I really love what the free to air networks have done with digital television. The offering from Channel 9, Go!, is a remarkable piece of television development.
Remember when networks didn’t know how to fill their entire schedule so they’d put old, cheap or seemingly random programmes on at dead times? My Two Dads at 4pm, Newhart whenever it rained at the cricket, and Thrillseekers at midday on Saturday were all old Channel 9 staples.
I don’t think they ever thought people were watching their station at these times. Either that or Kerry Packer really loved an afternoon of stuntmen jumping cars over canyons.
One of the ingenious things about Go! is that you can watch their entire programming for a day depending on whether you wake up in the morning or the afternoon. They’ve really catered this one to the lazy. Despite the exclamation mark in the title, Go! does not seem to be an imperative. In fact, it’s the name I’d give to a new designer drug that made you feel like you were having a good time while really the whole world was passing you by.
Here’s a taste of what they’ve launched with: The Nanny, Just Shoot Me, Entertainment Tonight, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, and Australia’s Funniest Home Videos. All of those shows are available TWICE A DAY. In case you miss an episode of the Nanny you can catch it again eight and a half hours later!
I think what happened is they couldn’t fit the entire title, “Go Into A Vegetative State!”, on the screen.
Really, this was the laziest thing I’ve seen come out of the Free To Air networks for some time. Somebody got paid for coming up with that programming schedule, that title, that media release that came to my inbox. Everybody involved should be ashamed.
17 Comments
amp2 says:
But Survivior is there on Tuesday nights, so i forgive. Survivor is my deep, dark secret. I love it as much as BattlestarG.
Tristan Reimann says:
i haven't been able to get Go! or channel 9 for that matter on our digital receiver for a couple of days, funnily enough no-one in this house has noticed besides me (i watch the cartoons before going to uni)
Mike Beckham says:
Need to rescan Tristan probably.
darrenboxcutter says:
What makes me laugh is some poor shmucks are paying Foxtel for a similar service. Whilst I get it for Free.
daveaa says:
The full title might be “Go Watch a Better Channel!”
Mike Beckham says:
One channel is nothing like having Foxtel. Don't make me laugh.
darrenboxcutter says:
Ha. But at least I know I am not paying for commercials.
mordwa says:
Actually, I'd be interested in a hard-hitting, beyond-the-scenes with timelines and quotes n'everything, etc, err, 'expose' on how such weak sauce becomes our glorious digital future. Hell, I'd settle for 30seconds of truth from ANYone in the industry about why I'm supposed to prefer their aforementioned weak sauce to Channel Bittorrent. Ahem. In any case – Go! doesn't. Or as the Tech Talk Radio guys have dubbed it – “-AWAY”
Vzzzbx says:
Go! feels exactly like all 260 Foxtel channels which broadcast tired American shit 24 hours a day and have completely failed to convince me to subscribe to Foxtel.
Mike Beckham says:
Need to rescan Tristan probably.
darrenboxcutter says:
What makes me laugh is some poor shmucks are paying Foxtel for a similar service. Whilst I get it for Free.
daveaa says:
The full title might be “Go Watch a Better Channel!”
Mike Beckham says:
One channel is nothing like having Foxtel. Don't make me laugh.
darrenboxcutter says:
Ha. But at least I know I am not paying for commercials.
mordwa says:
Actually, I'd be interested in a hard-hitting, beyond-the-scenes with timelines and quotes n'everything, etc, err, 'expose' on how such weak sauce becomes our glorious digital future. Hell, I'd settle for 30seconds of truth from ANYone in the industry about why I'm supposed to prefer their aforementioned weak sauce to Channel Bittorrent. Ahem. In any case – Go! doesn't. Or as the Tech Talk Radio guys have dubbed it – “-AWAY”
Vzzzbx says:
Go! feels exactly like all 260 Foxtel channels which broadcast tired American shit 24 hours a day and have completely failed to convince me to subscribe to Foxtel.
Brett says:
mordwa: It's been a while since I've caught up with Sheldon but I think it might actually be beyond weak sauce so the best is probably to use some code:
<opposite>awesome sauce</opposite>
or
!=AwesomeSauce
Vzzzbx & Mike Beckham: Foxtel may have two or three decent shows but a moderate broadband plan runs about half that of the basic-extremis Foxtel package where you can get those before Foxtel does and still have bandwidth left over to explore everything else out there. And that's way before you find you have to pay for the ultra-platinum package to get the channels that have the decent shows. Otherwise, as Vzzzbx says, you're left with old rope stuck on repeat, rolling out Doris Day like she's the hottest thing in a twin set, or sitting semi-comatose in front of something random on Discovery or NatGeo channels or _another_ Hitler doco on the history channel.
From the very outset, with pay TV in this country, I could not believe that subscribers are expected to pay to watch that type of programming and then have to sit through the ads as well. It doesn't matter how often their marketers send me media releases, making another variation on the same claim – that viewers are loving it all and almost everyone has pay TV now – I can still look at real figures and see for myself that the tsunami of new subscribers isn't happening. In some countries, claims without any basis in fact are actually frowned upon through legislation covering deceptive trade practices but it seems we're not lucky enough to have anything like that prosecuted.
As for Go!, I tried to give a heads up with the observation that the shmick promos were using stretched vision and I didn't expect anything more than what we have programmed there. At least the separate signal has been turned on now and there's somewhere for the decent shows to go, after the main channel axes them after two episodes. Perhaps they'll even see it as an opportunity to try out some new, innovative local content – especially if they can pick up some local points for it.