I’ve been working pretty hard lately so I was really looking forward to an evening off in front of the tv. The PVR needs serious cleaning off because it’s getting too full. I thought I’d start with Lost. I have a lot of questions about Lost, the big one being is anyone really into this season?
But of course how could you be when the recording cuts out before the end?! Who does that and why? Is it the broadcasters trying to get you to watch live, so they run the show past the hour and your recording ends up cut off! Why would you do that to a loyal fan struggling to enjoy the final season?
But hey, I didn’t get too upset. Instead I switched over to On Demand where I figured I could catch the precious last few seconds of the episode. You know I hate On Demand. The worst interface ever. But I sat through slow menu after slow menu, found my episode and had a little nap while it loaded. Then I hit fast forward to get me to the spot where the PVR had cut out.
Guess what! Fast forward didn’t work. A little notice came on the screen along with a male voice over announcing that the controls are turned off for this episode. WTF?! I can’t fast forward to where I left off? I have to sit through the whole thing? Plus ads? I don’t think so.
Just for interest sake, I checked a bunch of other shows — some on CTV On Demand, some on Global — and several have this same thing: you can’t use the remote to fast forward, rewind or pause.
This is new, right? I’ve never encountered it before. Someone has decided to force us to watch commercials. Who? On Demand is Rogers, no? Are they sharing this ad revenue with the broadcasters? Hard to say, but given the whole CRTC kerfuffle about fee for carriage, I’m having trouble seeing these opposing teams working together against us the audience. They prefer the solo approach to screwing us.
Next I tried to watch my recorded episode of Amazing Race, but most of what was recorded was 60 Minutes. By now, my blood pressure is seriously up. So I grab a computer to watch online on CBS. There are the episodes but they too have disabled the controls, so you can’t fast forward, back up or pause and yes, you are forced to sit through commercial breaks.
Hasn’t everyone in the TV industry heard? Consumers want their content when, where and how they want it. Taking control out of their hands is no way to ensure the future of the business. Pissing the audience off is no way to deal with falling viewership. And trying to force people to watch ads is not going to get them to buy the products, it’s going to make them HATE the brands.
These are the strategies of desperate companies. They will only alienate your viewers and drive the demise of the copyright laws you so desperately cling too.
Wake up!
Start thinking creatively about your business. The model doesn’t work anymore. Let it go and come up with a new one. Because I’m not hanging out for much more of this.
I’ve been seriously considering canceling my whole cable package. You can grab a fair amount of HD out of the air with an antenna and the quality is better than what they serve up through the coax. Between iTunes, eyeTV, DVDs and various work arounds you can get pretty much everything you want to see without shoveling your entire life savings into the cable provider’s bank account every month. I’m fed up with paying that much money to get abused by a company that has so little respect for its clientele.
Brandon
This happens to us all the time – especially with Amazing Race. We have to end up taping it on another channel timeshifted from BC (I think A-Channel…?)
It’s incredibly stupid and annoying… there are a ton of progams on my PVR that cut out with like 1 or 2 mins left, especially 30 min programs.
We’ve countered this by putting a 1 min padding on both sides of the shows we want to tape, but man, talk about your pains in the butt.
I’m seriously considering hooking my nice HD TV to a decent NetTop and just streaming the shows I want to watch from the watch.ctv.ca…
They may not be pretty but at least they’ll work.
Marilyn
We still do it all old-school VHS-styles, and like Brandon I pad the settings by a few minutes, which certainly is a ridiculous situation for broadcasters to create. But that’s not really what I wanted to comment on…
“I have a lot of questions about Lost, the big one being is anyone really into this season?”
Yes. Oh so very yes. We have a kind of TGITuesday vibe in our house these days!
COnsider This
Why pay to watch commercials when you can watch Lost – all seasons currently, on Hulu with 30 second commercial that aren’t so bad – free!
CBS hosts their own shows, Amazing Race, CSI, the GOOD WIFE, etc.
Cable is going down – fingers crossed! Support these up and coming alternatives. Cheers.
admin
Yeah, Hulu… There’s a wee problem with Hulu in that it’s geoblocked and only of use to Americans. Which is more of this frustrating the audience into caring less about broadcast TV.
But what’s really interesting, Consider This, is that you are hoping for the demise of cable. Way to go TV industry. Make us hate you. Make us wish to see you go down and support your alternatives. At time when audiences finally have some power, your bullying and customer abuse tactics may finally come back to bite you… or not considering you also own the ISPs.
admin
Marilyn,
We need to talk Lost. Maybe what I’m not liking about the season is how disjointed it feels watching it week to week. I watched the first 5 seasons in a binge this past summer. Maybe I should save up a bunch of episodes and watch them all at once just before the finale. Because right now, I’m having trouble getting into it. Things like Widmore and a whole other army of people appearing kind of bug me. And Zoe — the Tina Fey clone in unlikely glasses? — don’t care about her. I feel like someone of the characters I have followed for a long time are being lost in the shuffle.
The fact that the ends of episodes keep getting cut off on the PVR isn’t helping me get into it.
Robbo
I have had a hate-on for the cable/broadcast industry in Canada for some time now. We’re already watching way more content derived from online sources than we are through our inflated cable subscription. We made the decision recently to cancel our Rogers account completely (the internet from them was ditched a long time ago in favour of Teksavvy) and will be using a small and simple antenna mounted on our roof to pick up local and semi-distant signals (standard and HD) to augment our TV fare. The old established sources of content are fast losing ground as the “only” way to gain access to media. By the time they figure out they are no longer wanted (let alone needed) it will be too late for them to change their operations and they will die a loud and whining ignoble death. Good riddance to them.
admin
Even after years of being their customer, their blind arrogance kills me. Especially with all the alternatives becoming so easily accessible. With dollars tight, I can’t see how the first cuts in any household aren’t going to be to that cable bill.