jandjuk

Can anybody explain to me what is so bad about the TV programming in Oz and NZ?

This is something that seems to be a common complaint, but looking at the TV schedules for the respective countries (and having watched a bit myself) I can't see any great discernable difference in the free to air stations. BBC2 and Channel4 supposedly have quality programming (and sometimes do) but they often have a lot of mutton dressed as lamb

same mixture of soaps, lifestyle/home makeover, reality, the odd sitcom, and some news and current affairs....

It seems the same to me.

The only difference is that there are FAR more ads in OZ and NZ. Even the commercial stations in the UK have very few ads compared to oz/nz TV. Is this primary reason everone says the TV is so bad, or is there something else I'm missing?

(I used to be a media student in a former life - so this stuff interests me)

Stormz

I thought the tv programming was ok, but I think the UK is better (prob. cos of more choice).

I think at the end of the day it`s down to budgets.... UK has a bigger pop = bigger budget = better programmes + less ads.

Aus has taken after the US on the tv ad front. It should be illegal like in the UK (how many ads per hour, and within x min of each other).

BUT.... the cinema`s in Oz show the movies at least a month before the UK.

OzTennis

Very debatable that bigger pop = bigger budget = BETTER programs and less ads. Have a look at the largely unadulterated rubbish that comes out of the U S of A to disprove that one. I would just say you get MORE programs and leave it at that.

OzTennis

jandjuk

but do they pay a licence fee in the USA? Or in oz?

In NZ a few years ago you used to have pay a licence fee AND get millions of ads. they stopped that because you really got nothing for your money.

At least in the UK do you get something for your licence fee - ad free stations. just not sure about the programmes though - but at least you can watch crap telly with no ad's in it

I'd rather pay no licence fee though and put up with some ads. I never watch the ads anyway - just flick over or go to the toilet or whatever

The Koalas

I think that despite the fact we have a mass of channels here in the UK on NTL and satalitte it is still rubbish. The BBC and ITV make good dramas etc but once it has aired it is then sold on the sat. channels and repeated over and over. When I was in OZ I watched very little TV because we were always out and about. I watch it a lot here while the weather is bad, in the summer I get in the garden or out walikg instead.
Most nights I sit flicking through a few hundred channels, anounce there is nothing on and go to bed to read.

migrantoz

I'd heard that Australian TV broadcast an awful lot more Ads than in the UK but when I visited Australia last year I can't say I noticed many more than in the UK. Maybe I wasn't watching much during prime time viewing.

Sometimes the Ads are more entertaining than the actual programmes anyway. The beer Ads are usually good for a chuckle.

Nibbs

Personally I reckon it's not as bad as we were led to believe.

My Aussie rellies hate the ads but I've heard the same in the UK. There does seem to be more ads and the style is a tad American i.e showing ad breaks 5 mins before the end of a program.

I have noticed Aussie TV is a lot worse at staying to schedule but on the plus side they will show a film at 20:30 whereas the UK was showing films at 22:30 or even later before we left.

AT the end of the day we don't watch anywhere near as much TV as we did in the UK anyway!

Anyway just back from skyworks which was absolutely top. Sponsored by Channel 7 so I've got to give 'em some credit.

OzTennis

I think TV advertising in Australia was de-regulated. It is more strictly regulated in the UK in terms of number of ad breaks per half hour, how long the breaks are for etc. There are many ways around the regulations eg Coronation Steet, brought to you by the makers of (I don't know the next bit because I don't watch it) doesn't count as an ad break and then of course there are all those product placements by the advertisers. If you watch the 'footy' on Sky you don't get an ad break for 45 minutes but you can't help but look at the shirts and the advertising hoardings. When I watch the Spanish football I find myself looking at the fancy computerised screens they have with ads which shows the same ad on all of them.

OzTennis

mozzie

One big positive in Oz is SBS. It's free-to-air and has excellent world news as well as interesting stuff from all over the world. And hardly any ads. The UK has nothing like it, certainly not free-to-air.

The biggest negative is the ads.

But to me, the BBC has really gone downhill over the past ten years or so. It's full of crap "lifestyle" shows - cheap, cheap, cheap. (That's my budgie impression.) Cooking, gardening, makeovers and bloody antiques! Don't ask why I'm watching daytime TV today, but they've just started a brand new show, "Sun, Sand and Bargains" (or something) where Brits travel to France to find antiques which they take back to the UK and try to sell at a profit. I ask you! Can you believe this drivel?

And I'm sick to death of "classic comedy". Classic? That's a laugh! NOT! How many times can they repeat "Some mothers do 'ave 'em" before the tape wears out? It seems that the BBC is trying to find out. Every TV guide should replace the words "classic comedy" with "repeating the same old crap".

And why can't the BBC do something like, for example, Media Watch on the ABC. It's a great show which exposes a lot of bad behaviour in the TV, radio and print media. But would the Beeb do something useful like that? No way! Let's make another bloody antiques show instead.

Whew, I feel a lot better now. (I was only going to post about SBS, but got a bit wound up.)

bondipom

The problem with the advertising is the frequency as well as the quantity of ads. On a film it will start with hardly any ad breaks to draw you in. Towards the end the ads are on every 5 mins and they send you loopy.

Solution

DVDs and surround sound.

I miss a lot of the UK comedy but luckily I get hold of recordings easily.

Rumours of quality British TV are generally over hyped. ITV Dramas are appalling, the bbc blows most of its budget on yet another costume drama and then you are left with changing rooms and Megs favourite, Linda Green.

The best thing about TV here is no whinging depressing sitcoms like Eastenders and Coronation Street.

The commercial news here is appalling, parochial and small minded. You soon lose count of the no of times Aussie is mentioned.

ABC is still a bit parochial and only SBS offers a national view point. SBS is the saving grace of Aussie TV. Loads of football, pizza, South Park, excellent foreign movies and a bit of smut every now and again.

Stormz

Yep. One theory scuppered then

Aussies do, but not directly. The ABC and SBS (and JJJ etc radio) are funded out of part of your taxes. In the UK they prefer to tax you to death and then tax you again to pay for BBC1 / BBC2 / Radio 1/2/3/4 and all the digital channels most people can`t watch anyway... which is why there are murmurs afoot to stop the BBC being publicly funded.

Megalania

Regulation of commercial free-to-air television services

It is yet to be seen if an Au-US "Free Trade" agreement will result in a flood of Yankee ads. The cost of copying a foreign made ad is about $1.00 - but would airing it have the intended result relative to an Au ad?

Amazulu

Can you get hard disk recorders like Tivo in Australia?. We hardly ever watch live TV anymore, watch a programme 20 minutes after it has started, & fast forward through all the ads. Can't imagine watching TV without it.

bondipom

I have not seen it here yet.

Stormz

Now THERE`S a business idea