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Where’s my favourite show?

Networks are taking new steps to respond to viewers who are confused, irate or have seemingly better scheduling ideas than Programmers do.

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gofvIt’s a sign of the times.

Networks are taking new steps to respond to viewers who are confused, irate or have seemingly better scheduling ideas than Programmers do.

Last week GO! started a blog on its website to inform and appease viewers who were angry about the disappearance of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Weeds and South Park.

“Don’t fret, all you South Park, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Weeds fans; they will all return November 29th,” it declared.

It makes sense for networks to use the web to communicate with viewers. After all, that’s where many of them wind up when they can’t figure out what’s going on. This week TEN has also shown signs of paying attention to online commentary, first with the early time for The Office, and moving Letterman after reader responses yesterday.

TV Tonight has endeavoured to keep viewers in the loop on programming changes since its inception. It’s nice to see some networks finally following suit.

It would be even better if it wasn’t necessary in the first place…

15 Responses

  2. @tomothy, my GO! EPG has been updated with those changes for ages, so unless they forgot to in your state it may be that your machine has stored the first info provided and not updated the more recent changes, is there any way to clear the EPG on your machine? with mine it updates the EPG once every day but if I tell it to do a software search it will wipe all EPG data and then after I tune to each channel for a short while the EPG reloads with current information. I haven’t had any problems with GO! but I did with 7two, maybe see if there is a way to wipe existing EPG info on your machine and get it to load again fresh.

  3. @jay jay

    What a preposterous statement. This kind of behaviour by the networks predates the internet by a large margin. (anyone else remember trying to keep up with 9’s constant changes and omissions when Star Trek TNG first aired?)

    As far back as I can remember (and that’s getting on for half a century) FTA TV programming has been a hodge-podge. They’ll cut a series midway, change its timeslot or show a series out of order. And why? To compete amongst themselves, at the expense of viewer loyalty. They often cite the requirements of advertisers as the reasoning behind it, but surely losing viewers can’t be good for advertising income in the long run?

    People only download shows because they can’t rely on FTA TV to show them in a timely and/or reliable fashion.

  4. @ Vee

    Curb Your Enthusiasm, South Park and The Office are not “junkie”. They are excellent shows that have been showing in the US for years, and have also won a swag of industry awards. Just because you don’t understand them does not mean they are “junkie”.

  5. @chris and jay jay
    It’s a vicious cycle…
    People are downloading because schedules keep changing.
    Schedules keep changing because people are downloading.

  6. @ jay jay, So are you taking the side of the chicken or the egg?

    Many people wouldn’t find it necessary to download shows if the FTA’s stopped mucking around with their schedules. IMO, the networks were annoying viewers long before downloading become a viable alternative.

  10. I am SO p****d off about Survivor: Tocantins.

    Five episodes a week?! It’s insane. I cant commit that many hours to one show a week. I have a life and like to watch other shows when I get home from wok of an afternoon.

    Five episodes! = Insane

  11. I noticed GO! havent updated their on-screen guides. Last night I was channel flicking and Fringe was on, the OSD said The Wire. Same on Saturday night, it said South Park when there were triple eps of Seinfeld.
    If TEN can adjust the guides for 3 min later start time, then surley Nine/GO! can update theirs to get the actual show correct… Oh, hang on, we are talking about Nine here, they dont care about their viewers, only the number of failed shows that can throw at us in a short space of time.

  13. Be that as it may, when the flawed AusTam (I refuse to insult our country with the epithet oz) ratings mob say a programme isn’t paying its way, programmers will remove it without hesitation without a second thought that it may be someone’s favourite show.

  14. I saw the ‘We listen’ Office ads last night, now lets just see how long it lasts…

    Maybe they finally will also realize they can’t end shows mid season with “Season Final” ads on TV, most fans can easily check and already know how many eps are left, if they haven’t already seen them.

  15. Everyone has just got to keep in mind a show might disappear for a while but it definately will come back.It might no longer be screening on the Primary channel but ratings are not important on Go so viewers input is more important,to try and keep the masses happy,and give the viewers the incentive to switch over to watch the Primary channel

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