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?
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Seth Finkelstein, 7 Apr 2005 @ 11:43pm

    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    data64, 8 Apr 2005 @ 2:35am

    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    seth, 8 Apr 2005 @ 9:51am

    Good....

    Maybe this will save good shows that failed becuase they were constantly preempted. Futurama is a good example of this.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Apr 2005 @ 7:22am

    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

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Apr 2005 @ 8:16am

    Re: Seperation of Church & TV

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous, 11 Apr 2005 @ 12:15pm

    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?

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.