In what appears to be an Australian first, Channel Nine has opted to show new episodes of the popular TV series Sherlock exclusively on its Perth channel. Season 3 premiered on STW Perth last night (Sunday 19 January) with additional episodes set to run on 26 January 26 and 2 February. No date has been set for the rest of Nine Network’s stations, other than a vague reference to “later”.
This unusual, ongoing scheduling quirk has been caused by Nine’s One Day cricket coverage — last night’s Australia vs. England match concluded at around 9:30pm east coast time but three hours earlier in Western Australia due to timezone differences. Rather than fill the gap with some random movie, Nine decided to generate some good will by screening the first episode of Sherlock season 3.
“We thought we would showcase this outstanding series in prime time leading into the 2014 survey year,” Nine Perth Managing Director David Mott said in an interview with TV Tonight. “…Sherlock will premiere at a later date yet to be advised on the other Nine Network stations.”
We think this is a bit of a useless move for several reasons. First off, it’s currently non-ratings season in Australia which means Nine has essentially offloaded one of its high-profile shows for little payoff. Secondly, the decision is sure to annoy lots of Sherlock fans outside of Perth. And lastly, the third season has already completed its entire run in the UK — you can even buy the DVD from online retailers.
In other words, even people who refuse to pirate have a way to watch the whole series before Nine’s strategic broadcast; including viewers in Perth.
We don’t mean to be party poopers, but this Perth-only “fast tracking” is a depressing reminder of just how far behind the ball free-to-air TV has become. An official Australian Netflix service really can’t come soon enough.
[Via TV Tonight]
Comments
11 responses to “Channel Nine ‘Premieres’ Sherlock Season 3 Exclusively In Perth. Huh?”
i have already seen season3 ep3 cant wait for ep4,who needs channel9,first two eps very average
regards mike.
methinks you may perhaps be waiting a long while there mike.
http://epguides.com/Sherlock/ – 3 full episodes per season for all the seasons thus far.
Any true Sherlock fan would know there are only 3 episodes per season. Which is actually fine since each one is between 1hr30 and 2hrs long anyway.
And they wonder why people pirate things
Because they are from an impatient , need it now , generation and cant wait more than a day before resorting to theft to satisfy their selfish demands.
We’re hardly talking about a day’s wait here. The first episode of Sherlock S3 aired in the UK on January 1st. It’s now 20 days later, and so far Perth is the only city to have seen any of S3.
We’re also talking about a series that ended S2 with a fairly large mystery up in the air, and that was on hiatus for TWO YEARS before the new season aired. After that, the extra 20+ days feels like more than a bit of a slap in the face from Nine.
If you participate in international communities online, it’s really hard to avoid spoilers. Tumblr especially is drowning in screencaps, gifs and discussions, and while you can use various apps and add-ons to filter out some of that, it depends on other people tagging their posts in a useful way, and still may not catch everything.
Channel Nine’s decision is a bit ridiculous. Even fans who don’t pirate can now buy the dvd and will probably be able to marathon the series before Nine gets around to airing episode 1 anywhere other than Perth. They can’t act like we’re completely cut off from the rest of the world any more. We have alternatives, legal or otherwise, and people are going to use them.
So theft is justified for convenience.
Cool , might go steal that new car i was going to buy in 3 years just because i ant it now.
Stealing a car and pirating a TV show are two very different situations. You don’t rely on a TV show to get you by on a day to day basis. A TV show isn’t worth thousands of dollars to a consumer. Your comparison completely ignores the majority of Catherine’s post.
Let it be known that piracy isn’t even required to view Sherlock season 3 in Australia. It’s as easy as using a VPN/proxy and going to BBC iPlayer and watching it on there. It may go against BBC’s terms of use, but it’s not illegal at all.
The fact is Australia’s free to air TV industry is behind the times. In a world where it’s becoming more and more easier to view their content elsewhere, in both legal and illegal ways, it’s a sign that the FTA TV industry needs to re-think seriously on how to distribute their content and keep viewers happy. If they want those advertising dollars to keep coming in, then stop treating their viewers like ignorant pieces of shit.
I didn’t say “it’s more convenient to steal”, I said there were alternatives, legal or otherwise.
You could buy the DVD direct from the BBC, no legal quibbles involved, before channel 9 aired it. The biggest loser there is channel 9. Solving this problem sensibly is in their own best interests.
S03 is a bit more wacky, I am not sure about it. Not that i have watched it…. How could I have done that?
Watched all three episodes online and found them very strange.
I very much doubt if I will bother to watch the next series if its made.