TV-MA (Mature Audience Only)

How to read it

TV-MA is the highest of the six TV Parental Guidelines ratings. A TV-MA program may contain crude indecent language (L), explicit sexual activity (S) or graphic violence (V), and the letters after the rating say which: TV-MA-V for graphic violence, for example, or TV-MA-LSV for all three. D, for suggestive dialogue, is not one of the TV-MA letters. The rating is assigned by the network or the program’s producer, not by an outside board. It restricts nothing by itself: it tells a V-chip or a set-top box’s parental controls what to block, if a household has set them to.

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TV-MA and R

The film rating with the same age line is the MPA’s R, under which children under 17 need a parent or adult guardian with them in a theater. A TV-MA rating carries no such rule; whether a TV-MA program is blocked depends on the parental controls in the home.

Uncut films on TV

Premium cable channels such as HBO and Showtime show theatrical films uncut, with their original MPA rating and the channel’s own advisories. Films edited for broadcast or basic cable are given a TV rating instead, so the same film can carry a different rating on television than in theaters. The V-chip can block films by their MPA rating as well.

Streaming services

The TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board has issued guidance on how streaming services can show the TV ratings, and set up a Streaming Task Force with services including Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock and Tubi.