Porn Channel Horse Whipped

A few days ago on A-rouse I wrote this article where I pondered the levels of censorship and control that UK law has over adult media distribution channels. At roughly the same time it became public knowledge that TelevisionX have had their ass whipped because they transmitted this content on their Sky channel – a huge breach of their license conditions. (UK law prohibits the transmission of hardcore content on broadcast channels.

This is the what they transmitted.

£25,000 is what the transmission of that clip cost them. I knew about the probably fine about three months ago, word gets around in the industry, I just couldn’t say anything because it was effectively sub judice.

So why does UK law prohibit the transmission of such content when it is freely available on the Internet? I would suggest you could go to your local adult store and purchase exactly the same sort of video but only online has the convenience afforded by broadcast channels. In fact online is much more user friendly, discreet and has greater choice. Just to get TelevisionX or Red Hot TV on your Sky box involves ringing a call centre and reading out your credit card details or using the digi-box’s dial-up link. Use their online site or any other VoD site and it’s a much more friendly experience.

As I said in my previous article there has to be control to ensure that minors don’t get to see this but UK law just makes broadcast channels the poor cousin of the online channels – and online channels can be hosted in Russia or China and be subject to no control should an unscrupulous operator be so minded.

Television X are the good guys in that they choose to operate under UK law and bear the consequences if they don’t. Will UK porn laws eventually drive all such channels off-shore, and into the unregulated hell that is refuge for the real criminal purveyors of child porn, rape videos and bestiality?

That said I do have one question. This story has been covered on our sites, various adult industry sites in the UK and US, it even made the BBC news online. For that much publicity £25,000 doesn’t seem like a lot of money.

Tags: pornography, censorship, regulation of adult content, TelevisionX, Red Hot TV