbeknownst to me, the provisions for the PG, M and MA classifications are stricter in this code than they are in the code employed by the Classification Board for the classification of films and computer games.

    What makes the situation even more ridiculous is that the ABC and SBS base their codes around this code, meaning that they could have aired the Kitchen Nightmares episodes under the same classification awarded to them by the Classification Board (formerly the OFLC).

    Therefore, programs such as Summer Heights High (which was rated M by the ABC and the OFLC for its DVD release) would quite likely be rated MA15+ if they aired on commercial television. Essentially, it’s okay for a “mature” 13 or 14 year old to watch such shows on the ABC, but if the same program had been broadcast on Chanel Ten it would have been rated MA15+, meaning it is unsuitable for persons under 15.

    If this situation bothers you, write to the three commercial networks (especially Nine and Ten), Free TV Australia and ACMA and ask them to have the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice brought into line with the one currently employed by the Classification Board for the classification of films and computer games. The code is up for review every three years.

  3. Sillygostly said “the episode “Ruby Tates” was classified M by the OFLC.”

    So why does ACMA think they are better at classifying content than the OFLC. Surely ACMA should take advice from the OFLC.

  4. Oh FFS…

    I can’t vouch for “Dillions” since the season which that episode was in was rated MA15+ by the OFLC, however the episode “Ruby Tates” was classified M by the OFLC.

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