The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is launching a new inquiry into the TV ratings system, including whether content related to gender identity is not adequately flagged for parents, in the latest warning shot to broadcasters from the agency headed by the Trump loyalist Brendan Carr.<\/p>\n
The new proceeding, announced on Wednesday, asks for public comment on the transparency of the TV Oversight Management Board, which oversees the rating system and guidelines. That system was developed after Congress passed a law in 1996, leading to the creation of numerous ratings such as TV-Y, for programs deemed appropriate for all children, and TV-MA, for mature audiences.<\/p>\n
The so-called \u201cindustry voluntary rating system\u201d is used by broadcast networks overseen by the FCC, as well as cable, satellite and streaming services, which are not subject to the same guidelines.<\/p>\n
In its public notice of the new inquiry, the FCC singled out non-binary and transgender topics as an issue of concern. According to the agency\u2019s media bureau, \u201cparents have raised concerns that controversial gender identity issues are being included or promoted in children\u2019s programs without providing any disclosure or transparency to parents. Specifically, the industry guidelines that parents rely on are rating shows with transgender and gender non-binary programming as appropriate for children and young children, and doing so without providing this information to parents, thereby undermining the ability of parents to make informed choices for their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement added: \u201cConsistent with Congress\u2019s vision for the ratings system, we seek comment on whether the industry\u2019s approach is continuing to provide the information that is relevant to parents today.\u201d Among the questions posed to the public are: \u201cAre parents aware that children watching programs rated TV-Y, TV-Y7 and TV-G may contain the discussion or promotion of gender identity themes? Should such programming be rated differently or contain relevant descriptions so that parents can make informed decisions?\u201d<\/p>\n
The agency is also seeking public input on potential disparities in ratings for different platforms, and in particular whether streaming services are \u201cmore broadly interpreting what is allowable in categories intended for audiences under TV- Y14\u201d.<\/p>\n
The gender-focused inquiry, widely seen as part of the administration\u2019s larger efforts to police gender identity, is the latest move by the FCC, under Carr to threaten freedom of speech limitations on broadcasters. In March, Carr threatened<\/a> on X that he might cancel the spectrum permits of broadcasters pushing what he called \u201choaxes and news distortions\u201d over the war in Iran. \u201cBroadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not,\u201d Carr wrote<\/a>, echoing comments he has made previously. He also copied a Truth Social post by Trump complaining about \u201cmisleading\u201d coverage on the war in Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n The widely shared threats drew condemnation from congressional Democrats as well as the Republican senator Ron Johnson, who voiced his support of press freedom and said: \u201cI do not like the heavy hand of government, no matter who\u2019s wielding it.\u201d<\/p>\n This was not the first time Carr\u2019s proposed interventions drew widespread outcry. In September 2025, Carr courted bipartisan backlash after he pressured television networks and broadcasting syndicates to \u201ctake action\u201d against ABC\u2019s late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over his comments about the slain rightwing activist Charlie Kirk. \u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way,\u201d Carr said.<\/p>\n Nexstar and Sinclair, two major carriers of ABC programming, quickly announced plans to pre-empt Kimmel\u2019s show, forcing ABC to put it on temporary hiatus. After public backlash, ABC decided to bring Kimmel back<\/a> the following week, and both Nexstar and Sinclair followed suit<\/a>. Carr later claimed<\/a> that he never \u201cthreatened\u201d networks.<\/p>\n Public comments for the new FCC inquiry into ratings are due on 22 May, and reply comments a month later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is launching a new inquiry into the TV ratings system, including whether content…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-405499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}