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?
