Ofcom Launches Investigation into TV Violence

LONDON: Ofcom has commissioned a study that will look at viewers’ attitudes toward on-screen violence, in an effort to assess whether the amount of violence on British television has increased in recent years.

The investigation will specifically look at shows scheduled before and immediately after the 9 p.m. watershed. The U.K. TV watchdog issued a statement to "remind television broadcasters of the need to ensure that all material broadcast pre-watershed which features violent scenes is appropriately limited."

"Broadcasters should consider whether individual acts of violence within a program are suitable, as well as where the overall tone is malevolent, menacing and threatening, that this also remains suitably limited," the regulator said.

The probe stems from an issue with Channel 4 and Hollyoaks, which breached broadcasting rules in an episode screened in March, at 6:30 p.m., in which a character was killed by a speeding train as part of a revenge plot. Channel 4 said the that story line had been ongoing for around a year and that viewers were notified that a dramatic episode would be broadcast.