No wonder we’re tuning out. Leading Australian TV blog, TV Tonight, has held its annual Audience Inventory, and found that unreliable on-screen program guides, shows that fail to start and finish on time, shows that magically disappear in the middle of a season, and nowhere near enough Karl Stefanovic are the leading causes for viewer dissatisfaction with the free-to-air networks.
1200 readers responded to the survey, in which they were asked questions about their pet peeves about TV networks and the issues surrounding public and commercial broadcasters. Channel Seven took the “Least Reliable At Starting Programs On Time” crown from Nine, but Nine still managed to remain its “Most Untrustworthy” title for failing to deliver series in full and being unreliable at rescheduling cancelled shows.
“Banning gambling ads” was a new addition to the list of 29 free-to-air issues that readers ranked from Very Important to Not Important, and shot straight to the number 5 position. Better watch out, Tom Waterhouse! “Completing the installation of the NBN” was ranked as the fourth most important issue, presumably because as we recently learned, Australia is a bunch of filthy pirates (although it should be noted that the survey found just under 70% of viewers used genuine Catch-Up services online). Readers ranked “Keeping an EPG up to date” as the most important issue, and “Banning junk food advertising”, “merging public broadcasters” and “3D broadcasts” (obviously) as Not Important.
31% of respondents said they “second-screen” every day while watching TV – so you’re certainly not the only one sitting at home silently praying that your tweet gets a look-in on Q&A. None of the survey’s 1200 respondents were able to explain the appeal of Slide Show.
