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What to do about those late starting times?

Is it time to start logging late starting times by networks? TV Tonight needs your help.

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I’ve been thinking about the ongoing problem of late starting times, which have been a bug-bear by viewers since longer than I can remember.

As we know it’s getting worse.

So I’ve been wondering about ways that TV Tonight can facilitate the audience’s frustration with this practice and I’m thinking that “crowd-sourcing” is the answer….

I’d like to explore the idea of readers tracking the starting times of prime-time shows, as a way of highlighting those that are the worst offenders.

This would mean readers logging information such as:

Name of Show
Channel
City
EPG starting time*
Print TV Guide starting time*
Network promo starting time*
Network online guide starting time*
Actual starting time

*choose one or multiple

These options would give readers the chance to express the time they were led to believe a show was to start versus the actual time it started. In time I suspect it would build up a pattern. Whether that leads to any improvement is another matter…

Before I kick this off I thought I would seek some input from Readers on whether you think this is worthwhile, how you see it working and what other variables need to be taken into consideration. It will also need a name if it is to become a permanent fixture (not sure yet).

I would probably be looking to kick this off post-Olympics. I don’t think it makes sense to host it when it’s not an even playing field.

This would also be separate from the annual Audience Inventory which is due to kick off soon.

Thoughts?

57 Responses

  1. The Aussie networks need to realise that they could and will attract more viewers if they provided a more stable programming structure in place. The news bulletins Always start on the dot. It is clearly a case of priorities.

    Shows like the block and the voice started on time. Clearly the shows were rating exceptional and ch9 wanted to keep viewers happy. Apart from these two shows and 60 mins I couldn’t tell you a single program in prime time on ch9. I know they show BBT a fair bit but what time I have no idea.

  2. Cool little thing to do.

    @ Russell

    Wow they do that in the states to the second while here were lucky to get it within 5 minutes within time

  4. How about everybody posts a watch or clock to the three main networks head offices. If they get a few hundred clocks sent to them they may get the hint.

  6. Great idea. But will anything change?? I sent a complaint on this very issue to Ten in May, have not had a response. They simply don’t care.

    And I won’t be able to help, i’ve got that fed i simply don’t watch any shows on fta anymore other than Aussie shows.

    And EPGs is meaningless. My EPG for Ten quite often just states 8.30, 9.30 etc, so it hasn’t been updated. And when the networks update their EPG to 8.38, they still run ads saying a show will air at 8.30.

    Great idea David, but i have no faith whatsoever the networks will change.

  8. I find that the EPG starting time is usually very accurate. All my recordings seem to start with to-the-second accuracy. I think in the future people will just accept that print/promo/online times are just a rough estimate rounded to the nearest half hour. As long as the correct information is easily available on the on-screen EPG (which is what most people use) I don’t see why it is such a big issue.

  9. It’s a shame DH has finished now….. if it was still going, every week I would be completing your form “Desperate Housewives” Guides 9.30 pm Actual Starting time 10.20 pm…….every week…. oh well, at least my viewing nightmare with 7 has come to an end.

  10. I lived in Perth last year and the EPG for Ch 7 I am sure had exact starting times for 7, 7two and Mate. Eg Home and Away 7.04pm – 7.34pm.

    Since living in Yeppoon (Rockhampton), I have noticed that the EPG for Ch 7 no longer gives exact starting times for any of its channels, but WIN and Ch 10 do for all their channels (10 seems to update them to exact times around 6pm at night here !! which can be annoying if I have preset a program eg The Living Room which is set at 8.10pm to 8.40pm and then they tweak it to 8.13pm to 8.50pm and I miss 10 mins.)

    Are exact starting times for epg
    s for Ch7 , mate and 7two occuring in metro or regional areas ???

  11. Its a great idea in theory and it might make someone at the networks sit up and take notice.But the thing is i dont see how its going to help when networks use all these odd starting and finishing times for a number of reasons that benefit them.For example networks use these odd starts and ends to keep a viewer on their channel so their shows run past the starting and stopping times on other networks.Its also a way for them to keep viewers watching the same channel.However it will be interesting to see if anything happens.The more people participate the better.Hope it all goes well David

  12. I solved the problem, i have watched maybe 5 hours of FTA tv in the last 6 months (helped by the fact we have no external antenna at the place we are renting the the internal antenna has to be adjusted ever time we breathe, but if it was worth it i would have payed to have one installed), with the collection of DVDs we don’t have to be a slave to their bullshit anymore, there are a few shows i miss seeing on FTA but not many.

    They only have themselves to blame, and more and more people will start to shun the networks while they treat us with contempt and it will be a lot harder to win us back that it would have been to keep us.

  14. I’m Gen Y I don’t use pen and paper anymore… Is it worth setting up a simple form on the website so we can send the details through from a webpage? I can then do it from my smartphone 🙂

  15. Great idea David though will this make all the networks Aus wide wake up to themselves or in truth do they really care. Maybe one of your many readers could either make an app to assist you or something to make the collection easier. We all know it is getting worse especially those programs that are pre-record. I can never understand these shows run late.

  16. Might want to include a field or two for things like name changes and episode merging.

    I’ve noticed that Nine has a bad habit of doing things like changing the name of a show in the broadcast EPG, which will stop an auto-scheduling PVR (or HTPC) from recording a show, or cause it to record unrelated shows. Good examples of this are Two and a Half Men v Two & a Half Men, or adding (includes sneak peek of XYZ) in a program name.

    Another trick Nine loves is having double episodes back to back in the EPG for 6 days, then merging them on the broadcast day. Again this can play merry hell with the accuracy of a PVR’s scheduling and it’s worth noting that NBN don’t seem to play either of these games with their EPG entries.

  17. It’s about time the networks were held accountable for advertising a certain time in promotions and tv guides but then actually starting the show up to half an hour late. That is false advertising. In any other industry they would be fined for doing that.

  18. You could also log the preceding show to see if there is a major pattern with what shows run late. I can understand that occasionally a live show might run over, but when pre-recorded shows run over, im not sofer giving.

  19. Excellent idea!

    Although, many of the shows I watch, I do so via my PVR, so I am not in front of the clock when they start. But as I always start the recording 5 mins before and finish 20 mins after, I can calculate the start times from this. Would that still be accurate enough for you?

    Thank you David, if nothing else it is good to know that this annoys more than just me. We all know why the networks do this (to falsify ratings data), and I find that dishonest and disgusting.

  20. sounds good, just need an easy to fill in form and confirmation that it has been logged…

    also would it be posibble to get the govt to change the law so tv execs or programmers that practice this evil craft can ultimately face execution? just a thought

  22. I think it’s a great idea. I think shows should start/end on time. (That might mean Episodes is edited though David!)

    In the US, hundreds of networks and cable networks somehow manage to syncronize perfectly, at at 8pm to the second the 8pm show starts on hundreds of channels. They same can be said for wvery hour and half hour in primetime. Network schedules are timed out to the exact second.

    In fact NBC used to start ER at 10.01pm and list it that way -and sure enough it would start at 10.01pm. Not 10pm.

    I don’t really have a problem with shows starting at off times. If networks want to run shows longer for ratings reasons so be it. I understand and agree. But it should match the EPG time and promo time. Everyone records and timeshifts these days. It’s very annoying to miss the start or end of shows.

    Why can’t networks at least stick to 5 minute increments and advertise as such.

    “Tricky Business, Tonight at 9.35pm on Nine”

    Run your schedule as your wish networks – just make sure the promos are EPG match.

  23. Great idea!
    That’s a lot of data. Perhaps it could be broken down a bit more, so that your helpers are working on a particular time during prime time viewing. I think that might help with the quality of the information you get.
    An unexpected outcome might be the shows your readers watch vs official ratings. You’ve got a fairly large sample size to draw from.
    I’m in!

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