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What Bothers Me Most TV Station, TV Listings Websites ALL OUTDATED in long Time Emergencies

M

Markd

What Bothers Me Most TV Station, TV Listings Websites ALL OUTDATED in long Time Emergencies

We have had quite a few emergencies effecting programming in a dozen or more TV markets in the past 2 years. Mostly these have been hurricanes but also in some snow storms and other emergencies of this nature.

TV stations of course preempt schedules which is fine. In Hurricane Katrina for example most could not even watch the stations anyway. Most were either out of the market anyway due to evacuating and if they were in the markets they had no electricity to watch TV anyway. But some parts of most markets where a hurricane hits are only moderately affected. They still have power, can still watch the stations, and have little damage around them though tthey are within an hours drive of someplace badly affected.

The problem I see is that station websites are usually obsolete and include regular programming schedules rather than the preemptions airing. These websites are constantly being worked on so news can be seen on them. So why cant a station submit their schedule of programming.

Hypothetical situation:

Say a severe storm hits Tampa. CBS 10 WTSP goes to extra coverage 4 dyas before with news 5 or 10 minutes longer and 5 minute updates every hour...put that on the website and send the schedule to Yahoo TV and ZapZit, TV Guide, etc.

Then 48 hours before wall to wall coverage occurs over Channel 10. Then the storm hits and power stays on at the stations. Say its a Thursday and by 8 PM things are back to normal enough to resume programming. But they have an extra 30 minute newscast going to Midnight. At Midnight they run Letterman, 1 AM LAte late Show, 2 AM Young & The Restless, 3 AM as The World Turns, 4 AM whatever 4 PM syndicated show they missed, but no Guiding light or Bold & Beautiful. They should list their shows on schedule.

But chances are regular programming would be indicated on the station websites and on the TV listing web pages.

In New Orleans and Baton Rouge it took a week to reflect changes in the listings. Houston still shows on station websites that regular shows are airing as listed but I know different.

So why can't stations keep viewers in the loop through their websites? They update news constantly.
 
Re: What Bothers Me Most TV Station, TV Listings Websites ALL OUTDATED in long Time Emergencies

> In New Orleans and Baton Rouge it took a week to reflect
> changes in the listings. Houston still shows on station
> websites that regular shows are airing as listed but I know
> different.
>
> So why can't stations keep viewers in the loop through their
> websites? They update news constantly.
>
A large portion of this is that TV stations do not have inshouse web designers. For instance I have been hired to do Search Engine Optimization for several different TV websites. NONE has had an in house person.

Ever wonder WHY TV websites are so busy and cluttered? Why they are so slow to load? They are last on the list of most TV stations.

One of the great arguments for allowing media consolidation was the internet. The advocates of this said "There are tons of news outlets via the internet.

This is true, but the quality of those outlets it poor. For $3.99 a year anyone can buy a domain and point it at a free webhosting or low cost webhosting and write what they want. The internet has thus become more and more useless for getting relevant information. Today less than 5% of all people get information from the intenet. (Another drawback is newspapers that require registration to read their site. People simply skip over rather than register.)


I recall during 9-11 I ran to the internet and before the first tower fell already I was getting pages about a "Jewish plot."

Since the internet would rely on power, or connections via phone, DSL or Cable and that is knocked out, it isn't a priority. (Not counting wireless which is still small but growing)

So with the unreliability of internet sites, the lack of access to them by most people, they simply are not a priority. They are a SUPPLEMENT to the TV station not a replacement for it.<P ID="signature">______________
Once I figured out the meaning of life....Then I forgot to write it down.</P>
 
Re: What Bothers Me Most TV Station, TV Listings Websites ALL OUTDATED in long Time Emergencies

> The problem I see is that station websites are usually
> obsolete and include regular programming schedules rather
> than the preemptions airing. These websites are constantly
> being worked on so news can be seen on them. So why cant a
> station submit their schedule of programming.

Probably because updating the schedule on the website is a low priority when a station is focused on providing emergency coverage.

Odds are the news portions of the website are automatically generated from the wire services and the internal newsroom system, not by an employee manually uploading pages and changing code.

Step back from your frustration and ask yourself: If you were station management, would you be wanting an employee to take time away from whatever role they play in emergency coverage to update the PROGRAM SCHEDULE on the WEBSITE?<P ID="signature">______________


</P>
 
Re: What Bothers Me Most TV Station, TV Listings Websites ALL OUTDATED in long Time Emergencies

> Step back from your frustration and ask yourself: If you
> were station management, would you be wanting an employee to
> take time away from whatever role they play in emergency
> coverage to update the PROGRAM SCHEDULE on the WEBSITE?

Actually with consolidation the way it is and companies having plenty of sister stations it could be done from another station in the chain. Anyhow someone else gave an additional reason. Still it would be nice to see updated schedules.
 
Re: What Bothers Me Most TV Station, TV Listings Websites ALL OUTDATED in long Time Emergencies

> > Step back from your frustration and ask yourself: If you
> > were station management, would you be wanting an employee
> to
> > take time away from whatever role they play in emergency
> > coverage to update the PROGRAM SCHEDULE on the WEBSITE?
>
> Actually with consolidation the way it is and companies
> having plenty of sister stations it could be done from
> another station in the chain. Anyhow someone else gave an
> additional reason. Still it would be nice to see updated
> schedules.

"It would be nice" is one of those things that goes out the window in times of emergency.<P ID="signature">______________


</P>
 
Re: What Bothers Me Most TV Station, TV Listings Websites ALL OUTDATED in long Time Emergencies

> > > Step back from your frustration and ask yourself: If
> you
> > > were station management, would you be wanting an
> employee
> > to
> > > take time away from whatever role they play in emergency
>
> > > coverage to update the PROGRAM SCHEDULE on the WEBSITE?
> >
> > Actually with consolidation the way it is and companies
> > having plenty of sister stations it could be done from
> > another station in the chain. Anyhow someone else gave an
> > additional reason. Still it would be nice to see updated
> > schedules.
>
> "It would be nice" is one of those things that goes out the
> window in times of emergency.
>

Besides.. Those things are *usually done 3-weeks out.

-A
<P ID="signature">______________

</P>
 
Re: What Bothers Me Most TV Station, TV Listings Websites ALL OUTDATED in long Time Emergencies

DirectTV's onscreen guide still has regular programming listed on all the local Houston stations.
 
Re: What Bothers Me Most TV Station, TV Listings Websites ALL OUTDATED in long Time Emergencies

> DirectTV's onscreen guide still has regular programming
> listed on all the local Houston stations.

DirecTV uses a listings service for its onscreen guide, and if stations don't update information (and as has been said, that sort of nicety tends to be a low priority while dealing with an emergency) it will display what was entered a week or two in advance.<P ID="signature">______________


</P>
 
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