Commercial TV Scheduling Is A Joke

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It’s not likely to be news to anyone who has grappled with what passes for an electronic program guide in Australia: a survey confirms that the commercial networks completely suck when it comes to broadcasting shows when scheduled.

A survey of 800 readers on the TV Tonight blog singled out Nine as the worst offender (with 80% of respondents describing it as the most unreliable overall), while the ABC was deemed the most reliable in actually starting and finishing programs on time. The ABC’s reliability is somewhat ironic given that its ever-expanding iView service means it also offers the best chance of catching up with something you’ve missed.

Messing with start times is often used by desperate programmers as a means of trying to ensure viewers don’t switch over to watch rival channels, but increasingly has the backfire effect of annoying viewers so much that they decide to seek out shows via BitTorrent, or just abandon them altogether. That trend is particularly evident amongst tech-savvy consumers like the Lifehacker crowd, but hasn’t yet translated into mass adoption of online video — yet.

What’s your biggest peeve about network scheduling? Tell all in the comments.

ABC most reliable network, Nine worst – readers [TV Tonight]


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