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No sex please, we're DutchTV in the Netherlands cuts back on sex, nudity
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Smut is disappearing from Dutch television. It isn't likely that the Netherlands has become prudish overnight. After all, this is the country that gave the world the voyeuristic "Big Brother" program, a land where prostitution is legal. But lately, bare-skin broadcasting has fallen off to practically nothing. A year ago, at least three commercial channels showed "erotic" programming in the late evening. Now there's only one. Even the teen-oriented public broadcaster BNN has stopped running its sex education series, "Neuken Doe Je Zo," which, charitably and delicately translated, means "This Is How You Mate." Wim Bekkers, director of the Netherlands' Institute for Classifying Audiovisual Media, the Dutch industry group responsible for giving "parental guidance" ratings to television and films, suggests that sex programs are losing their audience to the Internet. "You can find anything there, all kinds of sex, including things that can't ever be shown on television, like bestiality," he said. Lost viewers certainly aren't attributable to parents' groups and religious organizations putting any special pressure on Dutch broadcasters to clean up, he added. "I think it's true of most Western European countries compared with the United States: We're less sensitive to eroticism and sex, and more sensitive to violence." 'Didn't fit with the profile'The trend is different in other European countries, however. In Britain, recent years have seen a rise in programming with sexual content, while Germany and France continue to broadcast erotic television programming in the late evening. But in the Netherlands, SBS Broadcasting cut erotic programming from two of its three channels last year and the third last month. Erotic programming "didn't fit with the profile of our channels," said company spokesman Jeff Pryor. Maarten van Dijk of BNN, which produced "This Is How You Screw," said the program was immensely popular, with its final episode in August drawing a million viewers (in a country of 16 million). The last show featured a segment on "how to have surreptitious sex at a nightclub," narrated by a "sex worker" operating life-size mannequins with sex organs. Van Dijk joked that the episode was for "advanced learners," and said it had sparked a handful of complaints. But he said the show was off the BNN lineup only because it had completed its scheduled run. "If you're constantly being conspicuous, then you don't stand out anymore," he said. 'It's all about money'Mourice Plusquen, a spokesman for pay channel Canal in the Netherlands, said the main reason for SBS' toning down of its programming was financial. "It's all about money. Breasts and explosions draw a lot of viewers, but they also scare away the big advertisers," Plusquen said. He said SBS' commercial-supported stations had increased in popularity to the point where they could win major advertising contracts if they dropped their most provocative programs. But he predicted nudity would soon be back on other channels. "You'll always have the hungry young broadcasters that want to cause a stir," he said. Holland Media Group, the one Dutch company that has continued with erotic programming, said it's going to stick with its "Erotic on Five" show, featuring bare torsos and buttocks, but no explicit sex. "The ratings are pretty good," said spokesman Onno Posthuma, "even if it's not exactly what you'd call a 'blockbuster.' " Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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