On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 10:19 PM, Jim Ellwanger <[email protected]>wrote:
> > On Jul 26, 2012, at 9:49 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Is there some technical reason why NBC is doing it this way, or is it > possible they really do want to discourage time-shifting as a way of > protecting their primetime coverage? > > I don't think they're specifically being anti-DVR, I just think they're > doing their Olympics listings the way they've always been done. I assume > NBC's answer would be that the coverage on the cable channels really isn't > being broken up into neat blocks of a certain length, and they don't > necessarily know in advance exactly what sport is going to be on the air at > exactly which time. Also, I could see it frustrating people to have to set > their DVR to record five 2-hour blocks rather than one 10-hour block -- or > worse, not realize that there were five 2-hour blocks in a row, and only > get the first two hours of the block. > > Incidentally, I happen to have a copy of the July 27, 1984, issue of TV > Guide handy; the prime-time block on ABC was 5 hours long, 7:00 to midnight > Eastern, but as was TV Guide's custom for shows longer than 3 hours, they > listed it as two separate items, "XXIII Olympic Games" at 7:00 and "XXIII > Olympic Games -- Continue" at 10:00. > People who DVR sports events are probably used to some uncertainty, at least around when the event will end. It seems a little odd that NBC would not know when at least many events are scheduled to be shown on each platform. I can see them not wanting to get blasted by pissed off fans who used their program listings to record a special event and then missed it. I could live with just generic listings (e.g. Fencing, Badmitten, Beach Volleyball), but the extra long blocks is what is killing me. Your observation of the convention in the old TV Guide seems about right to me, and I don't see why NBC can't do it that way. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
