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Inaccurate listings on the on-screen cable guide

MarcB

MarcB

Anyone else notice inaccurate listing on the on-screen cable guide for TVLAND? I'm not talking about the starting times of the shows which are often as off-clock by as much as 15 minutes during the overnights. I'm talking flat out listing the wrong show.

Example #1 - As per usual during the 9AM hour this morning "Extreme Home Make-over" was on. (If I'm not mistaken they start running the show at 8AM). My on screen cable guide this morning had "CMT INSIDER" listed for the 9AM-10AM hour for this morning.

And Example #2 - On more than one occasion including today at Noon and previously last week (and several other occasions) my on-screen guide has shown regular "Extreme Make-over" as being on when in fact in was "Extreme Home Make-Over". I don't believe I have ever seen "Extreme Make-over" on TVLAND.


Please do not use this thread to bash TVLAND. Just respond if you have seen the in-accurate listings on your on-screen guide.
 
It really depends on the cable company you have. As much as I love Verizon Fios (and I strongly recommend it) the company providing their guide data is horrible. There are many inaccuracies and incomplete information. This may not be a problem related to the network at all.
 
MarcB said:
Anyone else notice inaccurate listing on the on-screen cable guide for TVLAND? ... As per usual during the 9AM hour this morning "Extreme Home Make-over" was on. (If I'm not mistaken they start running the show at 8AM). My on screen cable guide this morning had "CMT INSIDER" listed for the 9AM-10AM hour for this morning...
Click to expand...

Let me guess... did they show the movie "Son-In-Law" at noon, when they were supposed to be showing "Extreme Home Makeover"? ;D
 
MarcB said:
Extreme Home Make-Over was on at Noon, not Extreme Make-over which was listed. I didn't watch. I was flipping back between Storm Stories on WTNH NEWS-8 ABC and Urban Legends on BIO.
Click to expand...
At least they got it close. They only forgot "home."
It's all robots and levers and pulleys anyway, man. Lay off the AI. One day they will rule the world.
 
It's the Viacom rule...always only give the listing ony a 75% shot of being correct if the network is owned by MTV Networks. This is especially true of MTV, Nick, CMT and here, TV Land, with Spike and VH1 usually the best at sticking to their listings and Comedy Central never knowing how to end a show on time after 1am. If you remember the old disclaimer on the end page of the TV Guide listings in mouse type when it printed true local listings, "The networks reserve the right to change their schedule at any time". Viacom's networks really abuse schedule changes much more than other cable channels, which usually just change due to sports delays or some kind of upstream programming issue that's out of their control.

I don't know how many times I've tuned into a show on either on Nick or MTV and found that it was wayyy off what the listings said (i.e. you get iCarly instead of SpongeBob). Just this weekend there was a recording where we expected one thing on the DVR and instead I got "True Life: I'm a Diet Nut/Gorger" or something, which meant I had to plug in the laptop to the TV and grab the stream of the show I wanted to watch.
 
From what I'm told, even Nick Jr. is an offender of this practice. My brother and sister-in-law occasionally record programming off the channel for the young'uns, and then when they watch it, they actually ended up DVR-ing other strange programming, when they expected "Backyardigans".

mrschimpf said:
If you remember the old disclaimer on the end page of the TV Guide listings in mouse type when it printed true local listings, "The networks reserve the right to change their schedule at any time".
Click to expand...

You mean, back when TV Guide actually used to have program listings in it? :D (By the way, I believe the disclaimer, verbatim, goes like this: "Channels and networks reserve the right to make last minute changes."
 
DToTheJ said:
mrschimpf said:
If you remember the old disclaimer on the end page of the TV Guide listings in mouse type when it printed true local listings, "The networks reserve the right to change their schedule at any time".
Click to expand...

You mean, back when TV Guide actually used to have program listings in it? :D (By the way, I believe the disclaimer, verbatim, goes like this: "Channels and networks reserve the right to make last minute changes."
Click to expand...

Exactly that, and when they actually printed television news. And thank you for giving the correct disclaimer; I was trying to think of what it said but was drawing a blank, so I paraphrased from my memory.
 
I'm pretty sure that sometimes the problem is in the original submissions, sometimes the problem is in the entry of the submissions, sometimes the problem is in the computers where the submissions are stored, sometimes the problem is in the transmission of the submissions, sometimes the problem is in the reception of the submissions.
Sometimes, the problem is in the people making the submissions, entering the submissions, maintaining and installing the computers that store and transmit the submissions, and receiving the submissions.
At least I'm pretty sure that's where the problem lies. Somewhere in there, almost invariably. ;)

I think the usual problem is the people submitting the info ain't putting much effort into it, for whatever reason [time, money, apathy, whatever].
At least on Dish Network guide, there are some channels that have details about the specific show, the year, the plot, if it's [CC] or [Stereo], all that. Usually those seem to be right, or at least close. Then there are some channels that never air what the program guide says is airing, and the descriptions of the show say "News" or "News/Business" or "Religious" or "Music," something broad as can be.
Most of the time on most channels, though, the show says "Paid Programming" or has a product name.
 
This is part of the reason that digital television has felt our beloved TV Guide listings in the dust - cable and broadcast stations can easily update listings to cable and satellite providers if they so choose (the fact that some choose not to, is the reason this thread is in existence). Of course, TV Guide Channel will be going the same listingless route before long...

Mrschimpf: You're welcome, glad I can help.

Johnnyu: A "happy Comcast customer"? Such a thing actuallt exists? ;)
 
DToTheJ said:
This is part of the reason that digital television has felt our beloved TV Guide listings in the dust - cable and broadcast stations can easily update listings to cable and satellite providers if they so choose (the fact that some choose not to, is the reason this thread is in existence). Of course, TV Guide Channel will be going the same listingless route before long...
Click to expand...

TV Guide as a printed listings source didn't die because stations could update their listings to cable/satellite providers (back when listings were still being printed, they were from the same database for any provider that used TV Guide)...it's because printed listings are a relic of the past, period. Better delivery systems coupled with an explosion in channels did it in--it would be economically impossible to make a profit doing business the way they did years ago. For the most part, the cable/satellite providers use another source for their data--they don't have in-house staff to track down listings information.

I saw the end coming back when I was doing the entry of program information; it may have taken a while, but the end was inevitable as night following day. The march of time killed TV Guide, not the fact that they don't run wonky stories that people cared about in the '60s but couldn't give a rat's rear about in the modern world.
 
I don't know about other channels, but AMC's listings on Charter have been way off last night and this morning. Last night I tuned in to see Star Trek: First Contact, but instead Superman Returns was on. This morning The Three Stooges was listed, but Spaceballs was on.
 
DToTheJ said:
I believe the disclaimer, verbatim, goes like this: "Channels and networks reserve the right to make last minute changes."
Click to expand...

There were also some instances where TVG would issue a special disclaimer for certain stations if that station's schedule was not final at the time of press. Notable instances include WGBS in Philadelphia, when that station endured financial difficulties in the early-1990s; and any affiliate of the old Star TV network, after that network folded in January 1991 (such as WAYK in Orlando).

Knowing the Viacom networks' demeanor to make their viewers and DVR'ers a living hell, it's too ban no one issued a special disclaimer for them.
 
I wanted to see Jimmy Kimmel last night after I found out he would be on. I went to my TiVo listings and he wasn't there. "Grey's Anatomy" was but it wouldn't allow me to record. So I did the next best thing: taped the 11:00 news with an hour and a half delay for the ending.
 
I was in a motel and they had the on-screen listings, though shrunk considerablky, with only two channels listed and only two shows, regardless of when they were on, with no details. But I wouldn't have known about the "Futurama" marathon otherwise. I brought my newspaper's TV section but forgot to ask for a list of local channels. Still, I didn't know about "Futurama" until I saw it on screen.

I did find one movie I enjoyed by just changing channels. I had seen "Shaft' listed on screen but forgot the channel. It didn't matter because I was on Lifetime and saw something that looked interesting. And they kept promoting the movie about the shooter who invaded an Amish school. Wonderful TV-movie, and I might never have known if I hadn't watched that one movie.
 
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