Nine may very well still, as for example with the movie Hannibal (2001) it received an investigation from the ACMA some years back for an airing I think on Seven.
So, the opposite happened though originally upon release, it was given MA15+, but was appealed in the too light direction (a religious group or the attorney general etc) and that was upheld, upgraded to R18+, but then for a Blu-Ray in late 2000s it was re-classified and downgraded back to MA15+ (community standards or classifiers perceptions or legalisation mustâve slightly changed in those handful of years).
When the aforementioned FTA airing occured, Seven couldâve therefore theoretically aired it unedited, but in the ACMA report they told them they still edited scenes and took into account all CB reports (the original, review and blu-ray), I guess because it was appealed in still a modern era to R18+ and being commercial TV at a larger viewership time than even 2023, they wanted to be extra careful. Because Seven proved they still made edits, I think thatâs why the ACMA ended up clearing them, although if not, they probably couldâve then pointed to that Blu-Ray as a back-up and also got off.
It should be noted however, Ten definitely severely edited the movie when they showed it in the 2000s (even down to âMâ for an earlier showing in the earliest days of current frameworks - when they were often made as master tapes and language was more heavily removed by networks) and Nine more recently also still made a number of edits - possibly as a fear result of the ACMA investigation.
And on Nineâs airing, they more heavily censored the famous climactic ending scenes in the house, where the late great Ray Liottaâs skull was cut open and pieces of his brain removed and cooked and eaten, which Iâd say is definitely the most graphic and still hard to watch scene in it, even for today, amplifed by Julianne Mooreâs captive surreal and sedated performance in that scene with Anthony Hopkins as well and the music and camera work.
Seven appear to have the âMâ edited theatrical version of King of Thieves (2018) starring Michael Caine, Jim Broadbent, Ray Winstone and Michael Gambon, rather than the unedited âMAâ home entertainment version from Studiocanal, a quick check shows thatâs the only version theyâve aired previously since premiere in December 2021 too.
It contains 150 F-words apparently and more so some C-bombs.
It aired at 7:30pm on 7mate in Sydney and Adelaide tonight. Even stranger considering only two markets. I doubt they edited the unedited version themselves, as theyâd have just made the MA the master and always schedule for 8:30 or later and networks rarely if never edit F-words of a large amount anymore, not done regularly by all networks since the early 2000s, only if thereâs literally just a few (such as editing from M to PG) or removing the C-words.
Nice to see SBS World Movies can show a movie like Point Break (M) at 11am on a Sunday morning. All perfectly legal now. Amazing that Seven/Nine/Ten still arenât allowed to do that.
Funny you mention this very thing, my old man caught late 80s classic The Untouchables with Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro and the late Sean Connery in his Oscar-winning performance in the same channel/timeslot the other week and sat and watched just about the whole thing! He couldnât believe it either.
ACB have awarded Oppenheimer an MA15+ classification and just days out from its release (many trailers still only had âTBCâ), meaning many families wishing to take their older children/teenagers might not realise itâs in fact MA rather than M (I think it has the classification printed on the ticket as well as updated posters/trailers/online session info and legally I believe the staff have to check ID if look under 15 and they are by themselves or all of that age at the window and/or ticket check point - same for R).
I wasnât expecting this to be MA, I thought a well placed M (not even upper limits of M), but apparently there are âsex scenesâ that placed it beyond âmoderate impactâ and therefore the entire film into âstrong impactâ (i.e.) MA. Not content Iâd have expected in this, at least at that level. Christopher Nolanâs previous films have all been M, IIRC. In the US, the last R (equivalent here MA - which this has been given) for a Nolan film was 2002âs thriller Insomnia starring Oscar winners Robin Williams (in a very rare serious and villain role), Hilary Swank and Al Pacino (one of my personal faves, set in insomniac - hence the title - Alaska Investigating a murder and psycho/serial killer).
I said in my comment if theyâre âby themselvesâ I think it more likely will than not forbid them seeing it, as per federal law.
Just because they might be with family or adult supervision, does not necessarily mean those guardians will allow them, many would not, especially if primary school aged (say Grade 5 or 6 in the strong realm of possibility), even if theyâre really eager.
I remember when I was growing up, there were some âMâ I wasnât able to see, even early teenage years and âMAâ was a definite no until at least those ages with supervision but it was more mid/older teen years. My parents and friendsâ parents werenât really all that âstrictâ as such either!
And the MA will obviously also therefore affect the box office performance (vs Barbieâs PG and Indy & MIâs M), especially in the USA with regards to the harsher perceived R, which the studio/producers mustâve been expecting. But according to the ACB details on the link, it seems as though if they removed the sex (was it pivotal to context and plot?) couldâve been a very different outcomeâŚ
Correct, paraphrasing SBSâ codes of practice (current to April 2022), the âdaytimeâ zone for M-rated programs is from 10am-3pm (as opposed to a 12pm start for the commercials and the ABC), and is every day of the week for most of its channels (including the main two). Usually thatâs when the English-language WorldWatch services on SBS1 and Viceland finish, or close enough to.
The âschool daysâ restriction common to commercial TV applies to SBS Food and NITV only, strangely, but it still starts at 10am.
As a point of conjecture, I donât see the commercial networks wanting to change their current 12pm start, when theyâd make more out of the informercial-laden shows that follow breakfast TV (or lack thereof in 10âs case)⌠would funeral insurance ads want to be up against M-rated programs? I guess they probably do on SBS at the same timeâŚ
on the other hand, the Commercial TV code of practice is several years old now and probably ripe for its next shake-up, but I suspect classification is probably out of peoplesâ care when linear TV isnât what it used to be; certainly not compared to other parts of it (gambling advertising, etc). Nothing other than parental control thatâs stopping you watching an M-rated reality series on 7plus at ten in the morning, after all
Paramount Pictures Australia (AKA 10 I guess) have re-submitted a modified version of Killers of the Flower Moon, upcoming Martin Scorsese theatrical release, after the ACB classified the original as MA15+ (this one is now M), it is believed to be due to a shot of an injury that was deemed strong in impact, which has now been removed.
At a staggering and prohibitive run time of 3.5 hours (!), possibly already ruining its box office chances (despite early critic rave reviews for it), perhaps Paramount/10 thought MA would further hurt its performance, so have tried to make sure it has a best chance.
Iâve been noticing just recently, at least according to Foxtel Guide, that a lot of Nineâs classifications no longer appear to be carrying Consumer Advice. While classifications below MA if not a feature (such as a film, telemovie or doco) havenât required this for decades, plenty of movies and MA shows are just showing plain âPGâ, âMâ and âMAâ which had never been allowed. Wonder if this is just a Foxtel error or if the Code has indeed changed again? Will have to pay attention to Nineâs classification warnings (if present) to check.
Nothing saying they have to be in TV guides (anymore), merely that it has to be shown at the start of the program (and of course most donât even bother with the separate slide anymore, Nine generally doesnât).
And the actual letters that used to go into guides (the âL, V, S, etcâ) donât get used anymore either (because they donât have to show it coming out of each break, just the M or MA symbol), the consumer advice is descriptive now.
The cons advice symbols are definitely still provided to guides, print and online even Foxtel and yeah networks seem to have gone less and less as legally possible with classification since various changes the past 8 years, lead by Nine (which is odd as their reg affairs chief has been there for decades and a pioneer in the area - perhaps out of his control though as network heads would want best continuity and not the old 5sec+ full screen/VO warnings like old).
My original point was that Iâd wondered if Nine are no longer providing cons advice on classifications previously where they had to, going off an observarion from Fox Guide.
As part of 2024 ABC Code of Practice, the broadcaster is making minor changes to its multichannel classifications. According to TV Tonight:
ABC TV Plus programming will move from a 7:30pm start to 7pm after ABC Kids. PG programming will remain until 7:30pm when M rated content commences.
ABC ME moves M rated content from 8:30pm to 7:30pm but it will hold off MA content until 9pm (rather than 8:30pm which is what the primary ABC channel offers).
Nine must be airing A View To A Kill unedited tonight on 9Gem, classification says âMâ. They always previously only aired their edited âPGâ version (which had some severe cuts), even when not in a PG zone and often very late at night into an MA zone. Also, they used to always spell/title it incorrectly in EPG as "A View To Kill, but have fixed that too.
