I’ve threatened to do this before … but I’ve finally hit my breaking point. Letter to the FCC to follow … I’m tired of cable stations not honoring their published schedules!
TVLand is the latest culprit. We discovered that they have oldies like M*A*S*H, All In The Family (which I appreciate more as an adult than I did when it was "live"), even Bonanza. So we set up a RePlay channel for M*A*S*H (we’d just watched the movie on Netflix – that’s how we found the TVLand site).
Three times in a row, we’ve sat down to watch M*A*S*H … and discovered that RePlay recorded 10 minutes or so of Sanford and Son before M*A*S*H kicked in. This doesn’t mean RePlay is screwed up — it starts recording when the network says it’s gonna start the show.
Don’t get me wrong — LOTS of the cable stations do this. (We don’t watch much on network TV, so I don’t know if they are as bad.) But most of the shows are no more than a minute or two off — mostly, you miss commercials. Comedy Central sometimes does it with The Daily Show, but lately it seems less egregious. And because we also record The Colbert Report, we can watch the "end" if we really want to.
But this! It’s futile to even start watching the show when you know you’ll miss the last 5-10 minutes.
Not only this — but the TVLand website schedule doesn’t match the schedule that TVLand sends to RePlay … which doesn’t match the REAL broadcast schedule!
ARGHHH!
Why are the networks (yes, the cable stations are owned by the same big companies that own the networks) doing this? Do they REALLY think that they are going to get us — the empowered consumer of media — to sit down and watch TV on THEIR schedule?!? Is this the last gasping breath of a dinosour?
TVLand, not suprisingly, is one of those "owned by the big boys" cable channels. Viacom — the company many love to hate — owns the channel.
Boycott time?
For us, the answer is yes. Our local FOX affiliate broadcasts M*A*S*H at midnight, week nights. RePlay has been re-programmed.
