For the Aussies: Tv Stations not sticking to Schedules!!!!

[djos]

For the Aussies: I started this campaing over at the Aussie DTV forums and seeng as there are quite a few of us here thought I'd bring it up here:


After some discussion on the Aussie DTV forums about how frustrating PVR ownership is when the TV stations wont stick to schedules over in the Massive Tivo Price Drop For Oz topic I thought I'd submit an idea to GetUp for a campaign.

For those who dont know who GetUp are, 1 of their major achievements is taking Howard's electoral roll policy all the way to the High Court and having it declared unconstitutional.

I've created a Submission HERE based on a rant from MelbournePark - The basic text is as Follows:

TV Stations falsely advertising TV Shedules via Online and Print Media and not sticking to them!

On the channels not being on time, IMO they are breaking the law.

They are falsely advertising their schedules, and deliberately breaking them. Hence they are guilty of false advertising. And they are doing so for their own economic gain.

Are they conforming to their legal obligations about the broadcasting Acts?

Do their advertises similarly lie about their products? We know they do get into trouble if they lie in advertising though ... but if we don't trust the channel, why should we trust the advertisers, who are causing the channels to lie about their schedules? Why should we believe any advertiser any more than a channel that lies about its shows duration?

Perhaps we need our Federal parliamentarians to make a law, to enforce the channels to do as they promise, as they are well able to. In germany and the USA the TV Stations are legally forced to stick to their schedules unless very specific conditions arise eg a Live Sports broadcast running overtime.

I prolly could have spent more time massaging the text but hey if it "Gets Up" im sure it'll be tuned up then.

so sign up and vote to force the TV stations to stick to their publish schedules HERE!

[djos]

I'll quote some comments from supporters as they are well thought thru:

This is an intentional strategy to capture audience for ratings that result in higher advertising revenue.

It is deceptive, not only to their audience, but also to their advertisers/clients, who's advertising costs are increased by the falsely inflated audience stats.

This might, at face value, sound like a fluff idea, but it is a serious and systemic fraud that is being constantly perpetrated on the population by all stations (bar the ABC, who miraculously are "on time" as they are not reliant on ad revenue).

This is not simply the "inconvenience" it appears to be - it is the visible portion of a multi-million/billion dollar industry that is being rorted by this practice.

It's more than just running popular shows over time to inflate the next show's audience, it's actually far more sinister.

The scam that they've been allowed to run isn't x minutes of ads per hour, it's x minutes of ads per hour over a period (6 hours IIRC). So that allows them to front-load ads in to the 6-9:30pm prime time & then have significantly less ads per hour after 9:30pm. Miraculously the show starting times catch up & even may go early later in the night. You can test it if you like - if you record a show at 8:30 & the following show at 9:30 & then watch them back, you go from 6 or 7 skip (so 6 or 7 x 30 seconds) when skipping the ad break in the first show, to 5 x skip in the second show (usually the first or second ad break will catch you out as you try to to the 6 or 7 skip & miss the start of the next segment). The provision is there for "accidental" & "incidental" over-runs, but like all such provisions, it's exploited.

Here's where there could be a legal attack on the process. While they can argue incidental/accidental quite easily, i.e. you can't disprove it, where they could be nailed is them overselling prime time advertising slots - that would show a deliberate flouting of the regulations. You'd need a whistle-blower to uncover it though.

Justin

Our submission is currently ranked 59th out of over 250 submissions in only 3 days.

[djos]

Now up to 55th with 94 votes!

[djos]

Just cracked the top 50 (exactly!) with 121 votes.