Viewers want shows on time
TV shows not starting on time has been voted the biggest small-screen gripe in a newspaper poll.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
News Limited newspapers this week published the results of a reader poll on the best and worst in TV.
TV shows that don’t start on time was voted the biggest small-screen gripe. Too many advertisements took second place.
Packed to the Rafters was voted Favourite Aussie TV Program over Spicks and Specks.
Hamish Blake won Favourite TV personality over Shaun Micallef and Adam Hills.
Toni Collette beat Rebecca Gibney as Favourite Aussie Actress while Simon Baker won both Favourite Aussie Actor and Sexiest Male TV star. Jennifer Hawkins was Sexiest Female.
AFL commentator Dennis Cometti was voted Favourite Sportscaster.
Jeremy Clarkson won Favourite International TV star ahead of Stephen Fry and Charlie Sheen while and Modern Family won Favourite International TV Show.
Eddie McGuire was voted Most Annoying TV Personality.
But worst Aussie TV show went to Warnie, ahead of Hey Hey it’s Saturday and Cops L.A.C.
Meanwhile Logie Awards voting continues online here.
Source: News Limited
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- Tagged with AFL, Cops. L.A.C., Hey Hey its Saturday, Logie Awards, Modern Family, Packed to the Rafters, Spicks and Specks, Warnie
24 Responses
I’ve got a twin tv tuner plugged into a windows seven box using media centre…. I just start and finish everything by 5 minutes and it usually records everything within those times. Recording to your computer is so easy and saves buying a pvr; I can record 150 hours of tv and even burn a DVD of what I record straight out of media. It is fantastic and well worth upgrading
In saying that, in this digital age there is no excuse for the channels not to know how long ads and shows run for.
I’ve got a twin tv tuner plugged into a windows seven box using media centre…. I just start and finish everything by 5 minutes and it usually records everything within those times. Recording to your computer is so easy and saves buying a pvr; I can record 150 hours of tv and even burn a DVD of what I record straight out of media centre…. I know this is soundng like an ad for media center but it is fantastic and well worth upgrading
In saying that, in this digital age there is no excuse for the channels not to know how long ads and shows run for.
Even Mussolini could get the trains running on time.
Absolutely, 2010 was a shocker for this on 7 and 9
When you consider all the FTAs managed to keep their programs on schedule for decades I would love for them to give us an honest answer as to why it is impossible for them to do so now.
I wonder if anyone would be brave enough to admit they are trying to keep viwers on their channel.
@ Goonies
I’m fine with that all I ask is they have some nice music and pictures. I’ll admit I love the Doctor Who ads and the clips about this year. So it is possible to fix it. Even if it’s one at a time.
Because ABC does not have had ads their shows do not stretch to the full hour hence the need for fillers.
I’d rather those than staring at a test pattern or having all the shows start at random times.
@ Jack & Andrew B
I agree with everything you said about unreliable and varying start times. Plus the ridiculous overruns. That’s why I’m glad Ten put most shows I want to watch on Eleven as it’ll hopefully prevent it from being 20-40 minutes late. Although I fear Channel Nine and to a lesser extent their other digital channels will never learn to be on time. I’ll note this week Ch 99 didn’t update at least their late night or early morning EPG. So the Info button and EPG was wrong. Also midnight can be confusing as do they mean tonight or yesterday; sometimes it can be hard to work out.
@ Robbie
Agreed about the ABC start times sometimes. As for those ridiculous before the show clips. I wouldn’t mind clips if they went back to music and nature shots. They could have a short one in case it’s late. Instead of having people talk crap making everyone look bad. Please get rid of them. Ironically I like some of the ABC2 ones like the Beethoven and the mosh pit.
@ Craig
There’s the newspaper TV Guides. But as I said I’ve seen last minute changes not listed on any of them (paper, online and EPG). I like the internet guides as you often see all the channels for a particular time period plus can look up details (it can be useless too sometimes). But I often don’t have access to the internet or a computer if someone else is using it or there are connection problems as mentioned before. The other problem is sometimes they strangely disappear channels eg. Freeview internet site didn’t show ABC1 at least for a couple of days this year in my area. Or some of them don’t handle midnight too well.
The major FTA networks continue to do what the can to annoy their customers. It doesn’t make good business sense, particlulary when they have so much competition these days. Oh well, we the consumer have plenty of other options these days, so we won’t be the one’s that miss out in the long run.
ABC is getting worse for airing on time programmes.
I hate those stupid little stories just before the programme starts on ABC.
Just start the bloody programmes .
David – Do they run this poll on a yearly basis or did they see yours and rip off the idea?
Channels often do update their EPGs, and they’re still out. For example, online guides might have Conan as being on at 11:30, the GEM EPG will say 11:41, but the show won’t actually start until 11:53 or something. It’s so ridiculous. People in America get up in arms when Idol overruns like 3 minutes. 3 minutes would be an improvement here.
If 8.30 was 8.35 on all channles, then there would not be much of an issue. The real problem is 8.30 is 8.30 on some channels, 8.33 on others, 8.37 eslewhere and sometimes even 8.41.
@A – yes I know online and EPG and have there problems sometimes and it’s not the fault of TV Week or the newspapers but it’s just the medium. Online can (and should) be updated immediately when there is a change, with print you simply can’t do that. If PayTV can keep their guides updated and adjusting times when needed why can’t FTA and ‘Freeview’?
Also I just wish in this Internet age that TV Week (and other magazines) would give us the option of downloading a PDF of their publications at a lower rate than the printed one, think of the trees it could save.
And this why people abandon tv for online. No matter how many times they get complaints the networks don’t listen. So i’ve given up on the networks now.
I just want to say on the issue of time. I like the channels that update their EPGs. I wish all of them did. That said if it was advertised that a programme was meant to start at 8.30pm then I consider it late even if the EPG tells me if it starts at 8.33pm. It really annoys me if it starts much later than that. Actually if all of them are late and late by the same time then they negate each other. Sometimes I might miss the start of something. Ironically with the digital only channels they sometimes start early or late. You never know which it’ll be. Oh well.
As for the long ad breaks they only annoy me if it causes the channel to be late. Otherwise it doesn’t worry me too much. As I’ve adapted and sometimes do other stuff. They can be useful sometimes. Also I rarely watch the main channels except for news now.
Don’t forget the marvellous Shaun won best presenter.
@ Craig
It’s not the printed guides fault. Also once or twice in the past year I’ve found them more accurate (not the time but the content) than online guides as I look up more than one (online) if there’s something unexpected on including the EPG or Info buttons. Recently I had major internet problems including a couple of days without it. And some days with massive unreliability. So I was immensely grateful for the paper TV guides. As they easily summarise whats on most free-to-air channels. And the EPG only works for separate channels. Which would take time to go through each channel. Also some channels don’t keep the time up to date anyway so they can be equally unreliable.
Actually the flood situation made all the guides inaccurate. Paper, online and EPGs. It was this site that was useful. Ironically it made me just click over to different channels more randomly as well as watch more of Nine and Seven as well as ABC1 or News 24 a lot more than I usually do. But I don’t have a problem with them for it. As they did a good job mostly. I commend them for it. And the situation was important enough for them to cover and not always care about other programming.
Does Channel Nine know what they’re doing with Hey Hey It’s Saturday yet?? I think Nine should do three specials this year, since we just had 20 shows last year. Then do more, like seven accross next year.
It’s certainly a disgraceful tactic to use programs running overtime as a strategy to keep viewers. It’s an underhanded strategy to start with, not to mention the inconvenience it causes when people try to set their recorders.
Well done moden famliy and Jeremy clarkson
Notice that the worst Aussie TV shows and Most annoying TV Personality are all from Channel 9.
Notice the 3 shows listed as worst were all from the same network. Including the most annoying TV presenter!
I agree on FTA shows starting on time is a real issue, often by 9:30 shows are starting 10 minutes late, not that is news to anyone here. Even at 7:30 it’s often 7:35. On PayTV shows sometimes start late but the EPG and online guides are normally up-to-date to the minute.
Yet another reason to abandon printed guides in 2011.