MTV Video Music Awards Content Must Be Rated Accurately

The PTC calls on Viacom to rate next Monday's MTV Video Music Awards TV-MA, for Mature Audiences only, if it contains graphic content. The PTC calls on Viacom to rate next Monday's MTV Video Music Awards TV-MA, for Mature Audiences only, and not as appropriate for young viewers, if the network cannot guarantee that the broadcast will be free of graphic content. The PTC is basing this call on previous history of this routinely explicit awards show. The program will air on August 20, 2018. “Every year, Viacom markets sexually-charged, pro-illegal drug, and profane content to children, and claims they ‘couldn’t have known’ to expect explicit content from its live broadcast. Viacom needs to take this standard excuse off the table right now, and rate the MTV VMAs for Mature Audiences – assuming from the outset that the content will be similarly graphic to what has routinely aired in recent years,” said PTC President Tim Winter. “TV content ratings either mean something or they don’t. It’s laughable that Viacom continues to rate the VMAs TV-14 given the adult content that habitually airs on the show. At what point do you stop being surprised when the same thing happens every single year? “It’s rather simple – Viacom must either rate the VMAs accurately, or it must ensure that the explicit content is edited out for the viewing audience such that the program’s content complies with the content rating.”