Audience Inventory: early trends
Early trends in TV Tonight's Audience Inventory show delayed starting times and too many ads on Pay TV are amongst the burning issues.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News, Subscription
Votes have been pouring in for the TV Tonight Audience Inventory 2010.
Readers have been voicing their opinion on the state of the Aussie TV industry, the conduct of networks, programming and other issues.
In early trends, viewers don’t seem to be particularly offended by Violence, Sexual Content or Strong Language.
The most important issue in Pay TV so far is in having all the Free to Air channels made available to viewers.
Having less ads is also proving a hot topic.
– “I left Foxtel cause there were more promos & commercials than FTA! WTF? Foxtel is so lame it’s incredible.”
– “Make it no ads on Foxtel.”
In Free to Air the burning issue so far in results is networks failing to finish a series once it starts. Starting / Finishing shows on time is also polling strongly.
– “I just wish shows would start when they are scheduled to start.”
– “My main problem with FTA tv is the lack of commitment to running series – Dexter, Monk, Nurse Jackie etc etc.”
– “I want honesty not flowery bullshi** Programmes that are advertised must start on time and play the whole series through from 1st ep to last (in order) and do not stick a repeat in every 3rd week.”
– “Programming execs are terrible at giving viewers their programs on time, and the full run.”
– “Not starting on time and not finishing show once they’ve started needs to stop. Getting better with multi channels. Main channels should be in hd, though/”
– “Frustrating when shows do not start or finish on time and do not consider viewers want tyo watch other channels. This screams arrogance and disrespect for the viewers.”
– “Rarely watch FTA due to too many ads, on screen clutter, squeezing credits, pop up ads, Foxtel has none of this and thats why I love it.”
– “It seems that the channels are not listening to the viewers are surprised when their shows dont get the viewers they want. I dont blame people from watching overseas shows other ways.”
– “After The Gruen Transfer finishes, I may as well unplug the aerial.”
If you want to cast your vote, you have until next Monday. There are 27 questions which take around 10 minutes to complete.
Share
- Tagged with The Gruen Transfer
30 Responses
Zambora I guess it’s fair to say there are always going to be some answers I would have tipped, plus some surprises. Not really giving you the answer you probably wanted!!
Pop-up adverts on Foxtel and FTA are annoying. And watermarks that are too big and colourful are a nuisance.
David, I started to fill in your survey but quickly realised that I would be outlier to the rest of the other entries. However, I would like to participate anyway even just here in the comments section.
I don’t watch TV on either free to air or pay TV channels. My complete viewing of TV shows either comes from torrents/downloads, DVDs, and recently online catch-up TV (which currently has only extended to the TEN website). For some reason my apartment is not wired up to receive TV reception (except for Foxtel which I don’t believe is worth the high subscription fees I would pay for only a handful of shows I would actually watch) so for the past 3.5 years this has what I have been doing. I use your website as well as others to determine what new shows are coming up and what I would be interested in watching. I am not restricted to watching shows at predetermined times. I am not affected if the show gets shuffled around, bumped, or removed from the schedule due to low ratings.
I am sure that there are a small proportion of people on this website whose TV viewing habits are like mine but I still wanted to express my views anyway 🙂
I got Foxtel originally on promise of no ads, how quickly we were deceived.
that there is no such thing as an all Australian programming channel !!!
We definitely have enough of a back catalogue of shows and movies and mini series to showcase an Aussie channel.
Some kind of channel supplying many past favourite Aussie Tv shows. Something that steps away from too much American shows. an Aussie channel !!Uk.tv used to screen 2 Australian shows on it .Since then I thought why can’t these just be on a full Aussie channel instead of hiding amongst the british shows??
For example – Cop Shop or The Sullivans reruns I would rather watch than brand new shows like Cops Lac or Rescue Special ops.
David, I know you keep open mind on most things Television but “how did audience survey results and views compare with your own thoughts ?
two words – Gossip Girl
That is all.
Amazing all this complaining – if your not happy then smash the tv and go to the movies – stop complaining and accept the way things are
i must say im disappointed at Nine for the disasterous programming because that they kill off a favourite show of mine and have place it at a later time slot during the night. As a result of a movie and no leed in. Respect should be given especially if a show is heading towards the end of the series and has been a staple for the network for at least 7 years, now really improvements need to be made now to fix it other wise audiences may look else where.
The two issues mentioned about FTA channels are my main reasons for frustration with the networks. One of the reasons I don’t watch new series is because I think it’s going to be pulled. I wanted to watch Glee when it first started, but chose not to, because 10 is known to pull shows so quickly, particularly in the teen genre category e.g 90210 (how was I to know it would be success??).
I am stick of commercial stations for delayed times. I was a big DH fan but so sick of it running over by 10 mins every week!! Home and Away runs late every day except Friday and Rush always starts about 8 minutes late!
Thanks to the ABC who runs shows on time and has the decency to show the credits and not have pop up windows in the middle of their shows.
I think I’m going to do the survey too, so show my disappointment in FTA TV.
The effect in recent years of FTA’s delaying program starts (and having more ads/station promos meaning things finish late) has been (for me at least) to record everything i want to watch on FTA to my harddrive.
i then watch it later and skip 30 seconds a time (my PVR has a button for +
30secs) until the show is back on.
this means i havent seen a tv commercial for about 3 years now – eg i never saw one election ad except for what was on gruen nation!!
so in my experience, its not working (i dont watch their ads and i dont miss shows which overlap as i record them too)
@freddy
I agree, nothing I hate more then watching a show I am not interested in for 10+mins after my show was supposed to to start. Or worse is when they dont show the advertised program at all – the other night I watched XFactor for 15 minutes waiting for American Dad to start because the EPG and Channel Sevens website both said American dad was on!
@ AJ, I allow at leats 15 mins after a show is meant to finish, and I still miss the end Sometimes Ridiculous. If I was 15 mins late continuously to work I would be sacked!!!
Pick up your game networks and show respect for viewers!!
@ Freddy, I agree. i feel that legislation needs to be made to control Channels. Especially the balatant late times!!!
@ryan, i agree with where you are coming from. people are not paying the networks anything, they don’t owe anything to their viewers. if people aren’t happy they can just switch of and it will be their own loss.
on the starttime issue, doesn’t really effect me as much as people ar making it seem. sure during advertising they round to the nearest 30min. but there is an EPG to check if those minutes are so precious and want something more accurate. and therefore doesn’t screw up recording. on my PlayTV a box pops up to tell when a recording starts/ends and if i am watching the show at the same time it is pretty accurate, usually to the second. but i see ch9 seem to turn their real time EPG’s on and off last week it was good but last night it wa back to 7:30,9:00,11:00 ect. <that is annoying, i thin 9 are the only ones like that.
People complain about fta but it’s free, it’s a pretty dam good service that we don’t have to pay for
@GuanoLad : Don’t assume because it starts at 7:30 that it is a 1hour show, it was advertised as finishing at 8:40pm (in my guide data), as far as i could tell it didn’t run overtime.
They don’t advertise the end time in promos but maybe they should be forced to (along with sticking to the times, and cutting ads if they are running late).
Since the TV companies give out the advertised times, why is it that they cannot be charged with false and or misleading advertising?
Sunday’s TAYG started at exactly 7.30, but finished ten minutes late, causing me to miss the start of Midsomer Murders.
There’s no excuse for that; it’s a local show, it has a strict edited length, all ad breaks accounted for. It’s clearly deliberate, and I resent the commercial Networks for that deceptive behaviour.
Thanks for the survey David.
I want show to start on time, programs to be fast tracked where possible and networks to provide better viewer feed back when they delay or move shows around, especially with the digital channels which have become a dumping ground for re-runs and movies, at the expensive of unaired programs.
I written to Seven and Ten several times complaining about shows not starting and finishing at the time they’re scheduled to and the message i got from both networks was they don’t care, and they don’t think they’re doing anything wrong. I got political spin blaming ‘live/as live’ programs despite none being on at the times i complained. I asked if it was because they put too many ads on, they said they’re allowed to show a certain amount each hour, so even if a show’s running late, they can still stick another ad on. News updates don’t count as ads so Seven sticks an update on at 8.40 even though the 8.30 show hasn’t even started. The networks are pathetic. I understand shows like DWTS, Masterchef Finale are live/as live so time can go over, but Masterchef is edited months in advance, Home & Away is filmed and edited months in advance, why can’t these finish on time. I record most of my programs now, and go and watch a dvd instead of tv, if turning people away from tv is what the networks are trying to accomplish then they’re succeeding.
The start/finishing times are incredibly annoying.
I rarely watch anything “live” and it is ridiculous that I have to “pad” everything I record on Tivo in case it starts early and/or finishes late. It makes it difficult to record multiple programs at once and it is incredibly frustrating when a show runs well past its advertised finishing time and I end up missing the final few minutes.
There is barely any true “live” content on FTA, so what is preventing TV shows from starting and finishing on time (other than the arrogance of each channel and their belief that if they can make you miss the “start” of a show on another channel, then you’ll have no choice but to remain on the channel you’re currently watching).
“Make it no ads on Foxtel.”
Yeah like that will work. The ads is what keeps the price down. If Foxtel drops all ads this person would be the first to complain when the price increased to cover the short fall of the advertising revenue.
@ “I want honesty not flowery bullshi** Programmes that are advertised must start on time and play the whole series through from 1st ep to last (in order) and do not stick a repeat in every 3rd week”
I want programmes to start on time too but repeats are going to become a necessity if viewers want to see their shows fast-tracked then repeats is something everyone is going to have to deal with.
My issue with foxtel way to many ads and not being able to use my own stb.
My mediastar box is way better than foxtels IQ and i can get all FTA channels on it.
damm you selectv & foxtel