Rants

Latest figures show that 61% of all Australian households have digital TV now. That is up from 53% August last year. However, after over nine years of digital TV in Australia, it is still a very low figure.

The first area to have analogue turned off completely will be Midura / Sunraysia on June 30, 2010 – just three months away. In that area, 79% of all households have digital TV. However, that percentage has caused concern for some of the politicians in that area who are worried that many residents – around 5,000 – will not have converted to digital in time for the analogue to be turned off. They are calling for an extension to the switch off time to allow everybody to be digital ready.

Given that we in Australia, have ALDREADY extended the analogue switch off by 5 years, and the amount of promotion these days for digital TV, I would think that any extensions are unnecessary and will simply delay the day of Australia being completely digital even further.

Surely those who do not have set top boxes or digital TV yet should at this point be forced to change. Of course, some people cannot afford a set top box or digital TV or simply cannot grasp the concept (even though you can get a box for as little as $20 these days) so perhaps the government should step in for these extreme cases – it would not cost that much. The US implemented a similar system when they went fully digital last year.

Delaying the analogue switch off further will keep Australia behind. It is bad enough we have to wait until 2014 for analogue TV to be gone altogether. What is even more crazy is that you can still buy TVs with analogue tuners in them. The government should definitely step in to outlaw TVs with analogue tuners. That way, every TV sold will have a digital tuner, and the digital uptake will increase faster.

Progress means change and everyone should not have to be held back because a few people don’t want to change. We all know analogue is switching off, so please – no more delays – lets get on with digital TV. Stick to the advertised switch off dates, and help those who do not understand.

Free to Air TV will never progress otherwise – it is bad enough now that the networks all follow a format of one main channel with the digital channels being secondary. Once everything is digital, each network will have at least three channels, and the concept of main and secondary channels should disappear for good – and we will all benefit with better programming and options.

What a novel idea.  Rather than complain about how illegal downloads are hurting their business and try and fight to keep everyone in the dark ages, Seven has announced it is considering simultaneous broadcast times between the US and Australia.

Perhaps it was losing in court that did it but it appears that at least one Australian broadcaster is starting to the implications of chasing their tail through judicial process.  Not only is it a costly exercise but it doesn’t actually achieve anything. Even if you do win.  So let’s face it.  Those who are circumventing the law are typically more intelligent, quicker to respond and in now way deterred by the barriers put in place to prevent them from consuming the way they want to.

A legal, and reasonable, alternative is a far better option to spending millions in court in the futile attemp at keeping things the way they are. Ignoring technological advances and dictating to consumers how, when and where they must consume is naive beyond belief and detrimental to both content producers and consumers as loyalties are quickly eroded and alternatives sought.

An acknowledgement by Seven that they’re looking into a simulcasting scenario is no less than an admission that they are partly to blame for the problem they’re now facing.  Simulcasting, however, would mean that US Prime Time television would be screening in Australia during lunchtime.

What would be the ideal scenario then?  Simulcasting would only benefit a few people.  Those who are unemployed or those with a PVR who can jump straight in to watch something when they get home from work; ads being skipped of course.  The majority of people, however, would be happy to wait until 7:30pm for their US prime time shows to begin airing.

If the networks can ensure that the incentive to watch or record a show locally as opposed to downloading it is a faster than downloading alternative then surely that’s the way to go.  And then, with an ondemand service that also provides an HD experience, can the networks really lose?

It’s time that the networks stopped fighting their consumers and started to give them what they want.  Downloaders are only doing so because they’re not getting the service they want from the those who should be, and are paying large sums of money for, providing it.

Hopefully this latest declaration by Seven is the start of great things for viewers of Television in Australia.

On Nine, cricket ratings continue to fall as a somewhat boring season continues. With the Aussies winning every match this season so far, it’s just a little too one sided.

What ever happened to the old days when we had three teams compete in a tri-series one day series over summer? Now, it seems that cricket no longer makes sense with 5 matches against Pakistan – which Australia won all of, then another five against the West Indies – looks like we will win those as well, with a random 20/20 thrown in here and there.

There just seems to be no order to it, and both the live audiences at the games and TV ratings are in steep decline. Even the test series this season were two separate three game series instead of one of five tests.

The other problem Nine has with ratings as a result of cricket coverage, is that the show after the cricket – last night the movie Lethal Weapon 4 – starts when the cricket finishes as opposed to its advertised time. In the case of last night, it was well over an hour early, meaning anyone who planned to watch the movie or record it to watch later would have been stuffed if they did not know how the cricket had gone.

Surely Nine would have been better off filling the one hour with a couple of episodes of Two and a Half Men or a CSI repeat? Anything would be better than such a major divergence to the program.

These are the words of the Chief Executive of the Newspaper Publishers’ Association, Mark Hollands in the Sydney Morning Herald recently.  A complete waste of money he called it. Finance that would be better spent encouraging and enhancing the nation’s talent in TV acting, scripting and production he thinks.

How funny is that?  Someone who represents an industry that has done an epic job at running print journalism into the ground busts a nut when another form of media decides to step up their news service as opposed to laying off reporters left, right and centre as newspapers have done.

Newspapers have been struggling to reinvent themselves in the digital age and rather than reinforce their journalists and reporters, they’ve downsized, made people redundant and made news more entertainment focused than anything else.

Mr Holland claims there has been no failure in the market.  One might disagree with that statement based on the too-often poor level of reporting that today’s news brings us.

Will the ABC’s news channel be the saviour to news services?  I don’t think so.  But in a time when every other news agency seems to be cutting things back to the bare bone, it’s inspiring to see the state broadcaster doing the opposite.

I’ve thought for a long time that someone needed to do this.  Anyone who invests in news reporting now is only going to create a stronger and [hopefully] better news service.  While everyone else cuts back and runs out of resources, people will leave in droves to find their news elsewhere.

Well done, I say, to ABC for having some foresight.

In printed TV guides, it is not uncommon to see listings on ABC1 summed up as simply “Children’s Programs” in an attempt to save space, so more space can be dedicated to detail prime time and other shows. Typically, children’s programs – especially those made for pre-schoolers – tend to be short so a three hour block can contain something like 20 different shows and take considerable space to list out.

Recently I spotted the short cut “Children’s Programs” as part of the ABC3 program listing – a channel dedicated ONLY to children’s programs for 15 hours a day. In fact, the entire hours of ABC3 could be summed up as “Children’s Programs”. Surely an extra line of space would allow the ABC3 program to be listed in full.

Using “Children’s Programs” as part of the ABC3 listing would be like using “Sport” as a shortcut to save some space on listing programs for ONE HD – it tells you nothing!

While we are at it – isn’t it time that TV guides dump the use of “WS” to indicate is a show is in wide screen or not? Now that we have had digital TV in Australia for 9 years, the majority of shows are presented in wide screen. It is time to switch over the a symbol that indicates if a show is NOT in widescreen – something like “PB” indicating pillar box.

Back in 1984 – 9 years after colour TV was introduced to Australia, TV guides had been using “BW” or “B&W” to indicate that shows were shown in black and white as opposed to still saying that a show was made in colour.

A month ago, I praised Seven for finally providing an accurate EPG that reflects the TRUE starting times of shows on their two channels rather than just saying “8.30″ for something that starts up to 10 minutes later than that time. You can read that article here.

Now, I take all of that praise back.

It sould seem that now we are into the first week of serious ratings competition (although officially, the ratings season starts Feb 7) with numerous shows premiering this week or returning for new seasons, Sven have gone back to their old ways.

Last night, I gave “My Kitchen Rules” a go. But it did not finish until 8.40pm, after starting around 7.34. The EPG said 7.30 for MKR and 8.30 for the following show Desperate Housewives. I also had planned to record 30 Rock later in the night, but given past experience with 11.30 shows on Seven starting early or late – you never know which, had to make sure I record from 11.20 – 12.20 – just to catch new 30 Rock which actually ended up being 25 minutes (it started at 11.35, ended at 12) as there were so few ads in it.

Upon checking Seven’s EPG for tonight (Tue Feb 2), it is the same. Deal or No Deal – which we all know realy starts at 5.27 says 5.30. MKR says 7.30 – 8.30 – but we all know it will end up being 7.34 – 8.39 or something. Same with 7TWO – no more accurate EPG. Programming times on 7TWO rarely match exact times like 7.30, 8.30, etc so it just makes it all that more frustrating (once again) to be watching or recording shows off these channels.

So why did Seven go back? Is it because Nine did not step forward and offer an accurate EPG? Surely Seven, being number 1 for something like the 4th year in a row would be past copying channel Nine by now? In 2010, will we have to once again suffer through archaic programming practices based on 1980′s style assumptions that a late running show somehow attratcs a few more viewers, is better for ratings and screws up any chance of viewers flicking to another channel?

Will we again see Underbelly on Nine start as much as 13 minutes late this year? Because that is the way it is looking. Maybe we should turn to Nine to break the trend, but can’t see that happening either with most shows last night running 5 minutes late.

Once again, cudos to Ten for providing accurate EPGs. When you see Loser finishing at 8.38 in the EPG, you know it will. But you also know on any twin tuner recorder, it can screw up recording a show on Seven at the same time that does not start until 8.40 even though the EPG says 8.30.

Seven have demonstrated they are able to offer accurate times on their EPG and should have stuck with it.

Looking at any of the current TV guides – whether it be your electronic program guide through your Foxtel or set top box, an internet guide like yahoo or the printed TV guides in the newspapers, there is one very popular piece of programming at the moment – on more than one network – on more times per week than Two and a Half Men – it is: “To Be Advised”.

The “To Be Advised” lines in TV guides come about when networks leave it to the last possible minute to decide what to air in certain key timeslots. Usually the worst offenders are the Nine and Seven networks, and usually it is around the time that official ratings resumes in attempt to maintain a veil of secrecy over key programming so the other network cannot counteract with their own key programming effectively.

Some examples off the top of my head for this week (Week 6 Jan 31 – Feb 6) include the fact that 8.30pm on 7TWO shows in the printed TV guides as “To Be Advised” (TBA). Another is 9.30pm Thursday on 7TWO, then there is Wednesday 7.30pm on Nine, some guides still have TBAs on Thursday night for Nine while others have large daytime chunks of TBAs on Seven on the weekend.

When you look at programming for next week – the first official week of ratings, you’ll see even more TBAs then ever. Seven still have TBA from 8.30 Sunday nights, the TBA’s on Nine on Monday night have been revealed to be new Mentalist followed by a repeat, and Seven has a TBA on Tuesday Feb 9 at 7.30pm – which was to be My Kitchen Rules, but they may change their minds on having the new cooking show twice a week.

Surely having TBA in program guides – especially printed guides which once the consumer has in their hands cannot change – only detract from the potential ratings a show may bring. Surely any benefit by keeping a show’s air time secret from the competition is far exceeded by the fact that viewers do not know when shows they are waiting for are on?

The Tuesday night TBA on 7TWO is the long awaited return of 24, while the Thursday night TBA on 7TWO is Heroes. Next Wednesday, Feb 10, Lost returns to 7TWO. These three shows ALONE are three of last decade’s most popular shows with immense fan bases even though they do not rate like they used to – but at least they have a home on a digital channel now. But what good is that, if viewers do not know when they are on? Sure – there maybe some cross promotion on Seven, but, unless fans of these shows are already watching the channel to see the promotions, how are they going to find out?

Surely it would be in a networks’ best interest to lock in programming at least with enough lead time so that the consumer never has to see a TBA in any TV guide? I feel sorry for anyone who relies on TV Week for TV programming as their guide reaches nearly two weeks in advance and is often filled with TBAs and incorrect programming due to network last minute changes. By locking in programming earlier rather than later, it would maximise exposure to the show and when it will be on and thus increase the chances for more people to decide to watch a show.

Whereas currently, you will know what shows are coming soon, but you won’t know until the last minute what night or time they will be on. We see so many promos for shows coming soon, yet we have no idea of the day they will actually air.

The only commercial network that defies this trend in Ten, with their key shows and programming usually locked in weeks in advance. We, for example, already know what is on Ten in Week 8 (Feb 14 – 20) yet with Seven and Nine, next week – Week 7 (Feb 7 – 13) is still filled with TBAs. Granted, Ten make a few changes to their programming once released from time to time, but its nowhere near as bad as having hours and hours of TBA’s through the week.

Watching the Australian Open Tennis is getting more and more frustrating with Seven refusing to show any match past 6pm (AEDT) regardless of who is playing and how the game is progressing. Even the number one player in the world – Roger Federer – gets the “it’s 6pm, we must leave for the news” treatment. It has happened to matches with Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick, and Stosur. Pretty well everyday there have been games not seen by those in the eastern daylight saving time zone after 6pm while Seven goes to the news, followed by Today Tonight and Home and Away. Meanwhile, viewers not in eastern daylight saving time suffer having the night time games delayed to suit a 7.30pm start in their own time zone.

Seven have defended their actions, despite being bombarded with viewer complaints and phone calls saying they have to honour their commitments to the nightly 6pm programming. They have even gone as far to say that, had they have stuck with the tennis after 6pm, arch rival Nine would have won the news time slot for the night. Is Seven that concerned about Nine beating them in news that they cannot go for a few days without the news being at 6pm? It would seem the decision to pull tennis matches mid way are favoured over delaying the news because the news delivers better ratings. Seven also say that their clients are happy with their coverage and delivery of service – which really sums up what it is all about – Seven is a business, and it is more important to satisfy advertisers then it is the overall population.

Sure – the overall population contribute to the ratings and therefore the money that they make from advertising, but surely there needs to be an obligation to show such a major sporting event the way it should be. This year, there is not even the option of seeing it on Foxtel as Seven asked fro too much money for the rights to show it. Therefore we are stuck only with coverage on Seven. And due to anti-siphoning laws, come 6pm, Seven cannot show the tennis on 7TWO or 7HD.

The Australian Open Tennis only runs for two weeks. It is the major grand slam for both Australia and Asia. It is one of the big four as far as tennis is concerned. And the two weeks it runs in is supposedly non-ratings season – which by definition, should mean that petty ratings decisions like showing the 6pm news because it will rate better should not have to come into it.

If Seven are not going to properly commit to showing the tennis properly – which would showing matches to the end even if they cross over 6pm, then they should perhaps consider letting the rights go to someone who can. Ideally, however, the tennis should be shown on more than one channel as there can be more than one important match going on at any given time. Which is why Foxtel is best suited to give proper coverage of the tennis. Then again, so could any free to air network if they were allowed to show first run sports on their digital channels – again getting back to anti-siphoning laws – which surely should be changed some time this year so we can all enjoy better free to air sports coverage at the same time as networks honouring their own programming commitments.

To another point, the free to air television code of practice was recently amended covering issues like classifications on digital channels and advertising rules. It would appear that no rule is in place to govern the amount of cross promotion in sports coverage. The amount of cross promotion during the tennis of up and coming Seven shows has reached a point of being unbearable, not to mention having to listen to commentators who probably could not give a rats arse about shows like Cougar Town, My Kitchen Rules, etc talk and laugh about these shows while they try to promote them. It happens on Nine as well with the cricket, but Seven’s tennis coverage takes cross promoting to the extreme. No wonder ratings are down for the tennis.

Finally, here’s what should happen next year with the Australian Open Tennis (in my opinion), assuming that Seven will still be showing it but also assuming no change in anti-siphoning laws meaning they cannot use 7TWO or 7HD to show the tennis if it is not on the main channel Seven.

1. Matches that go past 6pm continue to be shown. The news then is aired for half an hour at the conclusion of the match. On screen messages tell viewers that the news will be on after the match currently showing. Meanwhile, Seven could opt to show the news at 6pm on 7TWO, repeated later on Seven.

2. Matches are live in all markets, all times of day. Again, the news simply has to fit in between matches, but can still be shown on 7TWO 6pm.

3. Today Tonight should be either rested for the two weeks or shown at an alternative time like in the morning before the tennis. There is no need for Today Tonight to be on during the tennis, at least not while games are being played.

4. Home and Away should not return until after the tennis. Again, there is no need to have it on while games are being played. This may mean that the series has to finish a week later in December, but that should not be a problem.

5. Cross promotion needs to be limited to a sensible level. Having commentators talk about up and coming shows they have never seen is not believable anyway.

6. In order for more than one match to be shown at a time, there should be a deal with Foxtel where they show other matches. Seven can still maintain exclusivity for the major matches, but so long as they are being shown live and uninterrupted.

Some info referred to sourced from www.tvtonight.com.au

I will admit that I am not really into sports but do enjoy watching a little cricket and tennis every now and then – especially when Australians are doing well. Right now, the Australian Open Tennis is on Seven and there are various cricket matches on Nine.

Yesterday afternoon (Thur Jan 21), after seeing the first 20 minutes of Ten news I thought I’d go over to Seven to see how the tennis was going, and was happy to see Lleyton Hewit playing. I saw enough of it to see him win the first two sets, and to go into the third in a winning position.

But sure enough, come 6pm, the announcement was made that viewers in NSW and VIC would go to the news. While I agree with the importance of showing the 6pm News at 6pm every night, I think there are some occasions – especially when the network is showing a major sporting event – that the news should simply be put on hold and shown once the sport is over.

Lleyton Hewit is one of Australia’s favourite tennis players at the moment, and I am sure that people in Sydney and Melbourne would have understood the news being held back until the match finishes. As it turns out, it finished around 6.30 AEDT, so the news would have been half an hour late. With tennis coverage due to resume again at 7pm, they could have left out Today Tonight for one night.

It is disappointing to be watching a match which is interesting and bares significance on the potential outcome of the tournament only to have it cut off to go to the news. Over at Nine with the cricket, they do tend to adjust the time of the news to suit the matches. Even moreso if it is Australia playing.

Sadly, due to this ridiculous concept we have in Australia called anti-siphoning laws, you cannot show a major sporting event on a digital channel without it first being seen on the main channel. This means that Seven do not have the option of showing more of the tennis on 7TWO while the main channel covers the news, Today Tonight and from next week, Home and Away as well (which really should not start again until after the tennis).

These laws are a dilemma that face Nine and Ten as well, and it is the reason why AFL coverage on has to be shown on Ten and ONE HD at the same time (although they can show on Ten with delayed on ONE, but then that would detract from viewers wanting to see it in HD live).

If networks like Seven are going to give upmost priority to the news being at 6pm regardless of what is happening with the tennis, then it is truly time to modify the anti-siphoning laws to allow the use of multi channels in these sorts of situations. In other states, it could mean live coverage on one channel, with delayed on another at times. One of the biggest complaints each year about the tennis coverage is the fact that those states not on eastern daylight time have delayed coverage at night time.

It was absolutely ridiculous last night that Lleyton Hewit was playing after 6pm, Seven had the news on then, and 7TWO was showing ALF. And their up and coming 3^rd channel 7HD of course is still a permanent simulcast of the main channel – so it was news there as well. There was an update of the result in the news, but I ended up seeing the final result on Fox Sports News later.

The tennis, this year, is not on Foxtel like it has for some in the past.

On the day we finally get GO on Foxtel Satellite – one of the better 7pm free to air options has been removed, effective immediately. GO – the channel that makes more last minute programming changes than the other free to air channels put together – strikes again.

As of today, Wednesday January 20, 2010, Entertainment Tonight will no longer be seen on GO at 7pm weekdays. It has been replaced with Get Smart.

No doubt the move is ratings related – with Nine last week also making the sudden change to 7pm on channel Nine replacing the daily version of Australia’s Funniest Home Videos with Two and a Half Men. With Mother and Son on 7TWO attracting well over 150,000 daily, GO seems to have decided the best way to go up against 7TWO is with Get Smart. Get Smart is also seen on Saturdays on GO, and has been ratings quite well.

When no sport is on Nine, ET is usually seen at 3pm weekdays. When the cricket is on, ET is not on at 3pm, so seeing it at 7pm on GO would be a good option. Now, if you don’t have pay TV, you’ll have to wait for 1am to see ET on Nine, or 10.30am the next day to see it on GO. ET still airs on Arena at 6pm AEDT.