Nice TV versus nasty TV

What will you be watching in the future: "Nice TV" or "Nasty TV"? Or maybe you'll be bold enough to reach for the "off" switch.

NICE TV

Still in its infancy, so-called "nice TV" has been the response of big name advertisers to the recent trend for "anti-family" programmes.

In America, shows like Temptation Island, in which four unwed but committed couples test their fidelity by frolicking with semi-nude singles, have gone down a storm with viewers, but not advertisers.

This is despite these shows being an advertiser's dream, reaching young audiences with disposable income.

Wildlife programnmes: safe and "nice"

Even such mainstream shows as Friends have drawn the scorn of big business for promoting promiscuity.

Advertisers have begun to square commercial sense with corporate scruples. The danger, they say, is that associating themselves with such programmes could tarnish their brands.

The result is the Family Friendly Programming Forum - created by companies such as Johnson and Johnson, Coca Cola and McDonald's.

It oversees script development for family-friendly shows and has also begun to host an annual awards ceremony, which rewards shows like The Wonderful World of Disney because families can sit together and watch them.

Experts are sceptical whether the push for Nice TV could happen in the UK, citing a greater tolerance for diverse programming in prime time. But so many TV trends which started in the States have crossed the Atlantic, it must be a possibility.

NASTY TV

Excerpts of contestants doing unbelievable things on Japanese television used to be a staple of Clive James programmes. The bizarre acts featured in shows such as Endurance left UK audiences aghast.

But the controversial 1990s chat show The Word, which included stunts such as snogging a granny, set a precedent for homegrown extreme TV.

With friends like these...

Temptation Island, broadcast in the UK on Sky, is only one programme to have been attacked by critics.

Chained is a cross between a reality game show and a dating show. One woman has six men manacled to her, and must decide day by day which man to ditch until there is only one left.

Touch the Truck was a challenge programme in which the contestants had to keep their hands on a stationary truck for hours on end. The last one left standing was allowed to keep the vehicle.

Boot Camp, which has just started in the US and is coming to Britain, puts eight contestants through the gruelling regime of a boot camp - a penal institution designed to give young offenders a short sharp shock.

Whether the taste for reality/challenging programmes is one which will endure is not clear.

Certainly, a glut of shows have tried to match the notoriety of Channel 4's Big Brother, and may well do again this year. Audiences may tire of the revelation that some people - even ordinary folk - will do almost anything to appear on television. But there is no sign of it yet.

NO TV

Appearing to be the modern equivalent of Old Testament prophets - at complete odds with society, usually ignored, but utterly convinced they are right - are the White Dot campaigners.

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Their name derives from the white dot that used to sit in the middle of the screen when a television had been switched off.

Next month the campaign will be staging its annual push to try to convince people they are better off without television. David Burke, author of the campaign manifesto Get a Life, articulated his case in - guess what? - a TV documentary shown on Thursday.

The organisation's website gives a taste of their views. Asking users to state their life ambitions, it replies that whatever they have said is useless because they will never achieve it. Then it asks how many hours users spent watching TV the previous night. The contrast is clear.

"Why are the best-selling programmes always about friends or families? Big, fun groups of people who hang around together and tell jokes? Is your life like that? Nah. You probably stayed in last night, watched some TV and went to bed."

TV programmes - whether they are "nice" or "nasty" - are trying to sell us back the kind of friendship that "it" [television] took away from us in the first place, the campaign says.

Does it stand any chance of success? It claims more than 5 million people, the majority of whom are in America, have taken part in its boycott of the cathode ray tube.