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Network Program Start Times

K

K6JHU

I recently moved from Southern California to New Mexico and brought my Tivo with me. In Southern California all the four network feeds started right on the second. In New Mexico three of the four feeds start on the second. CBS starts a minute early.

Two questions. First is this the entire Mountain Time feed or is this local in New Mexico? Second, and this brings out the conspiracy theory in me, could this be a deliberate attempt (a la TBS) as an experiment to see if they can rope in more viewers by starting the program early?
 
It's probably a quirk that it's stark contrast to NBC officially starting "The Tonight Show" at :34 after the hour (do they still do that?).
 
K6JHU said:
In New Mexico three of the four feeds start on the second. CBS starts a minute early.
First is this the entire Mountain Time feed or is this local in New Mexico?
Click to expand...

Local to KRQE-TV. AFAIK, CBS has yet to add a MT feed, except on special occasions.

Phoenix stations also start early (6:59:00 or 6:59:30), even KPNX Mesa (NBC) during
standard time when they could use the NBC MT feed.


DToTheJ said:
It's probably a quirk that it's stark contrast to NBC officially starting "The Tonight Show"
at :34 after the hour (do they still do that?).
Click to expand...

Isn't Leno's start time actually :34:30? And SNL, :29:00 or :29:30?
 
DToTheJ said:
It's probably a quirk that it's stark contrast to NBC officially starting "The Tonight Show" at :34 after the hour (do they still do that?).
Click to expand...

They've bumped it up to 34:30 now so that the local guys get one more ad in before it starts.
 
My understanding is that each station maintains its own clock (which not only screws up standard start times but also drives my DVR crazy as it constantly updates its clock).

I've noticed channel 61, an indie in Phoenix, has started its programs early forever. Either nobody's driving the bus or they have their own atomic clock.
 
landtuna said:
My understanding is that each station maintains its own clock (which not only screws up standard start times but also drives my DVR crazy as it constantly updates its clock).

I've noticed channel 61, an indie in Phoenix, has started its programs early forever. Either nobody's driving the bus or they have their own atomic clock.
Click to expand...

I've had that issue with Cox for years (just two or three seconds), and I think it's a satellite delay-type issue.
 
Raymie said:
I've had that issue with Cox for years (just two or three seconds), and I think it's a satellite delay-type issue.
Click to expand...

Part of it may be the DTV delay. I can watch the 5:30 PM PT left coast feed of NBC Nightly
(well, I can't now since the time change) on OTA TV through a DTV converter and it always
comes up :06 late. Similar with most other shows--there's always that :06 lag.
 
Here in Phoenix, I have noticed that KPHO (CBS-5) does begin their network programs about 1 minute early, while the other networks, seem to begin exactly on the hour.
 
It's not just in the Mountain Time zone where apparently stations "Tivo" network feeds and then do what they want. In the Eastern Time zone stations, even O&Os, which presumably take the network feed hot off the bird, are often running off clock. As a result, endings of shows often get clipped. Apparently, it's the network playing games, not local stations. NBC is the worst: On Thursday nights, The Office runs about 40 seconds over. 30 Rock runs about 6 seconds over. Both shows do content right up to the start of the next show. Just shows the networks are oblivious to the fact that there are a lot of Tivo and DVR users out there.

I won't even start on TV Land, which runs on time in the morning and by late evening they are 15 minutes late (or early - depending on your point of view). I don't even try to record anything on TV Land any more.
 
Whatever happened to the good old days, when TBS/WTBS would start shows at :05 and "35 after the hour? ::)
 
DToTheJ said:
Whatever happened to the good old days, when TBS/WTBS would start shows at :05 and "35 after the hour? ::)
Click to expand...

A lot of TV stations - especially on the weekend go "off the clock" and you have movies and specials starting at :03 after the hour, :18 after the hour, etc, etc, etc. But then you have TVLAND which is off the clock some times and other times on the clock or only off by a minute or two, but only certain listings would list them off the clock. Most listed them as on the clock. When FOX first took over The Family Channel they were way off the clock by as much as 8 minutes, but that really didn't matter since they were mostly a kids channel. They eventually went back on the clock. And these days ABC runs everything on the clock on ABC Family.

What I noticed is locally The local news on the Big 3 all start at 4:59PM rather than at 5. My biggest gripe is the FOX 61 News at 11PM goes until 11:35, but is listed in all the listings as ending at 11:30 even on ZAP2IT.COM, which is owned by FOX 61's parent company Tribune. What's even stranger is when the 11PM News is repeated at 1AM on sister station WCCT-TV 20 it's only on for a half hour. And they have the FOX CT Logo with the current time as if the news was actually live at that time.
 
Yes, TBS did start their shows five minutes after everybody else :)05 or :35). It was deliberate. They announced it. And that's how it appeared in TV Guide and newspaper schedules. They were running on the clock. It was their clock but they did keep to it.

The issue isn't non-standard start times. The issue is sticking to the announced schedule.

Now Turner has become one of the worst offenders. Not just TV Land, but even TCM, where sometimes the end of movies or documentaries gets clipped on Tivos and DVRs (like last Monday night). Somebody is going to say pad the end recording time. That works if you don't have other shows scheduled to record during the "over-time" period. Besides, the whole idea of DVRs is recording is supposed to be automatic (unlike programming a VCR).

Are these people just sloppy in setting up their schedules or is this some kind of passive-aggressive "up your's" to Tivo and DVR users?
 
MarcB said:
When FOX first took over The Family Channel they were way off the clock by as much as 8 minutes, but that really didn't matter since they were mostly a kids channel...
Click to expand...

What are you implying here - that since you are no longer a child, this aspect no longer applies to you, or children have no concept of time? ???
 
Ah, I see - I think...

One small pet peeve since I switched from Cablevision to Fios is that there does not appear to be an option to add a desired number of minutes to the start/end times of a program (or there is, but I can't find it). Fios graciously adds a whole thirty seconds to the start/end of recording time.
 
DToTheJ said:
Ah, I see - I think...

One small pet peeve since I switched from Cablevision to Fios is that there does not appear to be an option to add a desired number of minutes to the start/end times of a program (or there is, but I can't find it). Fios graciously adds a whole thirty seconds to the start/end of recording time.
Click to expand...

Tivo does give you that option regardless of which cable system you're on. Tivo also allows you to record two shows at once plus other features not available on cable system DVRs. On-demand programming is available from Netflix, Blockbuster and Amazon. New DirecTivo for DirecTV customers due out shortly.
 
these crazy stop and start times drive me crazy. If your trying to tape something (yes I still say "tape" even if its not actually on tape) because when you play it back the beginning or end is missing. its especially annoying when America's got Talent or American Idol, etc. run long and the machine cuts off before you find out who was voted off. Unless you have an accurate TV guide you have no idea when it start and stops. you have to program your machine to run long on purpose. My Name is Earl use to run something like 40 minutes instead of 30, which would ruin your recording. I wish they would start and stop evenly on the hour or half hour. It also messes you up when you want to watch something on the other channel which has already started while the show on the other channel is running long. It really pisses me off. And lately the TV guides are wrong because they make last minute changes. annoying.
 
My Cox on-screen programming guide often has shows starting at 9:01pm (particularly on ABC Sunday nights). So, some of this is deliberate on the network side.

I'm surprised that nobody has brought up Hawaii. I haven't checked times on my recent vacation, but I definitely remember that shows often started several minutes late back in the 80's and 90's.
 
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