Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 2, 1994                   TAG: 9402020077
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

NETWORKS TO RATE TV SHOWS

The broadcast television industry announced plans for an independent monitoring system to assess the amount of violence on the tube.

Cable television went a step farther, agreeing to begin rating its programs for violence and endorsing technology that would permit parents to block violent shows from their homes.

The agreement has been endorsed by a large number of cable channels, including Bravo, Disney, HBO, MTV, The Nashville Network, Playboy and The Weather Channel.

The two major industry segments held news conferences on Capitol hill in an effort to derail proposals to legislate limits on violent broadcasts.

And Sen Paul Simon, D-Ill., said he plans to drop current efforts to pass a bill restricting violent shows, though he left the door open to trying again if independent monitoring doesn't result in improvement.

But beyond an independent monitor and being opposed to gratuitous violence, cable operators and broadcasters had trouble finding much common ground.

The biggest difference focused on rating shows and finding ways to limit children's access to them, with cable endorsing ratings and blocking technology, while the broadcasters declined to join in.

"This is the dawning of a new era. . . . They are to be congratulated," Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House telecommunications subcommittee, said at the news conference where cable companies announced the plans to rate their programs.