TV Scheduling

In over four years of being closely involved with TV, this right now has to be one of the worst periods ever for last minute programming changes and amendments. Continue reading »

I love The Amazing Race, I love Survivor. I watch them both.

But I have to say, while one is in a stable timeslot hours after the US – on a night that there isn’t much else on TV, the other is becoming near impossible to keep up with. Continue reading »

Effective immediately, Ten are returning to movies on Saturday nights, dumping the existing line up which includes The Graham Norton Show, Modern Family repeats, Jamie Oliver shows and more. Before the Game remains at 6.30pm in Melbourne.

This Saturday, March 31, movies on Ten include Mrs Doubtfire at 6.30pm and Die Hard 2 following just after 9pm. Both one hour later in Melbourne.

Next Saturday, April 7, Saturday night movies will include Dr Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts and There’s Something About Mary (which aired recently on Ten).

The trend continues on Saturday April 14 as well (details embargoed).

This is the reason why Ten are doing so badly in ratings. Last minute changes which renders TV guides useless, and playing the same movies over and over. Surely Ten can realise their movie library is relatively small and stick to programming on weekends that does not involve movies?

Graham Norton was not doing that badly on Saturdays.

With so many channels including digital channels offering movies on Saturday nights – and with them all usually being repeats, there is no way movies – especially movies played within a few months of previously airing will do anything at all to help Ten in ratings.

Ten constantly try different programming on Friday and Saturday nights, but always end up back at movies.

The network needs some stability – seriously.

 

Convergence is reshaping the Australian media landscape, with new technologies growing in influence and providing audiences with more choice than ever before. But what’s happening to Australian content?

To help inform the discussion around the Australian Government’s Convergence Review, Screen Australia has released a comprehensive analysis of Australian content across all media platforms.

The report, Convergence 2011: Australian Content State of Play, reveals a significant dilution of Australian content in the media diet. Since 2008, the hours of foreign content on free-to-air (FTA) television have increased 154 per cent greatly outstripping the growth in Australian content at 59 per cent.

Although viewing across all FTA channels has increased by 14 per cent with the advent of digital channels, Australian content has fallen from 52 per cent of total hours broadcast in 2008, to 38 per cent in the first six months of 2011. The proportion of audience for Australian content has also decreased from 60 per cent to 51 per cent in the same time period.

Other findings from the analysis include:

• Television remains the leading way of viewing screen content. In 2010, 96 per cent of people aged 14 years and above indicated that they had watched either FTA television or subscription television in the preceding week for periods of over three hours on average per day. In the case of subscription households, television consumption is even greater with audiences watching four extra hours per week.
• It is the traditional media sectors, dominated by commercial television and feature films, that are the only significant investors in Australian stories at this time. The combination of incentives and government requirements has ensured Australian stories remain on Australian screens. The difficulty, moving forward in a multi-channel, converged environment, is the economics of screen production.
• Australian content is more expensive for broadcasters than foreign imported content. The high levels of production output from the US and the relative pricing of that content result in a lopsided marketplace for content whereby it is significantly cheaper for a broadcaster to purchase a high-rating US series like Two and a Half Men or decades-old programs like Charlie’s Angels, Miami Vice or Fantasy Island than to invest in production of new Australian programs. As a result, more than 70 per cent of the commercial FTA broadcasters’ drama expenditure relates to foreign drama.
• The production of Australian narrative content – drama and documentary – makes a significant contribution to the Australian economy, as well as being culturally valuable. It generated investment in excess of $700 million in 2009/10. This includes $124 million in foreign investment that would not otherwise come into the economy.
• Economic modelling based on this result indicates that locally produced narrative stories make a net contribution of $330.5 million per annum to Australia’s GDP. Further, if local production ceased, there would be a net loss of more than 6,000 jobs or 20 per cent of all people working in the overall audiovisual production sector.

Source: Screen Australia

 

 Just what are channel Nine trying to do to Rescue (Special Ops)?

Last week, Nine did not update their EPG meaning that Rescue showed as starting at 8.30pm and finishing at 9.30pm. But last Monday was the premiere of the new season of The Farmer Wants a Wife which ended up not finishing until 8.45pm. That meant, that my recording of Resuce had 15 minutes of Farmer at the beginning.

And because I did not have the foresight to add an extra 20 minutes to Rescue that night, I missed out on the end. I have to say, I could tell the EPG was not correct based on the fact it still said 8.30 exactly as the start time and 9.30 exactly as an end time, but thought, at worst, it would only end up being out by a few minutes.

Nine have not been that bad in recent months – in fact most of the year – with their EPG being up to date and accurate. Even on their biggest night ever (well since I have been involved in TV writing anyway!) their EPG was correct.

On Sunday August 21,with The Block finale airing from 6.30- 8.30, so concerned was I about a possible huge overrun of The Block that I added an extra HOUR to Underbelly: Razor – which premiered after The Block finale -so I would not miss a thing.

As it turns out, The Block finished at 8.32, and the EPG had 8.34 as the start time for Underbelly: Razor. I was actually worried for a moment as I wrapped up my Block live blog that Underbelly would start a minute early and people who had set it to record may miss the opening minute. Thankfully two minutes of typical channel Nine self promotion prevented that scenario from arising.

Then there is this week. An amendment issued so late and possibly in secrecy to a select few resulted in a double episode of Rescue on Monday night this week – bumping out (as usual) CSI: Miami. Thankfully, I had channel Nine on earlier in the night and heard it was a double episode.

My IQ had not put in the second episode to record, so I had to add it in myself. I do not trust series link for last minute changes like this, and have no idea that, had I have series linked Rescue, that the 9.30 episode would have added itself in after the 8.30 one in any case.

Anyway, I saw it was on, checked Throng’s email for amendments and checked internet TV guides only to see that CSI: Miami was still in for 9.30 and we had no email notifying us of the amendment. Any wonder the audience gets confused? Ratings-wise, the second episode only dropped about 100,000 from the first – BUT – with the change being so late, CSI: Miami episode one still would have shown in the ratings top 50 for the day. The first episode was also down on usual, and frankly speaking was nowhere near as good as the previous two were.

Here at Throng, we spotted the erronious CSI in the top 50 for the day and changed it accordingly.

But what if I saw NO channel Nine last night, and relied on my recording to watch Rescue later in the week – as was the case last week? I would have missed the second episode, and not been aware of it to change the CSI entry in the ratings. I would have had no idea it was on which is just plain stupid and a blatant disrespect for viewers. Anyone who had set their recorders in advance and were out, working or away for the night will have been disadvantaged.

Seeing that timeshift figures these days can change completely the outcome for the week in ratings, the networks should have respect for those who watch virtually nothing live recording shows to watch later the same night, or on other nights.

This is the subject matter that got me into writing about TV a few years ago – back then, an accurate EPG on channel Nine and Seven was unheard of, with Ten being the only commercial that offered such a logical convenience for viewers.

It is disappointing to see it still happens in 2011, although I have to say, these sorts of occurrences are rare in comparison to years gone by.

You used to have to program to record baring in mind that an 8.30 start time could mean anything from 8.31 to 8.43, and a 9.30 finish time similar an hour later. I even posted a guide on my blog at the time to help viewers understand what an advertised time translated to into real time.

I have said it before, and will say it again – there is no reason in this day and age for EPGs not to be accurate to the minute at all times, other than when live events run late or there is late breaking news involved. And there is no reason to change programming for a night hours before shows air. There should be rules against this – in some countries, their networks MUST provide an EPG to the minute at all times. Why not here?

Ten have always gone out of their way to do things differently. Until recently, Ten have avoided taking part in the 6pm news and current affairs wars that consume Seven and Nine. They avoid the morning breakfast battle between their two commercial rivals. They even have their own definition of prime time when reporting ratings shares.

Ten have always aimed at the younger demographics, with younger skewing programming being at the core of what Ten does. But with the advent of digital channels over the last two years, younger skewing digital channels such as GO! and 7mate from rival networks Seven and Nine have eaten away at Ten’s core viewer base.

Ten were well aware of this problem going into 2011 as they launched the extra news service at 6.30pm and 6pm George Negus in an attempt to lure some viewers away from Seven and Nine. Meanwhile, Ten’s younger audience were directed to ELEVEN – their own digital channel aimed predominantly at 13-29 year olds. ELEVEN became the home of The Simpsons and Neighbours, which, until the end of 2010, aired on Ten from 6pm-7pm.

With Ten aiming for more older viewers and moving away from 16-39 year olds, and ELEVEN an almost instant hit with its target demographic, only their other digital channel – the sports channel ONE HD – was left bringing the network down, with nightly shares of around 1%. Solution was to add some general entertainment, and then on May 8, take away most sports from prime time.

Now that the digital channels combined are drawing nightly shares not too different to their commercial competitors, the attention then shifts back to the main channel Ten. Masterchef this year did not perform anywhere near previous years, and their big end of year hope The Renovators is close to being one of the most expensive television flops in history.

Not only should Ten consider action on The Renovators along the lines covered in the previous part, but they should start looking at the rest of their programming and finding solutions to keep more eyeballs on their main channel for longer.

Ten’s 2012 line up of shows will be announced tonight. Expected to feature is a revival of Young Talent Time and the announcement of an early morning breakfast show to go up against Seven and Nine – which will mean preschool programming moves into the afternoons, if it can’t be aired in the mornings.

While the new shows for 2012 may bring some reprieve for Ten, the network need to look at their overall approach to programming to get themselves back into the battle with Seven and Nine.

Ten should straight away stop only programming for their own primetime definition of 6pm – 10.30pm weeknights. Both Seven and Nine, as well as the industry as a whole, define prime time and the time that nightly ratings count towards the ratings battle as 6pm – midnight every night. Only Ten use 6pm – 10.30pm which skews ratings figures in favour of their own network.

Seven, on many weeknights, airs new content as late as 11.30pm. Nine air shows like CSI: Miami, Football Classified, and the Footy Show Late in late night timeslots. Ten has the Late News, Sports Tonight (for now) and Letterman from 10.30 Monday to Thursday.

Ten’s shortened prime time philosophy extends to its digital channels. ELEVEN plays the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson at 10.30pm weeknights. While it is good to see some late night US talk shows on free to air TV, this one is NEVER in the top 100 digital shows of any night, and sometimes, shows that air after Craig Ferguson make it into the top 100. This is a massive dip in the ratings for ELEVEN, which would easily be rectified by moving The Late Late show past midnight – like what GEM have done for Conan – which also has very low ratings.

Looking at programming on Seven and Nine’s digital channels, they also program for ratings until midnight. One of the main reasons why most movies on GO! start at 9.30 is so they finish between 11.30 and midnight keeping viewers on the channel until then and thereby lifting that channel’s shares.

It does not matter how much ratings figures are skewed or which demographic is winning in that time, what most people care about is total people, 6pm – midnight. Certainly the advertisers care about the demographic breakdowns, but the media and the public are more concerned about total people, 6pm – midnight. With Ten not focussing on prime time ratings over the same time that Seven and Nine are, they will always be left behind and will always be reported as such in the media.

Ten will continue to be seen as the network coming third in commercial ratings behind Seven and Nine, a fact that does play on people’s minds when deciding what to watch on TV. It has often been said, that Seven, because they are number one, can put anything to air and still win the ratings. People do tend to stick to the network that is number one, and place more faith in that network. This was the case for Nine in the old days as well.

So Ten should immediately drop this idea of programming for 6pm -10.30pm only. On the main channel, the news should move back to 11.30pm, allowing for an extra hour of nightly prime time programming Monday – Thursdays. If the network had been able to make use of the 10.30pm timeslot on these nights, shows that had not worked too well at 9.30pm could have moved back to 10.30pm rather than out of the schedule or to a digital channel. This is what happens on Seven and Nine. Seven even move shows back to 11.30pm like is the case currently for Teen Wolf and Off The Map.

Same goes for ELEVEN and ONE. Notably, ONE is starting to add regular shows to the 10.30pm timeslot, but ELEVEN will continue to be held back while ever Craig Fergusson remains at 10.30pm weeknights. Sure – the channel is close to the most watched digital channel each night, and doing well in its target demographics, but it could do even better if The Late Late show was moved back to midnight and other programming was played 10.30 – midnight. One just needs to llok at 7mate, 7TWO and GO! programming for good examples of programming until midnight, and not giving up at 10.30pm.

If Ten and ELEVEN both made these sorts of changes, the nightly rating shares for the network as a whole would increase, allowing Ten to compete more effectively with Seven and Nine. Just that extra hour and a half, if programmed well, could start to make the difference between Ten being third every night (and sometimes fourth behind the ABC), to Ten being a serious contender in what should be a three horse ratings race, not just two.

Another area of Ten that should change or improve, is its on air presentation. Time to give the “seriously Ten” idents a rest and go for a more professional or at least new and fresh look. The “seriously Ten” motto has been around for years, and after years of being third in the ratings, for many, it will be associated with Ten’s performance.

Perhaps in 2012, Ten could relaunch with a new look, a new philosophy, and a new strategy that will help put the network back fully into the game? That is, of course, if their latest wave of cost cutting does not get in the way. Then again, if the network was performing better in ratings, they’d have more advertising revenue and therefore would not need to apply cost cutting measures to the degree that they have had to.

Next part: Media support – embargos and preview disks.

Anyone who looks at free to air programming any more than a few days in advance will have noticed, that lately, all timeslots for channel Ten from Sunday onwards were “To Be Advised” from 7.30 – 10.30pm on many EPGs and internet TV Guides.

This comes as a direct consequence of current programming policy of the Ten network to maintaining strict embargoes on their advanced programming that dictates that the information cannot be released until after a certain date.

The usual case is that programming for any given week cannot be published anywhere until the Monday prior to the week the programming is for.

For example – programming for next week Sunday May 1 – May 7 was embargoed until Monday April 25. But given the five day weekend we just enjoyed, many of the people responsible for updating or uploading programming information would not have been back at work until today, Wednesday April 27.

As a result, “To Be Advised” timeslots for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of next week will have remained as such until today. Ten are already heavily promoting shows from next week including, of course, Masterchef and Glee’s new timeslot of Wednesday 8.30pm from May 4.

This embargo policy that Ten upholds will also apply to the first week of programming for the new look ONE launching on May 8, which means full details of the schedule for ONE for that week will not be available until Monday May 2.

Other networks also hold back important scheduling information until the last minute, but Ten are the only network to do it on a regular weekly basis.

 

Just how is 2011 doing so far in TV land? Already – there are flops as well as surprise early season finishes – like Packed to the Rafters on Seven.

Looking at the list of shows for 2011 and their premiere or returning air dates, here are our comments on just how things are going – show by show.

30 Rock – Seven – Thur Feb 3, 11.30pm
Still airing at that time.

60 Minutes – Nine – Sun Feb 13, 7.30pm
Still airing as planned.

6PM With George Negus – Ten – Mon Jan 24, 6.00pm
Still on, despite poor ratings. The 10.30pm encore nearly doubles the exposure of 6PM. The ratings at 6PM are on the way up, sitting around 400,000 at the moment.

American Idol – FOX8 – Thur Jan 20, 7.35pm
Who says Idol needs Simon Cowell to work? Enjoying this season more than many of the previous seasons.

Ben Elton: Live From Planet Earth – Nine – Tue Feb 8, 9.30pm
Flop number 1 for 2011. Poor premiere ratings, followed by even lower subsequent ratings means it only lasted 3 weeks.

Better Homes and Gardens – Seven – Fri Feb 4, 7.30pm
On and rating as well as ever.

Blue Bloods – Ten – Wed Feb 2, 8.30pm
Ten’s first high profile import casualty of 2011. Moved from Wednesday nights to 9.30pm Friday nights, where even less people are watching compared to Wednesdays.

Bob’s Burgers – ELEVEN – Wed Jan 26, 9.30pm
Doing OK for a multi channel and considering the timeslot.

Bondi Rescue – Ten – Sun Feb 6, 8.00pm
On and continues.

Bones – Seven – Mon Jan 31, 8.30pm. Sundays and Mondays 8.30m from Feb 6.
Back to once a week, then Seven caught up with episodes from the US. Rather than being a few days behind and fast tracking as such, Seven have chosen to air repeats, which will most likely remain until after Easter.

Border Security – Sun Feb 6, 7.30pm
Doing well as usual.

Brothers and Sisters – Seven – Mon Jan 31, 9.30pm
Doing OK.

Burn Notice – Ten – Feb or later*
According to TV Week, Ten have no plans to play Burn Notice in the immediate future on either Ten or ELEVEN.

Castle – Seven – Sun Feb 6, 9.30pm
Doing well.

Chuck – FOX8 – Sun Jan 23, 6.30pm
Flopped in that timeslot, although, this season is no where as good as previous ones. They have moved Chuck to Friday nights, and are playing the season from the start again. Assuming no programming changes, first run episodes will air from Friday April 22.

City Homicide – Seven – Wed Feb 2, 9.30pm
Final Wed March 30, 9.30pm.

Cougar Town – Seven – Tue Feb 1, 10.30pm
Still on.

Conviction Kitchen – Seven – Feb 8
Played after Rafters on Tuesday at 9.30 before settling to 8.30pm Mondays where it remains. Should finish Mon April 11 (assumed).

Criminal Minds – Seven – Wed Feb 2, 8.30pm
Now the highest rating import on TV at the moment. A double episode will air Wednesday April 6 (and presumably 13th as well).

CSI – Nine – Thur Feb 3, 8.30pm
Amazingly for Nine, it has stayed in that timeslot. There were two weeks of doubles though in February

CSI: Miami
New episodes air again from March 28, after being in and out of Nine’s schedule a number of times in 2011.

Desperate Housewives – Seven – Thur Feb 3, 9.30pm
Doing fine.

Fat Family Diet – Seven – Mon Jan 31, 10.30pm
Series has finished.

Fringe – GO! – Wed Jan 19, 9.30pm
After GO! Played a double episode recently, Fringe has disappeared from the schedule. GO say they will play them once they have enough episodes built up to go to the season final without a break. Possibly some time in April.

Getaway – Nine – Thur Jan 27, 8.00pm
Still there in its new half hour format.

Glee – Ten – Mon Jan 31, 7.30pm
Last new episode for a while airs March 21. A break in the US means we probably won’t see any new ones until May 2, after Easter non-ratings.

Grey’s Anatomy – Seven – Thur Feb 3, 8.30pm
Doing well.

Hawaii Five-O – Ten – Sun Jan 30, 8.30pm
Doing OK, and picking up 15%-20% more audience on timeshift figures. A double episode back in February didn’t help the audience build.

Home and Away – Seven – Mon Jan 24, 7.00pm
Doing well – reaching over a million on some nights.

House – Ten – Feb – Wed Feb 2, 9.30pm
Moved to Mondays 8.30pm in response to poor ratings of other shows.

How I Met Your Mother – Seven – Thur Feb 3, 7.30pm
The double episodes means we have nearly caught up

Keeping Up With the Joneses – Ten – later in year*
No news on this one.

Law & Order: SVU – Ten Thur Jan 20, 9.30pm
Doing OK.

Lie to Me – Ten – Feb*
Went to Wednesdays at 9.30pm. Last new ep aired Wed March 16. Currently not in the schedule due to comedy specials on Wednesday nights March 23 and 30.

Mike and Molly – Nine – Wed Feb 9, 8.00pm
Also airs on GO now – not performing as well as Nine would have hoped, but still is there in the same timeslot.

Modern Family New – Ten – Sun Jan 30, 7.30pm
Not attracting the number of viewers it used to, bit still doing well.

Murphy’s Law – 7TWO – Wed Feb 2, 9.45pm
Still on.

My Kitchen Rules – Seven – Mon Jan 31, 7.30pm. Continues Tue Feb 1 and Wed Feb 2 at 7.30pm. Airs Mon – Wed – 3 nights a week from then on.
Rating through the roof – so much so that a third series has already been commissioned. MKR alone is causing most of the problems that Nine and Ten have with their 7.30 show ratings Mon-Wed.

NCIS New – Ten – Feb – Tue Feb 1, 8.30pm
Always does well. May pick up more viewers now that Rafters has finished.

NCIS: LA New – Ten – Sun Jan 30, 9.30pm
Ten should play this on Tuesday night after NCIS. NCIS: LA does not do as well as it should, being after Hawaii Five-O.

Nikita – GO! – later in year?
Still no sign of this show.

Packed to the Rafters – Seven – Tue Feb 8, 8.30pm
Finished already (but will be back later). Last new episode aired March 15.

Parenthood – Seven – Tue Feb 1, 8.30pm (double ep, then Tue Feb 8, 9.30pm)
On again, off again, on again. Interruptions to its timeslot with Conviction Kitchen in February, then another next Tuesday March 29 has not helped its figures – which are down on last years’.

Private Practice – Seven – Thur Feb 3, 10.30pm
Still there. Obviously not the same number of viewers as it got at 9.30, but still not bad for its time.

Rescue Special Ops – Nine – later in the year
Possibly to air in May but not confirmed.

RPA: Where Are They Now? – Nine – Wed Feb 9, 9.30pm
Continues as scheduled.

$#*! My Dad Says – Nine – Mon Jan 31, 8.00pm
Flop number 2 from Nine. Out of the schedule already, not even on GO yet.

Sunday Night – Seven – Sun Feb 6, 6.30pm
It’s success so far in 2011 has prompted Nine to put ACA on Sundays as well.

Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation – Ten – Tue Feb 8, 7.30pm
Nowhere near as successful as it used to be. Too many repeats have affected the shows performance this year.

The Amazing Race Australia – Seven – Later in the year*
Most likely to air soon after the conclusion of the US series currently airing on 7mate Sundays at 6.30pm.

The Big Bang Theory New – Nine – Tue Feb 8 and Wed Feb 9, 7.30pm
A stable timeslot would help. New eps have now been on every possible combination of Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

The Biggest Loser Families – Ten – Sun Jan 30, 6.30pm Then Wed-Fri 7.30pm.
Doing better than the previous year.

The Farmer Wants a Wife – Nine – Wed Feb 9. 8.30pm
Series 6 about to conclude. There will be a 7th, applications are open. Ratings so far lower this season than previous ones.

The Force – Seven – Sunday Feb 6, 8.00pm
Still on and doing OK.

The Good Wife – Ten – Thur Jan 20, 8.30pm
Doing OK for its time.

The Mentalist New – Nine – Sunday Feb 13, 8.30pm.
Doing OK, but not as well as previous years.

The Vampire Diaries – GO! – Mon Jan 31, 9.30pm
Has stuck to the same timeslot but is currently off due to a break in the US. Should return April 12.

Top Gear New – Nine – Tue Feb 8, 8.00pm
Now has moved to 8.30pm. Ratings are down on last year.

Two and a Half Men New – Nine – Mondays Jan 31, 7.30pm
Figures are down, but the show remains on Nine, same time for the new episodes, repeats as well. Nine calls a double new episode, a “Two and a Half men Event” – goodness – if that is an event, what would they call the Olympics?

Underbelly – Razor – Nine – later in the year
To come later in the year.

Underbelly Files – Tell Them Lucifer Was Here – Nine – Mon Feb 7, 8.30pm
Underbelly Files – Infiltration – Nine – Mon Feb 14, 8.30pm
Underbelly Files – The Man Who Got Away – Nine – Mon Feb 21, 8.30pm
All have aired, they were also encored on GEM. All did over a million on Nine.

V – GO! – Wed Jan 19, 8.30pm
Final March 23.

Winners and Losers – Seven – Tuesday 8.30pm, from March 22.
About to premiere.

After mentioning in the post about Conviction Kitchen, how many programming changes there has been in 2011 so far, I thought I would list the channels in order of those with the most changes. The top three all go to the Nine network.

Channels that make the most programming changes in order:

1. GO! – in front by a long way. Changing movies, adding or taking away encores, dropping shows, changing shows, adding double episodes, the list goes on.

2. GEM – also changing movies, but most of the GEM changes are moving shows around the schedule, pushing some later into the night, etc.

3. Nine – majority of changeshave been double episodes, moving CSI franchises around, adding encores or generally just changing their mind of what to broadcast.

4. Ten – Ten have reacted to lower than expected ratings on many shows and made changes accordingly. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday now have different line ups to what they did when ratings resumed a few weeks ago.

5. 7mate – Mostly moving or changing episodes of shows. Occasional movie change. One change now is that they are playing Quantum of Solace this Sunday – which was only on Seven last Saturday.

6. ELEVEN – Sunday to Thursday have essentially not changed since the channel’s launch but Friday has changed once, and Saturdays twice.

7. Seven – Seven’s only major changes revolve around where to put Conviction Kitchen. As a result changes have affected Bones and Parenthood as well. Other than those two timeslots, their schedule is incredibly stable so far.

8. 7TWO – changes to a movie or two is about it for 7TWO. Pretty stable.

9. ONE HD – Usually what is programmed on ONE HD is what you get, but recent weeks has seen the addition of movies and documentaries as opposed to sport replays during prime time.

This list only considers normal programming, focussing on prime time, not the gross programming changes that occur as a result of rolling news coverage. ABC and SBS rarely make programming changes on the scale of the commercial channels.

　

　

More last minute changes from Nine – for this weekend.

On Friday night, the movie The Last Samurai – which, if I recall, was only recently on GEM, has been replaced with Rush Hour 3 at 8.30pm. That is followed by Rush Hour 2 at 10.30 (yes – they are playing 3 first, then 2) and Consequence at 12.30am.

On Saturday night, the low rating game show The Cube has been replaced with a movie – Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium from 7.30pm. The flow on effect here changes the whole night – In The Line of Fire is at 9.30, the Deer Hunter at 12.05.

Now – I’ll go and cross off some more programming changes on the printed guide for the week. Thank goodness for internet guides, blogs, forums and EPGs!