Christmas TV Clash
Posted: Thu 5 December, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Domestic, Festering Season, News, Television, Thoughts Leave a comment »
I don’t know why, but somehow it’s ‘news’ that major TV programmes will clash in their scheduling over Christmas this year. (And every year in the last 30 or so, I’m sure)
Now really, are these clashes something that will even affect most people any more? Since the advent of the video-recorder, we’ve been able to watch one programme and record another to view later. With DVRs/PVRs (Sky+, Freeview Boxes, TiVo etc.) it’s even easier, with two (or even three) recordings able to happen at once.
So – why is this a problem? I know not everyone has such a set-up, but I’d guess that the great majority have something that can record a programme. Plus there’s also all the VOD stuff (BBC iPlayer, ITVoD, 4OD et al.) allowing us to catch up later on anything that we do happen to have missed.
The only thing I can think of is that it screws the viewing figures for people watching [Programme X] right now, and viewing figures like that still seem to be the main reference point for how succesful a programme was. (And surely that has to change or be updated, with all the developments above?)
But still – does that make this newsworthy? Or should it really read “Newsflash : TV Schedulers Screw Up Again“?