TV News

Britain's Channel 4 gave viewers an inside look at the U.K. adult industry in October when it aired the four-episode drama series Adult Material . Now, American fans will get to see the porn-themed series for themselves, when the series debuts on the HBO Max streaming service December 11.

The series stars British actress Hayley Squires as Jolene Dollar, a fictional, aging porn performer who struggles to balance a career in the adult industry with the responsibilities of motherhood to her three children. Veteran actor Rupert Everett co-stars as a porn producer who oversees Jolene Dollar's scenes.

UK critics responded enthusiastically to the show, with one saying that Adult Material, raises big questions about sex, consent and power -- and will have you both laughing and crying.

Adult Material has also been sold to Australia's SBS Viceland where the first episode was broadcast on 1st December.

Erect penises appeared on broadcast television on Monday reportedly for the first time in a new taboo-shattering Channel 4 documentary. Me & My Penis , which aired at 10pm, showed footage of eight erections as men pose for naked photographs while discussing male issues.

The erections are shown in an entirely artistic photographic context, and Channel 4 feels that filming them doesn't break any rules.

The subjects filmed for the documentary are photographed by London-based British artist and fine art photographer Ajamu, whose radical portraits of the male body have pushed boundaries and provoked cultural debate.

While he shoots their intimate photographs, the men discuss their varied experiences -- from the pleasures of sex to stories of infertility and sexual abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, homophobia and mental health. The programme, which airs at 10pm, will show footage of eight erections as men pose for naked photographs while discussing male issues.

Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has previously said there is no ban on showing erections on TV, but it would have to be justified by the context.

1300 complaints were sent to the US TV censors of the FCC about Shakira and J.Lo's Super Bowl halftime show

The Federal Communications Commission received 1,312 complaints from viewers whingeing about the sexy dancing of Shakira and Jennifer Lopez.

The singers danced on poles, twerked, belly-danced and made more than a few sexually suggestive gestures.

Some of the complaints claimed that their children were exposed to a 'porno' show. Other adults claimed the show encouraged sex trafficking. And some people were upset that no public warnings were given before the show, which one viewer said was less a musical act than an X-rated strip club performance.

A lot of the complaints included threats about boycotting Pepsi. Well, not even just Pepsi. People said they planned to also boycott the Super Bowl, its halftime shows and even the entire NFL.

Ofcom has imposed a £75,000 fine on Talksport Ltd in relation to its service Talk Radio for failing to comply with our broadcasting rules, and required the service to broadcast a summary of our findings.

Between 16 March and 6 August 2018, Talk Radio broadcast three episodes of the George Galloway programme dealing with the following issues: the poisoning of Yulia and Sergei Skripal in Salisbury on 4 March 2018, and allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

In Ofcom's Decisions published on 28 January and 25 March 2019 in issue 371 and issue 375 of the Broadcast and On Demand Bulletin, Ofcom found that each of the three programmes failed to maintain due impartiality and had breached Rules 5.11 and 5.12 of the Broadcasting Code.

Ofcom has also imposed a £20,000 fine on Baltic Media Alliance Limited in relation to its service NTV Mir Baltic for failing to comply with our broadcasting rules. The broadcaster must also broadcast a summary of our findings on the channel.

On 2 April 2018, Baltic Media Alliance Limited broadcast a news programme, Today, which included a discussion about the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury on 4 March 2018.

In Ofcom's Decision published on 11 February 2019 in issue 372 of the Broadcast and On Demand Bulletin, Ofcom found that the programme failed to maintain due impartiality and had breached Rules 5.1, 5.11 and 5.12 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code.

German public broadcaster WDR 2 issued an apology for showing a video of a children's choir singing a humorous, traditional tune rewritten with satirical lyrics.

The song, titled My grandma is an old environmental pig, triggered heated reactions on Twitter. One user described the lyrics as disrespectful, whilst a WDR news editor said the remake of the traditional tune was scandalously good.

The lyrics, including verses about grandma riding a motorcycle that burns a thousand liters of gasoline every month and eating a cutlet every day because meat from the discount supermarket is so cheap, include the refrain, My grandma is an old environmental pig. The video ends with a quote from teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg: We will not let you get away with this.

In response to complaints the broadcaster deleted the video saying:

We are concerned by the allegation that the children involved may have been 'instrumentalized'. This is absolutely not the case, but we decided to delete the video.

But of course that was not the end of the matter. The decision to take down the video was widely criticised. In an open letter about 40 TV authors have expressed their solidarity with the makers of the video, demanded it be immediately reposted and accused the WDR director of falling into the trap set by right-wing trolls and abandoning his staff.

In fact the WDR editor's office also supported the producers of the video and sharply criticized the censorship saying:

We are stunned that the program director of WDR 2 has a video with a satirical children's song deleted, and above all about the fact that director Tom Buhrow gives in so easily to a shitstorm apparently orchestrated by right-wing extremists, hastily distances himself editorially and not only apologizes in person, but also publicly (and repeatedly) in the process, instead of backing them up in the face of staged outrage against WDR and the other public broadcasters. According to the editors' representatives, the internal freedom of broadcasting had thus been violated.

Most national retailers in Thailand have just stopped handing out free plastic carrier bags to shoppers on January 1st

In the run up to the big day Thai TV added plastic bags to their list of social vices that must be optically censored, previously guns, alcoholic drinks, and cigarettes.

Perhaps the TV companies would have more of an effect blurring out cars, motorbikes, airplanes, air conditioners and meat.

Anyway the censorship has caused much derision on social media and the Thai environment minister stepped in to support the censorship.

National Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa said it was easy for the online community to criticise this act of self-censorship by TV stations. He defended the broadcasters' "well intentioned" efforts by comparing it to the censorship of alcohol and cigarettes.

Alanis Morissette was invited to appear ABC's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest. She was joined by the cast of her new Broadway musical J agged Little Pill .

But the producers had clearly done no research into what they may expect from the performance. When she took to the stage in Times Square on Tuesday night, those fans were no doubt thrilled to see a performance of  Morissette's 1995 single You Oughta Know.

Or at least they were until they realized that some of the song's edgier lyrics had been removed entirely, while seemingly random lyrics were bleeped, including the word perverted in the lyric Is she perverted like me?

A viewer pointed out that the excised lyrics actually appear intact when the song receives radio play throughout North America. Another tweeted:

Our president says horrible things every day that @ABC reports, but on @ABC you can't ask if she would go down on you in a theater.

ABC also censored the line: An older version of me for reasons not quite clear.