Some Virgin Media TV customers may have noticed the company apparently censoring content in its menu and guide screens over the weekend. The censorship went as far as censoring the name of London football club Arsenal on Match Of The Day 2:
And it doesn't stop there. Will Smith movie Hancock became HanC**k:
And classic Hitchcock movie The 39 Steps also got the same treatment (thanks to Gerry P for the screengrab):
As has Never Mind the Buzzcocks (hat tip @GeorgiTheBug):
Meanwhile it seems Dickens is not welcome either... an unfortunate state of affairs for Christmas (hat tip @GeorgiTheBug and @Telectroscope):
There were also some asterisks for pop star Jarvis Cocker (hat tip The Mirror):
It seems this censorship was the result of an automated setting. A statement from Virgin Media (sent to Tim Bradshaw at the FT) explained:
"Over the weekend a temporarily over-zealous profanity checker took offence at certain programme titles. The altered titles have been swiftly an*lysed and we're fixing any remaining glitches."
"An*lysed"? The jokers.
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Let's hope they don't have offices in Scunthorpe then...
Posted by: John | Dec 19, 2011 at 13:33
How bizarre! This really is over the top! Surely it must be a technical issue? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a place or team (ie: Arsenal) censored like that before!
Sophie Hobson, deputy editor, LondonlovesBusiness
Posted by: Sophie Hobson | Dec 20, 2011 at 10:13
How bizarre. Even more so that with Hitchcock and Hancock they've used uppercase 'C's..almost trying to denote that the 'Cock' portion of the name is a seperate word.
Heaven forbid that Scunthorpe might make it on to Match of the Day.....
Posted by: JohnnyB | Dec 20, 2011 at 14:05
Wow - some people seriously have too much time on their hands to worry about cr*p like this.
Posted by: Jamaway | Dec 21, 2011 at 12:44
Luckily Scunthorpe weren't playing...
Posted by: PaulM | Dec 21, 2011 at 23:18