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Station Putting Pre-Empted Show On The Web
from the for-those-who-want-to-see-it dept
In the linear world of TV, pre-empting a show is a big deal. Back in November, a producer for CBS News was fired for daring to cut into the last four minutes of CSI (during sweeps week) to announce that Yasser Arafat had died -- leading to plenty of complaints from angry CSI watchers who apparently aren't particularly concerned about world politics (at least not during prime time). CBS was forced to re-air the program a few days later. So, it's interesting to see how some TV stations are figuring out how to deal with the Pope's funeral. One Florida station has apparently decided that it will pre-empt its normal morning news program from the TV schedule to run the funeral live, but will still offer the news show on the web for those who would prefer to see it that way. While this may lead to questions of just how important the morning news program is to some people, a more interesting question is whether or not people will actually want to watch the program online, instead of on their TV (on the assumption very few people have hooked up their computers to their TV). As the E-Media Tidbits piece linked above suggests, the web and the TV aren't the same, and the show might be better off chopping up the program, and letting people download just the sections they want to watch. Either way, it's interesting that at least some TV stations are looking to the web as a way to deal with collisions in scheduling and the fact that they might have more than 24 hours of programming to deal with. With the rise of TiVo, and people watching television at times when it isn't live -- will the pre-empted TV broadcast still make as much sense in the future anyway?
Reader Comments
(Flattened / Threaded)
It really could have waited (CSI)
Honesty, announcing Arafat's death could have waited four minutes. He wasn't going anywhere, and neither was the Middle East.
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Reason for anger
I think the people were angry that 4 minutes of the show were cutoff rather than the 10 minutes of ads that followed the announcement.
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Good....
Maybe this will save good shows that failed becuase they were constantly preempted. Futurama is a good example of this.
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Seperation of Church & TV
I couldn't care any less that the Pope died.
I have no intention of attending his funeral & why would I want something I want to watch be preempted so I can see this ?
I'm not Catholic, nor do I care about their religious practices.
Isn't there a Pope channel or something .... ?
Seperation of Church & TV
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Re: Seperation of Church & TV
See, not everyone cares about the Pope ...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SOC_POPE_BOOED?SITE=NNCO&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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No Subject Given
Here's an idea: Unless I personally am (or more reasonably, a geographic area is) in immediate physical danger... DO NOT PREEMPT.
No judgement required on the "importantance" of the news item; no judgement required regarding the "popularity" of the show. Stick with the schedule, show news at news time.
Wow... That would give US, the viewers (aka CUSTOMERS), the choice. Isn't that what half the posts on techdirt are about? Customer choice?
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