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WATERSHED TIMES United Kingdom and Ireland According to Ofcom , the watershed on standard television starts at 9:00pm, and finishes at 5:30am the next morning. On premium film or pay-per-view services requiring a subscription, the watershed starts at 8:00pm. There should be a gentle transition to adult material, and 18-rated material is not allowed to be shown before 10:00pm. ''See also: The Ofcom Broadcasting Code - Section 1 '' Canada The watershed starts at 9:00pm, and finishes at 6:00am the next morning. Sexually explicit content, offensive or strong language and other adult material is not allowed outside the watershed. ''See also: Canadian Broadcast Standards Council '' United States The watershed (or "Safe Harbor") begins at 10:00pm and finishes at 6:00am the next morning (all time zones), though some content (explicit human sexual intercourse and frontal nudity, for example) is never allowed by the would typically be broadcast starting at 9:00pm (using a one-hour tape delay in Mountain time). Because the FCC interprets safe harbor times as local time, some networks would get fined for complying with the law in one part of the country, while breaking the law in other time zones, Such was the case with CBS , who was fined US$3.63 million for a repeat episode of '' Without A Trace '' in December 2004, which was televised at 10PM in the Eastern and Pacific time zones (within the watershed), but at 9PM in Central and Mountain times (outside the watershed). It's these time zones that led the FCC to issue the fines, to be split among 111 CBS affiliates covering these time zones. {Link without Title} In the 1970s , the ill-fated Family Viewing Hour tried to make the 8:00pm-9:00pm hour safe for family consumption, but was overturned in court due to the way it was instituted. See also Adult Swim EXTERNAL LINKS
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