Symbols in cable TV program descriptions

Cafe Society
1

Our cable service (WOW!) has the typical listing guide that you can call up on the screen. Another button opens the “Program Description”. Most of it is straight forward: the 2 main stars, a brief synopsis, date of production and running time. Then there is is a line of characters, some of which I don’t get.

It starts off with the type (drama, comedy), rating (TV-14, PG, etc), then a list of capital letters that can include: D,S,L,V. It also may include the Closed Caption symbol, a pair of headphones, a 1 to 3 star rating, and “NEW” and HD.

So what are the D,S,L,V and the headphones?

Dennis

2

DSLV
Suggestive Dialogue
Sexual Situations
Language(cussing)
Violence

3

Ahh, so the more letters the better!

Dennis

4

I believe the headphones indicate that the audio track is in some form of multichannel sound, or stereo. Stereo TV sound is pretty common now, but I remember back in the 80s when stereo TV was just getting started, TV shows that were in stereo would use the headphones as a symbol that the audio was multichannel.