LONDON, ENGLAND — More than a year after naughty words, naked body parts and explicit sexual activities aired on British television, the government’s decency watchdog this week fined Playboy £22,500 (about $33,246) for the series of offenses.Ofcom, Britain’s equivalent of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, said seven breaches of its decency regulations occurred in September, November and December 2007 on the now-defunct Playboy One service offered by satellite television provider Sky. According to the Ofcom ruling, consumer complaints about the material which aired as part of Jenna’s American Sex Star, Adult Stars Close Up, Blue Collar Babes, Sexy Girls Next Door, Sexy Urban Legend, Sex House and Sex Guides were justified. The programs “included sequences depicting masturbation, oral sex… clear labial detail, sexual intercourse and full nudity [and featured] strong language… in an overtly sexual context.”
All of the programs aired between 11:00 pm and 3:00 am.
“The explicitness, strength and/or sustained nature of the sexual content and language [including the “f-word” and the “c-word”] was unacceptable for broadcast on a free-to-air channel,” the Ofcom ruling noted. “The primary purpose of this material was sexual stimulation. None had a sufficient and clear editorial context to justify its broadcast.”
Playboy defended its programming decisions by noting the channel was within Sky’s “adults-only” section and required a PIN code for access. In addition, viewers were given the option to remove the channel from Sky’s electronic viewing guide. However, Playboy also admitted “Jenna’s American Sex Star” was unsuitable for broadcast “in its current form.”
Playboy said it believed the other shows were acceptable because Ofcom failed to uphold previous complaints against their content. Ofcom responded that previous complaints essentially slipped through the cracks because of “a systems error” in its complaint-handling mechanism.
Playboy began broadcasting on Sky in 2005 and ceased in September 2008.
