No More Live TV

MTV executive says that Janet changed TV forever, in particular no more “live” live TV:

Viewer outrage over singer Janet Jackson’s breast-baring Super Bowl stunt is forcing the U.S. television industry to change its live programming, music channel MTV said Friday.

“The artist sometimes can be unpredictable, which is difficult in a live format. We were absolutely mortified by it,” said Bill Roedy, president of London-based MTV Networks International, part of the U.S. MTV cable network that produced Jackson’s half-time show.

“Everybody’s learning from our misfortune,” he told Reuters in an interview.

….CBS, MTV’s sister company, used an “enhanced delay” on its recent broadcast of the Grammy Awards and Walt Disney Co’s ABC Network plans to implement a similar five-second delay on its Academy Awards broadcast later this month.

In addition to its own time delays, MTV has quietly consigned raunchy material, such as Britney Spears’ video for her new single “Toxic,” to evening from daytime slots.

“We don’t intend to obviously put any strong censorship on our artists as that’s not what we’re about. But when you have an audience which is mass, broad appeal.. then we’re obviously going to be very careful,” Roedy said.

….Whether MTV, owned by media giant Viacom Inc whose CBS unit carried the event, is likely to be invited back to produce any future Super Bowl shows, looks extremely uncertain.

“Whether we’re invited back, I don’t know. Whether we want to go back is another question,” said Roedy.

“Whether Janet Jackson goes back is pretty certain. No.” [Reuters]