Jimbo, fair enough I will avoid using any problematic words here, although I might need to call on your assistance in how best to describe certain things if any detailed discussions take place ;) .
“It just seems to be endemic in the UK culture”, hmm… I’m not sure that I am entirely convinced by this argument! Fox hunting is endemic in UK culture but will surely disappear before too long. Church attendance was endemic but how many regularly attend today?
Would the TV companies risk public opinion turning against them? Public opinion is already on the side of H/C as demonstrated in the results of the BBFC survey and several other reports. If H/C were to be legalised tomorrow the public would be none the wiser until reports started appearing in the news and even then most of the public don’t care as long as they don’t have to watch it themselves (which they don’t).
Further evidence of change can be seen from Mediawatch who are now loosing members so fast that they will cease to exist in their present form within a year or two. I predict that when the change comes it will make front-page headlines in the Mail, there will be a few chat shows asking people their opinions on both sides and then it will disappear without trace after a week or two. When was the last time there was a news headline about H/C R18 on video?
As for the cost I would imagine it would be cheaper to broadcast H/C at least in the short term. There is a very large amount available now, much less re editing would be required for the UK market and many companies e.g. Playboy already broadcast their own H/C content in Europe. I recon if the go ahead was given for the 1st January we would see H/C content on the 1st January or at the latest by the morning of the 2nd.
If the Government really wanted to stop UK services from broadcasting H/C it would have been relatively easy to add a clause in the Communications Act somewhere stating that R18 content could not be broadcast, or similar.