MickeyTV Fast tracking: Is it really possible to run the US and Australia on the same TV schedule?
I'm sorry for my recent absence; I went on holidays and had no internet and a hectic schedule before meant no time for prior warning. However, I've just spent the past fortnight drafting topics and becoming thoroughly addicted to the excellent show, Weeds. What is wrong with me that I hadn't started watching it until now? I'm very close to being done with the third season, so expect a thorough report in the next week. But for now, here's the first of my brainstormed blog posts:
I’m not sure what I think about the new thing happening to Australian TV, fast-tracking. For anyone who might be a little behind the ball, Australian TV has been going through some changes. My assumption is this is because of two reasons, number one because of the increase in downloading and number two because of consumer/viewer frustrations. Basically, the US is where most of our commercial television comes from. Hit shows in the US generally do well here because our ratings are bolstered by the hype from our bigger cousins and the fact that our ratings season begins in February/March which is six months behind the US ratings season that begins in September.
What’s happened in the past is that shows have aired in Australia during our ratings season behind the US. Which means if any of the highly rated programs, such as Heroes, has a huge event a massive spoiler or something like that happen, chances are the big fans in Australia are going to be really spoiled as the US audience will see something six months before we do. This was probably always a problem, but it’s something that has become more and more obvious since the internet has taken over because fans from all over the world can converge on message boards, blogs and fan sites to discuss their favourite shows. I suppose that what happened next was that the fans in Australia who were talking to their friends in the US got frustrated with being behind, not being able to participate in fandom (because the fan girls get annoyed if you post date fan fiction!) and all the other fun stuff that comes from being a big fan, then started to download.
In some ways, the fast tracking is great. It puts a kybosh on the illegal downloading, stops me from having to beg my US friends to video tape everything and makes Australian viewers actually watch Australian TV. However, the problem I have with fast tracking is the fact that things are hyped up, advertised, flogged until I get so excited to watch that I can’t stand it. I’ll start watching a show like JJ Abrahams newbie, Fringe, get hooked and then it will disappear. Now I’ve lived in the US, I know that from week to week, sometimes there are no new episodes. I also know that they have sweeps periods in September, November, January and the biggy, in May so that between those periods there will either be very few or no new episodes. But in Australia, the end of November marks the beginning of the low ratings period. January, before the kiddies go back to school, is the end of our low ratings period. It makes sense for them to hold off on airing the big shows in these periods and let’s face it, most of the time the fans won’t mind anyways because we’d rather be out enjoying our summer holidays. But what I’ve noticed has happened this year is that we got a bunch of new shows and fast tracked shows in September, things like CSI (only the original thus far), Fringe, Heroes, The Mentalist, etc that played for a few weeks, went away when the US elections were being held (obviously a time where nothing else was being shown on US TV) and then have only just started to trickle back at the start of the summer period. So what’s going to happen? They’ll all disappear in the next couple of weeks, we’ll get a bunch of summer test shows that will hook us and die out before the season has ended and then our good shows will come back in February? It sucks. And what’s more, I know there has been three new episodes of CSI post the election, but have they been aired here yet? No, repeats, repeats, repeats.
What needs to happen is there needs to be a concrete plan that’s stuck to. I don’t know about you, but I want to know what the networks are planning. Why hype up fast-tracking if it’s ultimately a flawed plan? And give us some say, I’d write a letter if I didn’t think I’d just get a form letter: “Dear Mickey, we thank you for your comments which have been noted and we hope you keep watching even though we frustrate you to absolutely no end.”
So while I am working really hard at supporting Australian TVs and doing my own part for the ratings of the great shows, I will continue to offer bribes to my US friends to remember to stick on the VCR at the start of all my favourite shows.
I’m not sure what I think about the new thing happening to Australian TV, fast-tracking. For anyone who might be a little behind the ball, Australian TV has been going through some changes. My assumption is this is because of two reasons, number one because of the increase in downloading and number two because of consumer/viewer frustrations. Basically, the US is where most of our commercial television comes from. Hit shows in the US generally do well here because our ratings are bolstered by the hype from our bigger cousins and the fact that our ratings season begins in February/March which is six months behind the US ratings season that begins in September.
What’s happened in the past is that shows have aired in Australia during our ratings season behind the US. Which means if any of the highly rated programs, such as Heroes, has a huge event a massive spoiler or something like that happen, chances are the big fans in Australia are going to be really spoiled as the US audience will see something six months before we do. This was probably always a problem, but it’s something that has become more and more obvious since the internet has taken over because fans from all over the world can converge on message boards, blogs and fan sites to discuss their favourite shows. I suppose that what happened next was that the fans in Australia who were talking to their friends in the US got frustrated with being behind, not being able to participate in fandom (because the fan girls get annoyed if you post date fan fiction!) and all the other fun stuff that comes from being a big fan, then started to download.
In some ways, the fast tracking is great. It puts a kybosh on the illegal downloading, stops me from having to beg my US friends to video tape everything and makes Australian viewers actually watch Australian TV. However, the problem I have with fast tracking is the fact that things are hyped up, advertised, flogged until I get so excited to watch that I can’t stand it. I’ll start watching a show like JJ Abrahams newbie, Fringe, get hooked and then it will disappear. Now I’ve lived in the US, I know that from week to week, sometimes there are no new episodes. I also know that they have sweeps periods in September, November, January and the biggy, in May so that between those periods there will either be very few or no new episodes. But in Australia, the end of November marks the beginning of the low ratings period. January, before the kiddies go back to school, is the end of our low ratings period. It makes sense for them to hold off on airing the big shows in these periods and let’s face it, most of the time the fans won’t mind anyways because we’d rather be out enjoying our summer holidays. But what I’ve noticed has happened this year is that we got a bunch of new shows and fast tracked shows in September, things like CSI (only the original thus far), Fringe, Heroes, The Mentalist, etc that played for a few weeks, went away when the US elections were being held (obviously a time where nothing else was being shown on US TV) and then have only just started to trickle back at the start of the summer period. So what’s going to happen? They’ll all disappear in the next couple of weeks, we’ll get a bunch of summer test shows that will hook us and die out before the season has ended and then our good shows will come back in February? It sucks. And what’s more, I know there has been three new episodes of CSI post the election, but have they been aired here yet? No, repeats, repeats, repeats.
What needs to happen is there needs to be a concrete plan that’s stuck to. I don’t know about you, but I want to know what the networks are planning. Why hype up fast-tracking if it’s ultimately a flawed plan? And give us some say, I’d write a letter if I didn’t think I’d just get a form letter: “Dear Mickey, we thank you for your comments which have been noted and we hope you keep watching even though we frustrate you to absolutely no end.”
So while I am working really hard at supporting Australian TVs and doing my own part for the ratings of the great shows, I will continue to offer bribes to my US friends to remember to stick on the VCR at the start of all my favourite shows.
