Playboy TV MD: 'TV watershed is a nonsense'

Playboy TV UK managing director Jeremy Yates has said that the TV watershed is a "nonsense" and called for a change in the way adult broadcasting is regulated.

Speaking last night at an event organised by broadcast operator Chello DMC and Broadcast magazine, Yates said that it will be a "bit odd" to regulate TV when the "open internet" comes to the small screen.

Currently, media regulator Ofcom imposes strict rules on the broadcasting of adult TV content, particularly before the 9pm watershed, with harsh punishments for any violations.

Earlier in the month, Playboy TV and its subsidiary Just4Us TV were fined £110,000 by Ofcom for airing "adult sex" chat advertisements that featured sexually provocative footage.

In May, the broadcaster also lost its bid to make two 'hardcore' adult video websites exempt from UK video on-demand regulation, after Ofcom ruled in favour of fellow watchdog ATVOD.

Yates feels that because adult broadcasters such as Playboy are so tightly regulated, they are losing ground to the internet, where there is an 'anything goes' mentality.

Most connected, or IP-enabled, TV sets currently provide internet services via applications, such as BBC iPlayer or YouTube, but Google launched a system in the US last year, called Google TV, that features a web browser for accessing any content on the web.

Playboy currently operates a number of video on-demand services, but the broadcaster still relies heavily on its portfolio of TV channels to reach the audience.

Yates said that the TV watershed at 9pm is a "nonsense", largely because "there is no watershed on the internet".

"I'd like to see a change that allows us to compete with the internet," he said at the event on multi-platform distribution methods.

"If someone who is a responsible adult who wants to watch our content at 5pm in the afternoon, why shouldn't they?"

Yates said that Playboy takes "extremely seriously" its responsibility to ensure adult content is not watched by children, but he feels that there should be more options available to ensure the firm can stay competitive.

He suggested adult content shown during the day could be given a second PIN number on digital TV to increase security, but accepted that gaining approval for such a scheme will be hard.

"I'll keep banging the drum anyway," Yates added.

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