The Parents Television and Media Council (PTMC), formerly the Parents Television Council (PTC), was an American media advocacy group founded by conservative political pundit L. Brent Bozell III in 1995, which advocates for what it considers to be responsible, family-friendly content across all media platforms, and for advertisers to be held accountable for the content of television programs that they sponsor. The PTMC officially describes itself as non-partisan.
The PTMC produces reviews, research reports, and online newsletters that highlight television programs and other entertainment products (such as music videos and video games) based on their suitability for family viewing. The PTMC has advocated for cable television networks to be subject to the same decency rules as broadcast television, and for television providers to allow subscribers to purchase channels on an individual basis. The group has also been critical of the TV Parental Guidelines system, often deeming the ratings given by broadcasters to be inaccurate in comparison to their own assessments of a program's content.
It has mounted pressure campaigns against the producers, broadcasters, and sponsors of programming that they perceive to be indecent or harmful to children (such as those containing undue sexual content, profane language, and violence); these campaigns typically include the organized mass mailing of form letters and emails to advertising sponsors of unapproved programs, organized mass filing of complaints via the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) website complaint form, and direct threats of long, potentially costly FCC license challenges to local network affiliates planning to broadcast what the council considers harmful network programming.
Throughout its existence, the Parents Television and Media Council has been accused of promoting censorship. In 2004, the FCC reported that the group was the primary source of most content complaints received by the commission. Beginning around 2008, donations to the organization declined, forcing job cuts. In 2025, the PTMC filed for bankruptcy.
History
In 1989, the Media Research Center (MRC) began monitoring the entertainment industry for alleged liberal bias through its Entertainment Division and newsletter TV, etc. MRC founder and president L. Brent Bozell III later felt that "decency" was declining on most prime-time television programming. The PTC began operations in 1995 following private planning meetings with Charlton Heston, Michael Medved, and others in the entertainment industry, who would eventually make up the advisory board of the PTC. After the release of its first annual Family Guide to Prime-Time Television following the 1995–1996 television season, the PTC hoped to hold the entertainment industry accountable for the indecency that it perceived to be prominent on prime-time television. By 1996, the organization had the support of several members of the U.S. Congress, including Joe Lieberman and Lamar S. Smith, and an estimated annual budget of $142,000.
By 1998, with an estimated membership of 120,000, comedian and former The Tonight Show host Steve Allen joined PTC as its Honorary Chairman, and PTC released a report questioning the accuracy of the TV Parental Guidelines ratings system and campaigning for advertisers to stop sponsoring programs that the PTC claimed were offensive. Allen launched a newspaper advertisement campaign promoting the PTC, which was published in many outlets including The New York Times. The PTC was noted for criticizing such shows as Ally McBeal, Dawson's Creek, Ellen, Friends, and Spin City." Its website was also introduced that year, and its annual budget had already surpassed $1 million. PTC rolled out another round of full-page newspaper advertisements in 1999; San Francisco Examiner television columnist Tim Goodman perceived Allen and the PTC of advocating complete censorship of television to allow only what PTC considered "Family-Safe TV".
The PTC lost nearly $1 million in 2008 and in 2009 received $2.9 million in revenue, a 29% drop from the previous year. In 2009 and 2010, the PTC cut its staff by 38 percent to save money.
On April 14, 2021, the organization changed its name to the Parents Television and Media Council "to better reflect its mission to advocate for responsible entertainment on all entertainment media platforms".
In 2023, the PTMC received about $1.6 million in donations, compared to $4.7 million in 2007.
On October 3, 2025, the PTMC filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the U.S. bankruptcy court for the District of Delaware. The Los Angeles Times commented: "The group’s demise reflects broad cultural changes, including a fractured media environment and consumers’ shift to streaming and social media apps such as TikTok for entertainment."
Leadership
PTC was founded in 1995 by longtime political activist L. Brent Bozell III. Bozell is a prominent conservative activist who has, among other things, served as executive director of the Conservative Victory Committee, a political action committee that has supported the election of dozens of conservative candidates. He was also National Finance Chairman for Pat Buchanan's 1992 presidential campaign, and later president of the National Conservative Political Action Committee. Bozell was succeeded as PTC President by Timothy F. Winter. Winter served as executive director of the PTC for three years prior to becoming president. Prior to joining the PTC, Mr. Winter's 20-year career as a media executive included positions with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and NBC. Until 2015 when his position was terminated, Dan Isett, Director of Corporate and Government Affairs of the PTC, represented the PTC on the Consumer Advisory Committee of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Advisory board The PTC also has an advisory board consisting of politicians and entertainers working to assist the council in their goal of protecting children against profanity and violence in the media. Notable members of the advisory board have included singer Pat Boone, former football player Mel Renfro, writer-producer Coleman Luck, country musician Billy Ray Cyrus, comedian and actor Tim Conway of CBS's The Carol Burnett Show, former U.S. Senator from Kansas and 2008 presidential candidate Sam Brownback, film critic Michael Medved, star of 1980s soap opera Dallas Susan Howard, and ION Television producer Gary Johnson. In addition, the PTC has established numerous local chapters for most American media markets. Notable former advisory board members include - both of whom are now deceased - comedian Steve Allen, original host of NBC's The Tonight Show, and C. Delores Tucker, participant in the Civil Rights Movement and activist against gangsta rap music; Allen is now given the title of National Honorary Chairman-Emeritus. Bahçeşehir University associate professor Christian Christiansen questioned the backgrounds of certain PTC advisory board members as not consistent with their stance on morality.
Publications
Columns and reports The website of the PTC features reports on what the group says is harmful content on television and regular writings from its staff. Their research is done with the support of their Entertainment Tracking System, an archive of prime-time television programming that they claim is the largest in the world."Saving the World's Largest Archive of Prime-Time Television". Parents Television Council. Retrieved April 12, 2007. Such publications include: "Culture Watch" – Throughout 2005 and 2006, the PTC published columns under this series authored by Christopher Gildemeister, covering the influence on American culture by entertainment as well as exposing the increase in sex, violence, and profanity in cable television and the methods used by advertisers and broadcasting companies to attract young audiences. In a December 2005 column of his, Advertising Age columnist Simon Dumenco criticized the PTC, arguing that the PTC is "very very afraid of gay TV characters". Gildemeister defended the PTC as being "not homophobic" but simply opposed to "sexual references or innuendo (of any variety, hetero, homo or other) aired where children might be exposed to them." "Parenting and the Media" authored by Rod Gustafson, where he offers advice on parenting children who frequent the media. "TV Trends" – Another column by Christopher Gildemeister, published since October 2007 intending to inform parents and TV viewers in general about what he determines to be "harmful or questionable prime-time programming." Hartford Courant television critic Roger Catlin quoted Gildemeister as criticizing ABC for having an "apparent fetish for transsexuals" in certain programs. Former president Bozell's weekly entertainment column, which it links to within the home page
In 2000, PTC's report What a Difference a Decade Makes allegedly stated that there was an increase in profanity, sex, and violence on television during the 1990s. The report also claimed that references to homosexuality increased the most during that decade – by a factor of 24. In 2002, the PTC released a report claiming that there was an increase in profanity on network programming shown during the first hour of prime time. In a 2006 report titled Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, analyst Kristen Fyfe reported an increase in violent, profane, and sexual content in children's programming. Among its results, based on research during summer 2005, the PTC stated that Teen Titans was the most violent program, and claimed Cartoon Network had the most violent incidents. Richard Huff of the New York Daily News criticized the report for misinterpreting an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, "Sailor Mouth", over its intent to satirize profanity implicitly.
Following the 2005–06 television season, PTC issued a report Faith in a Box that analyzed depictions of religion in primetime television. The study stated that most positive references to religion were on reality shows such as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, while claiming that scripted shows tended to be more negative towards it. The report also ranked Fox as the "most anti-religious network", followed by NBC, UPN, ABC, CBS, and the WB. In 2008, PTC published a report titled Happily Never After, using analysis of several primetime shows early in the 2007-2008 television season that asserted that extramarital sex was more favored on television shows during that time period. Ian O'Doherty of The Irish Independent asked regarding the PTC's marriage depiction study: "After all, would you rather watch people having fun or would you rather watch a realistic depiction of marriage, which ... would simply be an hour of two people sullenly chewing their food, pausing occasionally only to throw each other filthies and occasionally grumbling under their breath how the biggest regret of their life was ever setting eyes on you and that their mother was right all along?" PTC released a report in October 2009 stating that prime-time television shows on broadcast networks had twice as many depictions of violence against women in 2009 than in 2004.
In November 2010, the PTC released a study, Habitat for Profanity: Broadcast TV's Sharp Increase in Foul Language, which claims that there was a sharp rise in the usage of profanity between 2005 and 2010—during the 8 pm to 9 pm ET/PT time period commonly referred to them as the Family Viewing Hour, the PTC claimed that there were 111 instances of profanity during this hour in 2010 versus 10 in 2005; during all of prime time, 276 instances in 2010 against 11 in 2005. The study claimed that there was a 69.3% increase in prime time in general between 2005 and 2010, with the Fox network being heavily accused of bringing a 269% increase for the network during that period. The study also claimed instances in which there was profanity, but the offending word was bleeped out.
Entertainment reviews and analysis