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The Late List: December results

The Amazing Race, Escape to the Country and The Big Bang Theory were amongst December's unpunctual shows.

2012-09-05_1442Here are the latest results of TV Tonight‘s Late List trial, a crowd-sourcing destination for you to name the shows that never start on time.

In December there were only 29 entries:

Seven: 13
Nine: 7
ABC: 3
Foxtel: 1
TEN: 1
Other: 4

Amongst the entries filed were:

The Amazing Race: Advertised time: 10:30pm / Actual: 10:47pm
Escape to the Country: Advertised time: 8:30pm / Actual: 9:03pm
Homes Under the Hammer: Advertised time: 9:45pm / Actual: 9:55pm
CSI Advertised time: 10:32pm / Actual: 11:02pm
The Big Bang Theory Advertised time: 8:30pm / Actual: 8:36pm
Problems Advertised time: 9:03pm / Actual: 9:07pm

No doubt the number of entries is affected by less eyeballs watching the box in summer, but as the List was a trial running until the end of 2012 ratings I will keep it going a little longer to see if its purpose is warranted. I’m endeavouring to do my bit to give the audience a platform to keep networks sticking to the clock, but if there isn’t enough interest it will be discontinued.

I will keep it running through January and February to see if the numbers pick up with the return of ratings. Thanks!

You can file an entry here.

NB: The Late List is a crowd-sourcing trial and is not scientifically conducted. It relies on the trust of readers to resource information

20 Responses

  1. David : My bad. As daft as it may be, I’ve never noticed that on the top bar. I suppose the way I’ve always read the blog is by scrolling the two columns first, then checking the poll on the right and that’s me done. Sorry ’bout that! 🙂

  2. Keep it going for a while more David, I must admit i have been slack in sending in anything but I keep a pen and paper handy and jot down any times, but with the PVR set to record most things at 10 minutes before and a 30 minute overrun I find it hard to be excact

  3. I think the only way the commercial channels might be on time assuming they won’t decide to be by themselves. Seems doubtful. Is the advertisers get charged the same discount price for after 10.30pm no matter what is on at that time. Then there’d be no financial incentive to be late. Actually the advertisers should get a discount for if a show is late unless it involves sport. Of course I doubt the advertisers would be sensible enough to do it. That’s why we all pay except the Networks. Although even they are to some extent.

  4. David you could change the form so it reloads after a submission, rather than falling through to the comments page. If you have quite a few to enter, it gets a little tedious navigating back to the submission page. Might be putting some people off bothering, hard to say.

    As others point out, it may be a futile gesture too, which probably discourages a number of folks from trying. Still, how hard is it to keep running? Might pay off over the long haul.

  5. Add my voice to the chorus who say the networks won’t change their spots. Every day they prove they can adhere to scheduling by screening their nightly news bang on time. After that, all bets are off. ACMA can’t do squat, Oztam has no interest and the viewing public don’t really care. No wonder their audience is going elsewhere.

  6. my problem is not really when they start their programme as long as they update the EPG!

    although if they are going to advertise a programme as starting at 8.30, why lie and start it at 8.37?

  7. David, with this TEN EPG issue did you actually talked them about it because it seems to be working with only 1 late entry. Compared to Novembers results when on Sundays it will revert back to the normal time. 7, 9 and the ABC are all getting slacked with their EPG. Maybe TEN are actually listening? Where is WC and BN on TEN.

  8. The way consumers will fix the situation is by not watching or timeshifting late running shows.

    You can already see that viewers won’t watch any drama scheduled for 9:30pm because it will either finish at 10:45pm, or they will miss the start when what they are watching at 8:30pm runs late. 35% of the audience for such shows records them.

  9. I haven’t watched any commerical TV over Summer except for Merlin which always started on time, and Nikita which runs 5 minutes early or 10 minutes late, but I don’t care since it is on late and I record it.

    Is the number of entries in the list the important data? It tends to most reflect which shows are popular, or at least are popular with viewers who follow the late list on this blog. A difference of over 5 minutes between the advertised/TV Guide time and starting time for each prime time show is what is interesting.

    But even if the time is correct it doesn’t solve the problem of the networks using staggered programming. The networks are trying to make it as hard as possible for viewers to watch other networks while cramming more ads into popular shows.

    This is what really annoys live viewers lots of ad breaks and having to wait a long time for a show to start, or finding out a show started a long time ago, when they finish watching one show and want to watch another show on a different network.

    Consumer pressure won’t fix it because starting shows on time and putting less ads in costs the networks money, and their revenues are collapsing. Only the ACMA imposing regulations and fines matters. As this week list shows the networks are playing these scheduling games even over summer non-ratings as badly as ever.

  10. With repeats, crap, and repeats of crap, I’m certainly watching less TV on the likely offenders. Grimm was the last thing I was watching on any of Seven’s channels but I gave up after NY because it doesn’t start or finish on time and the double eps are too much of a commitment.

    I hope that you stick with it David altho, I fear that it may not have much of an effect, esp on Seven who seem to not give a damn about their audience as long as the numbers keep coming in each week.

  11. Thanks David. I must admit I have PVR’ed most of my summer shows, so it is a week or more before I watch them and then forget unless it is really noticeable.
    Sadly I agree with JB I love this feature but have noticed a worsening especially from 7 with TAR, Escape and have noticed the factuals over summer start at non half hour times.

  12. David, i love the idea of this. I was supportive and submitted several times. But honestly there’s no point. The networks don’t care and they won’t change. Funny how Ten and Seven both managed to finish on time in order to start tennis coverage.
    The less submissions is not because of less eyeballs, it’s because people realise there’s no point anymore.

    In the end the networks are the ones missing out because people won’t bother watching.

  13. The majority of the shows we habitually watch (and/or record) aren’t airing now, so we’re not likely to notice guide problems. In fact Autosched on our Topfield is only recording about 5 or 6 shows a week at the moment, most of which are QI repeats. 😉

    It may be weeks or months before anything airs that we’d notice running late, we’ve no way to gauge.

  14. I’ve actually been watching a lot of abc over summer and have found it quite refreshing watching good shows, without ads and starting on time. Certainly plan to watch more abc this year.

  15. I love the Late List idea. May I suggest an obvious link or tool under / above the poll section on the main page to encourage more use. I kinda forget about it unless there is a story posted about it.

  16. I have found over summer that ten and sometimes nine have been much better with start times, this could accont for the lesser entries. But seven is still outrageously bad.

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