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Saturday night repeat

Nine eats up far too many repeats.

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2013-07-19_1808I was scanning tonight’s schedule when I noticed an inordinate amount of repeat content has been programmed on Nine.

6:30 The Great Australian Bakeoff
7:30 Movie: Crocodile Dundee II
9:45 The Bible
10:45 The Bible

I’ll give Nine the benefit of the doubt and presume this is designed to give The Ashes on GEM a thumping big audience. Otherwise if our primary channels are just going to repeat content in primetime they don’t deserve our attention.

TEN is replaying MasterChef and Wanted but at least they are both on ELEVEN and ONE respectively.

Fingers crossed this doesn’t become regular.

16 Responses

  1. Why are some repeated while others only get the one run? Similarly, others like The Following started with encore showings that stopped after a few episodes. The chance to watch a show at a different time is good for those times when it goes up against a long-term commitment.

  2. @carolemorrissey: The difference being that The Block repeats at different times for different audiences. Showing repeats of a show at similar times on different days is just plain stupid.

    Repeats wouldn’t be so prevalent if our networks offered proper cross-platform catchup services that actually encouraged viewers to use them. I don’t even both trying to catch up online if I miss something or forget to record it anymore. They’re all so buggy and the networks don’t have the bandwidth to get a decent quality image out that plays from start to finish without stopping every 2 minutes.

  3. @ David Knox… Re your @davetv rightly deserved reply.
    But could it be possibly also reflecting the worst of many Network attitudes, as this seems to endorse the disrespect, virtually bordering on utter contempt of how some networks repay viewers and possibly some advertisers, by this I ask, does this explain why so many advertised/promo’ed programmes disappear at the last minute, simply because they have already won a ratings week or have no chance of winning?, and should we pay more attention to rating results than to network EPG’s?
    Most of us know that all networks require advertising $$$, to enable us to mostly watch quality TV, so I also ask what about advertisers with scheduled sales/items/offers etc. of their own, who have paid a rate consummate to a predicted high profile programme that is rescheduled at the networks convenience, and if so, could this explain why…

  4. @Russell

    Sorry but I must disagree with some of your examples of, and simplistic explanations.
    Firstly your use of the word “Programing” that possibly infers that most networks formulate and religiously stick to their “Print Media Advertising, Endless Promo’s and EPG Programming Schedules etc.” and sadly all are known for consistent inaccurate realities, be it deliberate,sheer arrogant laziness or even worse actual disrespect towards us their frustrated viewers.
    I for one never rely on programmed repeats as a reliable catch up later options because of much of the above, but am grateful if I can actually catch up on missed minutes of a beginning or an end of so many programmes missed because of disrespectful planned but unprogrammed/ advertised/EPG overruns etc. and are viewers recording 1st runs and watching repeats, again because of network disrespect?

  5. There’s also 3 episodes of Arrow on GO! Plus SBS2 has a whole lot of episodes of Housos from 9.30pm to at least midnight. I don’t think they were normal.

  8. Channel 9 is trying to cuts its costs before it is list on the stockmarket. Repeats of contest shows are more profitable than movies or other shows. Even if they rate a bit less they cost nothing and build the audience for the shows.

    Can’t say I’m particularly concerned about what Nine has on though: the Socceroos are playing Korea, A-league All Stars are playing ManU, The 3rd round of The Open is on, there is a mountain finish in the Tour de France where the podium will be decided and there is the Ashes if I get desperate for more sport.

  9. The point, I think, that David’s making is – repeats of repeats within the same week of first airing. If I wanted to watch Bake Off or The Bible or whatever, then I would have watched it already or would have recorded it.
    Less than half Australians have pay TV. Even then, FTA TV is the most watched provider. Yes, all programs have rerun rights attached. Always have. Yes, we know there’s not enough good first-run programming. Never has been.
    Then there’s the other argument – why would I bother to watch MasterChef, Bake Off, Mole or whatever, during the week, when I know that they will all be repeated over the weekend.
    “if networks don’t repeat their shows – they are throwing away money (the price they pay includes repeats)” – But do they have to repeat the same and so often” Devil Wears Prada, Back to the Future, etc.

  11. Saturday night TV has long been loaded with repeats, particularly the commercial channels. None of them want to ‘waste’ first run material on a night when not enough will see it.

  12. As the Australian Test Team is getting a thumping, I’m less certain of a thumping big audience for GEM. Especially when ManU are on Mate.

  14. I’m glad One is repeating Wanted as 8.30 Monday nights is a bad time for me, and hope it keeps up. The Block gets repeated a million times every week. It’s getting ridiculous.

  15. I think that is a bit of a simplistic view to take.

    The economics of declining viewership of live broadcast television and the fragmented audience of 15 digital channels and 100 cable channels mens a few things

    – There is just not enough programming to go around
    – It is cost prohibetive to provide all new programming every night of the week
    – cheaper repeats save networks money to spend on more productions elsewhere
    – repeat rights often come with deals – if networks don’t repeat their shows – they are throwing away money (the price they pay includes repeats)
    – Networks around the world schedule a large amount of repeats
    – With 115 channels avail in Australia and up to 800,000 people watching digital chanels like Gem now – the fist run telecasts on the main channels get less viewers – therefore there is less chance people have seen the first run. Therefor increasinging the…

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