Peta Thornycroft
While Ma and Pa are out on the town=20 boogying on Friday nights, their sons and=20 heirs are making whoopee back at home.
At least 70 000 pre-pubescent and teenage=20 boys, between the ages of seven and 15, are=20 watching M-Net’s soft porn slot, Love=20 Street. In an analysis of TV audiences=20 between June 1 and August 3, the Friday=20 night 10.45pm slot scored solid audience=20 ratings (ARs) of 3,5 with this group of=20 mostly white, indian and coloured boys.=20
Telmar Media Systems analysed data from=20 People Meter and found the popular daily=20 serial Egoli often scores a similar=20 audience rating. The highest audiences from=20 this age group for the same nine-week=20 period on the pay channel were nine ARs for=20 FX the Series and 7,5 for Hangin’ with Mr=20 Cooper.
Telmar also found white, coloured and=20 Indian girls also occasionally enjoyed the=20 raunchy half hour which alternates with the=20 Playboy production Red Shoe Diaries.=20
M-Net’s audiences are overwhelmingly from=20 the advantaged white sector, but where=20 blacks do have an encoder, only a few boys,=20 and no girls, watch the soft porn=20 productions which are short on story lines=20 and dialogue and heavy on homilies, horse=20 riding and steamy shower scenes.