Following a notice from the Media Council, Netflix has modified the age rating of a TV series, as communicated by the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) on Thursday.
According to the statement, prompted by a citizen’s report, the Media Council examined the second episode of the first season of the series Locke & Key, available on the streaming service of Netflix, in terms of compliance with classification regulations. The episode was initially made available in Hungary with a 13+ age rating by the media service provider. However, due to violent sexual scenes in the film, the council deemed that the programme should have been classified in a higher age category (not recommended for those under 18). Therefore, the findings of the regulatory inspection were forwarded to the Dutch counterpart authority, the CVDM. The Dutch authority reviewed the entire series and informed the NMHH that the accepted age rating for the series in the Netherlands is 16+, and therefore, the individual episodes should also be made available with this rating in Hungary. Following the investigation, Netflix changed the age rating of the programme to 16+ in its Hungarian media service.
During this week’s session,
the Media Council also imposed sanctions on media service providers for violations in three cases,
they wrote.
Radio Smile failed to fulfil its contractual obligations between 6–12 November 2023, as it did not publish a sufficient amount of textual and musical content, nor did it broadcast programmes serving public purposes. Additionally, it violated its legal obligation regarding the time allocated for broadcasting public service programmes. Therefore, the media service provider, Mosoly Média Nonprofit, was obligated by the council to publish a statement regarding the fact of the infringement.
Tamási Rádió violated its contractual obligations between 11–17 December 2023 by failing to broadcast an adequate amount of public service programmes, as well as programmes concerning local public life and those aiding daily life. As a result, Tamási Rádió was fined 70,000 forints by the council and was obligated to publish a statement.
Jazz TV’s programme for the week of 15–21 January 2024 was subject to regulatory scrutiny, revealing that the Megnyitottunk magazine show which aired on 17 January 2024 presented a winery and its offerings accompanied by additional information in a way resembling advertising tactics. This violated the legal provision prohibiting the dissemination of disguised commercial messages. Therefore, Jazz TV was issued a warning by the council. The Media Council also found that Jazz TV violated its obligation to provide a minimum amount of daily news programmes during the same period. Consequently, the Media Council fined the media service provider 60,000 forints and obligated it to publish a statement.
The statement also informed that the Media Council regularly monitors compliance with the regulations of the Media Act regarding the publication of advertisements. In mid-2011, the authority established an advertising database where advertisements first aired on the most-watched television channels are subject to content analysis. Data collection is conducted based on nearly a hundred criteria, which is unique in Hungary. According to the analysis by the NMHH Programme Monitoring and Analysis Deparment,
in 2023, the examined 77 media service providers aired 5727 new commercials more than 8 million times.
In terms of the number of first-time aired commercials, November has been the strongest month since 2014. This is due to both Black Friday and the proximity of Christmas.
The research also reveals that most new commercials are aired on Mondays, with 1 November being the busiest day of the year with 145 fresh advertisements. Commercials typically last 20–30 seconds. Based on the fact that household consumer decisions are traditionally made by women, advertisements mostly target them. The number of advertisements targeting minors decreased compared to the previous year, and viewers of children’s channels mostly encountered advertisements from major toy manufacturers. Advertisers primarily attempt to appeal to the elderly with medicinal products, and it is also noticeable that, similar to previous years, products valued between one and ten thousand forints were most frequently advertised. In terms of sectoral distribution of advertisements, commerce dominated (42.7 per cent), followed by medicinal products (13.8 per cent), and then leisure (7.4 per cent). The most featured celebrity in 2023 was once again András Csonka, who appeared in 91 different spots for a supermarket campaign.
The research can be found on the NMHH website.
The full agenda of the Media Council’s weekly meetings, as well as the minutes of the meetings and all resolutions, can be found on the council’s website. The latest ones will be made public after the necessary authentication and administrative processing time, as announced by the NMHH.
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Sources: Hungarian Conservative/NMHH
