Want us to watch your show? Start them on time!
Networks under attack from break-out shows should try a little thing called punctuality.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News, Top Stories
Late starting times are now getting out of hand….
We’ve put up with delays of five, six, seven minutes but now it’s getting beyond a joke.
Last night The Amazing Race on Seven started at 10:50pm after being advertised at 10:30pm. Why?
Titanic was due to start at 8:30pm according to all the ads, Seven’s online Guide and print guides, but it began at around 8:45pm. Australia’s Got Talent was also late because Home and Away ran overtime. Again.
And the daily culprit was Today Tonight, which is incapable of finishing on time despite Seven News miraculously starting on the dot of 6pm day in, day out. It does this in order to sync with regional broadcasters.
None of last night’s programmes after 7pm were live -all were pre-recorded, edited and delivered to the network. So why didn’t Seven update its online EPG?
Maybe everybody on Fango should start complaining about this topic.
However, Seven is hardly alone in this habit.
Last week I waited for a 7:30pm episode of Bondi Vet. It started at 7:42pm after The Biggest Loser. I took note not to bother with Bondi Vet again after that. Who lets a 30 minute show run for 42 and thinks this is acceptable?
Nine also runs shows overtime with repetition. The Block and Celebrity Apprentice were appalling in this last year.
ABC and SBS seem to be much closer to the mark than commercials as far as I can see.
Networks are doubly shooting themselves in the foot over this.
If your show is late, we’ll just record it and watch it in our own time. That means we won’t have to watch it Live, we won’t see your sponsor ads, and you won’t get the overnight ratings.
At least viewers with Foxtel’s EPG can see accurate times (including for FTA), which I presume must also be available elsewhere. Maybe readers can fill me in.
So while networks are struggling to compete with Nine’s breakout show The Voice maybe they should create a point of difference by actually starting theirs on time?
It’s revolutionary I realise, but that’s my 2c worth.
81 Responses
But Don Lane and IMT overrun was around 11pm, running into a Late News so it wasn’t such a drama. They always started on time at 9:30 as many regional stations, with no communications to Nine, had to rely on the “Start time” they got earlier in the day, and “9:30” was never 9:32.
I rarely watch the shows I am interested in live when it comes to FTA purely for this reason. I record and/or series link everything that I want to watch on the Foxtel IQ as the guide is 99.9% spot on when it comes to the start and finish times. And I do not have to watch any of the ads which is even better.
Re the contempt they show for their viewers, David I hope you can cover the appalling way Nine is dealing with the Australia/New Zealand test on Friday night.
I already did. See Programming story.
Fantastic editorial David! And by looking at the comments it just shows that this is a huge issue with viewers.
It also just cements two facts about the Australian TV industry-
1. That it is painfully under-regulated. If the rest of the world can have fines for such things I don’t understand why we don’t. Australian networks are far too powerful and the viewer has no where capable to turn to.
2. That the networks are conditioning the younger, tech-savvy viewers to stay away from them. Don’t respect the older viewers, that’s fine, they’ll be gone soon. It’s the younger ones, the future audience, that know how to download and are learning to not have any loyalty to the networks because they can’t show a series on time or fast-tracked and turn to downloading instead. The tides will turn. Give it a few years, when the younger generations start to get older and the networks will begin to start shows on time. But it’ll be too late by then…
@jonno – Exactly what we do too. Rarely watch any commercial FTA “live” these days. All on PVR. And who’s to blame for that? Yes, love being able to whiz thru 5 mins. of commercials at x64.
@stilesy – No they weren’t like this at all. Speaking as a Program Co-Ordinator from TCN & TEN in the 70s/80s all programs ran on time. Except of course for IMT, Don Lane etc.
Commercial limits were 12 mins/hr. I remember when stations used to actually show clocks before the program from 8:29:45 etc.
It’s more difficult for ABC to run on time, but which they do, as they have to creatively fill out time between programs quite often.
Ah yes, Don Lane always ran late thanks to Bert and the wheel. Nobody ever complained then! Comedy gold.
Amen. 😛
The worst one that annoyed me was TAYG (when it was on Tuesday nights) always ran overtime so you had to decide whether to watch the end of TAYG or the start of Rafters…
Yes, networks will come unstuck with PVRs. I can tape 4 channels at once. I have started to do this lots lately as i am sick of shows not starting on time. Mine can fast forward the ads very fast. Doing this means i can watch an hour show in 40 minutes. I love it.
I just wonder if 7, 9 & 10 were this bad running shows overtime 10 or 15 years ago?, I bet networks always started shows in primetime on time in those days.
I am glad you wrote this article. Last night was a disgrace. how can viewers plan their night when the networks do this. I will start turning off the main offenders, don’t care how much i like the show.
If you notice on Fridays when Seven have an AFL game at 7.30 TT somehow manages to finish at 7pm on the dot. What’s worse is when a show is advertised to start at a particular time but starts early like last night on 7mate, American Pickers is in the guide as starting at 9:30pm yet last night it started at 9:27pm.
I couldn’t agree more David. I’ve all but given up watching FTA TV, as I rarely watch anything “live” and always record everything with my PVR.
It’s infuriating when you record something, add 20 minutes to either end of the recording as a “safety margin” only to discover the show has started nearly 30 minutes late, so I’ve missed the end of the show.
Not good enough 🙁
In the US, CBS tweets on Sundays when there are live sport overruns. Example: The Amazing Race will start at 8.47pm ET, eastern market only due to NBA orerrun. Then they follow up with the next show at 9.47, and 10.47, etc.
We all know the late starts here are no accident, they are a deliberate strategy. What you put in your PVR days in advance will often have to change on the night due to EPG updates.
Thankfully EPGs are updated on Foxtel, usually TIVO as well, but I pity those who don’t get an up to date EPG.
A few mintues, we can handle. 15, 20 or more very wrong. NIne currently the worst with this – espeically after The Voice
Absolutely agree. The Titanic show was 13 minutes late last night.
Its a pathethic joke
Gosh, I hope this article make’s something good happen. You just can’t go from one channel to another at all at the moment, becuase nothing is alined. You have to resign yourself to watching just one channel, becuase its so treacherous. I guess that’s what they are setting out to do. They are forgetting that watching tv is supposed to be a relaxing enjoyable thing to do.
Exactly David. I had to abandon watching this season of The Amazing Race on 7 after each episode consistently started 15+ minutes late causing me to lose the end of every episode on the dvr.
The preceeding shows are all “in the can”, so 7 know exactly how long they are going to run to notify the EPG’s of changes to running times. The only point to doing this is to try and prevent you from switching over and just stick with the programming.
Their only legitimate excuse is a major breaking news story, and this has not been the case at all.
The commercial networks aren’t going to run on time unless ACMA forces them to. And since ACMA is spineless and toothless, that just isn’t going to happen.
Ads are timed to the second and all pre-recorded programmes are static the only time this should happen is during a truly live(not live to tape) production.
Effectively what they are doing is extending what they consider primetime they are aware that and ignore the fact 10/15 minutes is crucial at 8.30 but irrelevant at midnight.
Stricter guidelines are needed as self regulation is only exposing the arrogance and ineptitude of commercial programmers.
I am sick to death of late starts and it’s time the networks are fined because its just bad practice. Australians have really come complacent about it though and we think it’s ok but it’s not. In America you get in trouble if you are 1 minute late. Here nothing happens. It’s time the networks were given a wake up call. They deserve to be punished. Nine this week have been a complete joke when it comes to late starts and Seven are no better either. Even TEN have a bad track record too. If ABC and SBS can schedule on time why can’t the others? I hope someone cracks down on then for this but ACMA has no power so it will never happen.
I agree! I am forever checking the EPG as to when the actual time the show will start.
Recorded Offspring last night as I planned to watch Titanic, which i didn’t end up doing anyway because it started at 8.45 so i watched Gordon Street Tonight on ABC which started on time. But recorded something at 9.30 too so I have now just discovered I missed the last 10 minutes of Offspring. Look at the ratings for Offspring. They need all the viewers they can get, but i won’t be watching anymore. What’s the point if i’m just gonna miss the first or last 10 minutes each week.
I agree. Really gets my goat how most FTA channels think that viewers are too stupid to realise that this is a deliberate tactic that is only going to get worse.
Part of the reason why I only bother with a certain number of shows (ABC and SBS are fine) unless I want to watch live FTA sport.
If I want to watch something, I PVR it. No-one gets the ratings, no-one gets any revenue from me as I’m not watching the ads. I’m far from alone, when are the commercial networks going to learn this?
Probably after Ten have played The Devil Wears Prada for the eighth time this year…
Hehehe David. So true. Although the EPG for me indicated Titanic would start sometime after 8.44pm. That’s why I flicked though all the channels on my TV just to see what else was on. As I had nearly 15 minutes to do so. Settled on the ABC for awhile.
As an example if they put Once Upon A Time on a time I can’t watch I’ll admit I’d probably have mixed feelings about it. Because if it’s constantly 10-15 minutes late anyway then I might end up glad. I don’t know why TV Stations want viewers happy they don’t watch them. Because I thought they were supposed to want to maximise viewers. Not drive them away. And no I won’t record the shows either nor the ads. I’ll just miss them. I prefer DVDs that have no ads usually.
P.S. Sorry about the length but it is a lightening rod issue for me.
Seven have got to be the worst for this especially on a Tuesday night it is beyond a joke! I can’t say how many times I’ve missed the end of recorded shows like parenthood! And there was. 10 minute buffer.
I now have obtained parenthood elsewhere but have Rafters on record from 830-10.30 never know where it will end up following that trash AGT
The absurdity seems to start early. I’ve noticed my TV telling me it’s 5:24 when Hot Seat starts and 5:58 when the 9 News starts. Seven News is 5:59. H&A runs 7:04 to 7:34 (except for Friday AFL night when it’s 7:00 (as others have noted).
@Brekkie- “Why aren’t the regulators taking action.” ‘Cause there aint no “regulators”. Bring back the Australian Broadcasting Control Board. Set commercial limits to 12 mins/hr as they used to be, not …whatever…, as now.