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What Is The Problem With Viacom?

F

FredLeonard

Guest
I am so fed up with Viacom channels, especially TV Land and Comedy Central. They are constantly off-schedule. Recorded shows are almost always clipped because they start early or end late. There's no consistent pattern which would allow adjustments. Sometimes the beginning is clipped. Sometimes the end. Sometimes they are off by one minute, or two or five. I've even seen the off by as much as 15 minutes (I'd get the 2nd half of one show, and the first half of another).

This isn't rocket science. Are they unable to get the times right? Or are they trying to discourage DVR viewing and keep the off-hours audience as small as possible?
 
My Viacom rule has always to add 5-15 minutes onto a show, no matter what, and never set a series recording on any of their networks unless you enjoy pain. They've never learned to work with DVRs, never will, and trying to set a Daily Show or South Park series recording to actually only record the new episodes is beyond frustrating. And especially in off-hours, good luck getting what's actually in the episode description; they love substituting different episodes and different shows entirely depending on the mood of that day's programmer. The rage many feel for whoever keeps putting on long stretches of SpongeBob repeats on Nick when their other shows could definitely use the reruns to get an audience is voluminous.

Not to mention the insane commercial loads that haven't changed since the 80's. The bad old days where TBS had 8-minute commercial breaks are downright bucolic compared to Spike's 11-minute long breaks at times. Even having Hulu Plus is no solution either for Viacom shows.
 
FredLeonard said:
This isn't rocket science. Are they unable to get the times right? Or are they trying to discourage DVR viewing and keep the off-hours audience as small as possible?
Click to expand...

Damn the time-shifters! Full feed ahead! As in "you WILL watch ALL of the ads, or you won't watch it at all." Or at least make it that much harder to skip the ads. I suppose a person could watch almost in real time and have the DVR skip ads. It's a good way for Viacom to generate viewer bad-will.
 
The problem is Tivo (and other DVR users) can't skip the ads. You have to watch them to fast forward through them. A smart ad agency makes ad to catch the interest of people on fast forward and to communicate the sales message visually. A Tivo user is better than the old style live viewer who goes to the john or the kitchen during commercial breaks. Oh, I forgot! Broadcasters were deluded enough to think everybody just sat their during commercials.
 
I just record on the VCR. Not as if Giliigan is any better in high-def anyway. VCR lets you FF with no problem.

These days, you can just about buy any DVD season of some of those TVLand shows for 10 bucks or less and watch whenever, wherever, and not be hassled by anyone trying to make money.
 
FredLeonard said:
The problem is Tivo (and other DVR users) can't skip the ads. You have to watch them to fast forward through them.
Click to expand...
I found a trick to reprogram a TiVo Series 2 remote to work like a ReplayTV remote when I switched, and now the button that is supposed to kick it into fast-forward instead jumps ahead 30 seconds.

And I found three sites that reveal the trick:
http://bigmarv.net/how/tivo/tivo-30-second-skip.html
http://www.weaknees.com/30/
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/369/tivo_30_second_commercial_skip_jump/

And according to this post on the official TiVo blog that trick still works with the current models.

You're welcome, Fred.
 
K.M. Richards said:
I found a trick to reprogram a TiVo Series 2 remote to work like a ReplayTV remote when I switched, and now the button that is supposed to kick it into fast-forward instead jumps ahead 30 seconds.

And I found three sites that reveal the trick:
http://bigmarv.net/how/tivo/tivo-30-second-skip.html
http://www.weaknees.com/30/
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/369/tivo_30_second_commercial_skip_jump/

And according to this post on the official TiVo blog that trick still works with the current models.

You're welcome, Fred.
Click to expand...

I've been aware of that one for several years. (Sel-Play-Sel-30-Sel) Yes, it works. I hardly ever use it. The skips and commercial breaks don't come out even and I end up skipping back. Besides, sometimes there are commercials I want to see and I slow down for those in regular time: Movie trailers. Promos for show premieres or special episodes and cross-overs. Ads for something I am thinking about buying. And really good commercials that catch my eye.
 
Viacom starting adding 10-12 mins to each show to cram more commercials in. Most interactive guides reflect this. Kind of surprised that TiVo's does not.
 
umfan said:
Viacom starting adding 10-12 mins to each show to cram more commercials in. Most interactive guides reflect this. Kind of surprised that TiVo's does not.
Click to expand...

Tivo gets their guides from Tribune Media, like everybody else. And the guides do show odd starting and ending times. Problem is Viacom doesn't even adhere to those published times. They are not as far off as they once were when they said shows started on the hour and half-hour, no matter what. But they are usually late (although sometimes early) by two to six minutes. They run shows consecutively, with no station break and program credits in a crawl under the final minute or two of the show, which means shows mostly get clipped.
 
Maybe they should change TV Land's name to Ad Land. all your favorite (and not so favorite) ads interrupted by occasional breaks for TV shows. :rolleyes:
 
anotherguy said:
Maybe they should change TV Land's name to Ad Land. all your favorite (and not so favorite) ads interrupted by occasional breaks for TV shows. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Isn't that the normal TV model now? You don't see them cancel commercials that don't get enough ratings, only the TV shows.
 
TV Land is a channel that is been on life support for years. It thrived well in the late 90s and early 00s, and by 2008 or 2009 started to add loads of commercials. Now look at it! TV Land is NOT a classic TV channel anymore. They even had retro commercials.

-crainbebo
 
Last night (or this morning however you wanted to look at it), I noticed BET is getting just like its corporate cousin TVLAND. The reality show "Nellyville" ended at 12:01AM. Then they went into a boatload of commercials and The Wendy Williams Show DID NOT start until 12:07AM. - 12:07:30 to be exact. The listings on TVGUIDE.COM still had "Wendy" listed with a 12:00AM start time.
 
Then either TV Guide needs to change their listings, or BET needs to stop plugging 6 minutes of commercials into what should be Wendy Williams. Basic cable has gotten on life support, as far as I can tell. Viacom is a greedy company.

-crainbebo
 
anotherguy said:
Maybe they should change TV Land's name to Ad Land. all your favorite (and not so favorite) ads interrupted by occasional breaks for TV shows. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I haven't watched TV Land for a while, but what are most of their ads for? Considering the demographics are they mostly elderly-oriented commercials (similar to most ads on "The Price is Right")?
 
So greedy is bad, but lazy is good?

Everyone knows how the game is played. Just set your DVRs for bigger windows. How hard is that?

Or greed is bad but cheap is good? Just buy the complete season of these shows on DVD.
 
TheBigA said:
So greedy is bad, but lazy is good?

Everyone knows how the game is played. Just set your DVRs for bigger windows. How hard is that?

Or greed is bad but cheap is good? Just buy the complete season of these shows on DVD.
Click to expand...

Typical rightie: Everyone must adjust the greed needs of the suits.

First off, as already mentioned (if you had been paying attention), these Viacom channels are not consistent. Sometimes late, sometimes early. Sometimes one minute off, sometimes five and occasionally even 15.

Most DVRs can only record two shows at once. So if you set for a "bigger window," you can't record something in another time slot.

But viewers be damned! Greed is good.
 
Somehow I never perceived BigA as a "rightie" at all; far from it.

That said, perhaps the question should be what isn't Viacom's problem that Viacom has not had for a very long time? It is just more noticeable by more people now. The question seems to be timing, however.
 
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