Free TV Australia recently released its annual code complaints report for 2010/2011 and, unsurprisingly, a majority of hits went the way of current affair shows and news programs. Classification, bias and discrimination accounted for most complaint types.
Combined, current affairs and news claim near 50 per cent of complaints, with commercials coming in second at 14 per cent. However, if we lump program promos and ads together, their total hits just over 25 per cent.
In most cases, all of the above were cited by viewers as being classified incorrectly, with 65 per cent of complaints speaking out about inappropriate levels of sex and nudity. Language and violence came second and third at 13 and 12 per cent respectively.
NSW was the source of most complaints at 37 per cent, with Queensland and Victoria tied on 22 per cent. There’s a massive spike in volume from the previous year’s report as this year’s findings are the first to include electronic submissions.
There you have it, paper proof the news and current affair shows are Australia’s most reviled programming. Not that we really needed that evidence.
[Free TV Australia via TV Tonight]
Peter
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 1:50 PMSurprised = no one
Not to say I don’t appreciate the post, but anyone who can rub two brain cells together knows these shows are put together to rile people up.
EMH
Monday, December 5, 2011 at 9:52 AM“…to rile people up.” Please, to rile up people. You should not split your infinitives!
Ben
Monday, December 5, 2011 at 10:03 AMThat infinitive is not split. The verb is “to rile”. A split infinitive would be “to really rile people up”
Ozoneocean
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 2:35 PMYes, I’m not surprised about the complaints regarding sex and nudity on TV. There’s not nearly enough of it!
Me
Monday, December 5, 2011 at 3:29 PMAgreed, there isn’t enough of it but seriously have you noticed how hard sex is on one of these new fangled LCD screens? They are so thin…very hard to balance.
Lord Crumplebottom
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 2:40 PM… and yet, the majority of people will believe whatever they are spewing out that night.
People in general are stupid animals. If they weren’t I’d be out of a job :)
Dan Miller
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 3:34 PMI would think the biggest complaint about news is we have we to much of it on FTA. Channel 10 and ABC I’m looking at you.
RealView
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 6:18 PMhmmm I rarely watch ACA/TT etc as I don’t have a TV but I must say when I do watch I enjoy them.
Of course I enjoy a good riling up but then I’m not a member of the misinformed & far too vocal do-gooder minority.
Hmmm maybe Matt White could do TT nude & people could get riled up & “riled up”.
Nathan
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 9:10 PMI am sick of blatant paid advertising being served up by ACA/TT as current affairs. I am surprised they are allowed to even get away with this misleading practice.
smurfydog
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 9:38 PMIt’s interresting to note that what most concerns Australians in 2011 is STILL Nudity > Language > Violence.
ie; ‘The human body’ is worse than ‘the spoke word’ is worse than violence.
Surely this is the wrong way around?
MotorMouth
Monday, December 5, 2011 at 4:44 AMYou’re assuming these programmes show these things in equal measure. I don’t think you see very much violence on TV, outside of news broadcasts, which you can hardly complain about. OTOH, there is a lot of bad language on at times when young children are likely to be watching, which is not good.
Thom
Monday, December 5, 2011 at 11:27 AMI can’t recall the study, but I believe there are four on-screen deaths shown on American TV for every nipple. I think its closer to twenty-to-one for on screen acts of violence.
light487
Monday, December 5, 2011 at 8:23 AMYou have to wonder about the numbers though.. who actually goes to the bother of complaining, rather than channel-switching or turning it off altogether, about this stuff?… Need I say more?
Owen
Monday, December 5, 2011 at 9:54 AMPeople complain about TT and ACA because it’s fear-mongering at its worst. The more complaints, hopefully the sooner the ACMA gets involved and either shuts this shit down or neuters it so we can stop pandering to the lowest common denominator and letting people feel entitled to be homophobic, xenophobic, rah rah rah. (wow that sentence just kept going)
Thom
Monday, December 5, 2011 at 11:28 AMA lot of the complaints against ACA and TT relate to racism. This can cause problems even for people who don’t watch it.
Sam
Monday, December 5, 2011 at 2:57 PMWere there complaints against the amount of ads on FTA? Surely I’m not the only one that doesn’t like to have to watch 14 ads in a row when I watch a show?