CW
cwathen
Founding member
They probably have, but won't start showing it until January.
incidentally, why are US imports still shown here so long after their original transmission date? E4 seemed to be breaking the trend last year, airing season 9 of Friends within 2 or 3 weeks of it's US transmission (and then airing it on C4 the next day so as not to keep the non subscription viewers waiting), but they haven't kept it up - America is 8 episodes into series 10 of Friends (and they would now be 11 episodes in if it wasn't for them scheduling weeks of repeats to stretch this shorter 19 episode season out to the standard season length) before a single one has aired here on E4. And how long it will be before these episodes see the light of day on C4 I don't know.
These days, with the technology existing to download a programme from the internet (in practically DVD quality if you go for the bigger encodes) and watch it in the UK within hours of it's US transmission, and more to the point a technology which is easy to use and widespread, surely now more than ever UK broadcasters need to be signing up for rights deals (and crucially, using them) which allow them to show a series more or less in parallel with it's US transmission.
It seems a very odd approach to take from a commercial point of view to allow the US airings to have a head start of 4 or 5 (or 6) months, a time during which fans hungry for new episodes which just get them off the internet, and then by the time your channel starts showing it here, they are so far into the season that they will never come back to you.
And as word of mouth spreads and fast connections become more commonplace (Tiscali now offer a 'midband' deal which provides you with a 160K connection for more or less exactly the price of most unmetered dialup packages, once that becomes common knowledge broadband connections could escalate by huge amounts), the number of people indulging in this illegal but highly effective practice to get out of the traditional UK lag will surely only rise.
incidentally, why are US imports still shown here so long after their original transmission date? E4 seemed to be breaking the trend last year, airing season 9 of Friends within 2 or 3 weeks of it's US transmission (and then airing it on C4 the next day so as not to keep the non subscription viewers waiting), but they haven't kept it up - America is 8 episodes into series 10 of Friends (and they would now be 11 episodes in if it wasn't for them scheduling weeks of repeats to stretch this shorter 19 episode season out to the standard season length) before a single one has aired here on E4. And how long it will be before these episodes see the light of day on C4 I don't know.
These days, with the technology existing to download a programme from the internet (in practically DVD quality if you go for the bigger encodes) and watch it in the UK within hours of it's US transmission, and more to the point a technology which is easy to use and widespread, surely now more than ever UK broadcasters need to be signing up for rights deals (and crucially, using them) which allow them to show a series more or less in parallel with it's US transmission.
It seems a very odd approach to take from a commercial point of view to allow the US airings to have a head start of 4 or 5 (or 6) months, a time during which fans hungry for new episodes which just get them off the internet, and then by the time your channel starts showing it here, they are so far into the season that they will never come back to you.
And as word of mouth spreads and fast connections become more commonplace (Tiscali now offer a 'midband' deal which provides you with a 160K connection for more or less exactly the price of most unmetered dialup packages, once that becomes common knowledge broadband connections could escalate by huge amounts), the number of people indulging in this illegal but highly effective practice to get out of the traditional UK lag will surely only rise.
OB
Yes they have the rights for the 3rd season. It is now to be called Star Trek: Enterprise as opposed to Enterprise so one can pursume a slight adaption of titles.
CW
It doesn't explain the delays we have though. An average American primetime show will have 24 new episodes per year, broken up by 12 repeated episodes dispersed throughout the season, giving the series a network airing of 36 weeks per year (these figures can vary in either direction by a couple of episodes). You can guarantee that UK broadcasters will find 3 or 4 weeks during the run of a season when a programme is cancelled for one reason or another. Therefore, they could quite feasibly start running a series 2 months after it's US season premiere without overtaking the US airings. Delays of twice this are commonplace.
Also, whilst UK broadcasters don't like mid season repeats, maybe it's time they changed what they like? They do demonstrate that they want to run a series more or less continually if they can; you very often see a new American import being taken on only after the results of it's first season in America are out. Thus, they are a whole season behind the US. They then often run the first and second seasons completely uninterrupted in order to catch up (BBC2 ran almost 3 complete seasons of Star Trek Voyager weekly without a break, then took it off for a few months and then packaged the rest of season 3 and all of season 4 as one big season, so that from that point on they could lag behind Sky only for the minimum time that they had too, rather than being over a year behind Sky and almost 2 years behind the US as they were originally).
And once they've done the catching up period and are right behind the US airings, they often immediately (or practically immediately) follow a completed series with a rerun of older episodes in the same or much the same timeslot (I don't think there is ever a time when C4 don't show at least one episode of Friends in a primetime slow each week). Does it matter if some of these repeats are shown mid season so that they can stay up to date?
As I said myself, with such easy access to US material months in advance of a UK broadcaster airing it, surely the onus is now on the UK broadcaster to get things aired sooner rather than later, to put people off bothering to download and thus watch it on your channel.
Taking this issue to it's next step, what starts off as a way of getting new episodes early can soon develop into something more troublesome for UK broadcasters/distributors. Once people see how easy it is to get the new episodes and how convenient it is to have entire seasons of TV shows archived to CDR, a fan might then look at getting the older ones too. Taking Friends as an example again, every single episode that exists is available on there at some point during the day. If you have a fast connection and really get to work on it, you can easily get hold off the whole lot inside 10-14 days. Even taking it at a more leisurely pace, it need take no longer than 6 weeks. Once you've then got a big box of CDRs on your desk containing every episode in existance, what possible reason do you have for ever watching any episode of it on C4 or E4 again? What possible reason do you have to go out to a video shop and buy a DVD/Video of something you allready have?. What if this affects more than one show?
eg, 3 of Channel 4's flagship imports (if not THE flagship imports - I think ER's heyday is over) are Friends, Enterprise and The Simpsons (soon to be The Simpsons anyway). What I just said about Friends applies to these series too. It is entirely feasible that the budding broadband user could hold complete archives to all of these. Suddenly, these people have no reason to ever watch C4's 3 biggest shows be they in new episodes in primetime or daytime repeats. This surely is not good for advertising revenue.
But, if they got their imports out within a day or two of the US airings, they could prevent this curiosity from developing in the first place, and thus nip the problem in the bud.
When broadband and internet use and awareness of file sharing services like Kazaa become commonplace (the legal and moral issues really won't come into it for many people - it really just isn't seen as being wrong in general), I can seriously see this becoming a big problem.
The broadcasters may miss their unbroken seasons, but I really believe the time has come to let them go. If they don't, more and more potential viewers will go elsewhere, and advertising revenue - and thus the channel - will suffer.
cwathen
Founding member
Quote:
You answered the question in your post. Repeats.
America likes to break up new shows by showing repeats during the season. In the UK we run straight through from episode 1 to episode 24 without a break if possible.
America likes to break up new shows by showing repeats during the season. In the UK we run straight through from episode 1 to episode 24 without a break if possible.
It doesn't explain the delays we have though. An average American primetime show will have 24 new episodes per year, broken up by 12 repeated episodes dispersed throughout the season, giving the series a network airing of 36 weeks per year (these figures can vary in either direction by a couple of episodes). You can guarantee that UK broadcasters will find 3 or 4 weeks during the run of a season when a programme is cancelled for one reason or another. Therefore, they could quite feasibly start running a series 2 months after it's US season premiere without overtaking the US airings. Delays of twice this are commonplace.
Also, whilst UK broadcasters don't like mid season repeats, maybe it's time they changed what they like? They do demonstrate that they want to run a series more or less continually if they can; you very often see a new American import being taken on only after the results of it's first season in America are out. Thus, they are a whole season behind the US. They then often run the first and second seasons completely uninterrupted in order to catch up (BBC2 ran almost 3 complete seasons of Star Trek Voyager weekly without a break, then took it off for a few months and then packaged the rest of season 3 and all of season 4 as one big season, so that from that point on they could lag behind Sky only for the minimum time that they had too, rather than being over a year behind Sky and almost 2 years behind the US as they were originally).
And once they've done the catching up period and are right behind the US airings, they often immediately (or practically immediately) follow a completed series with a rerun of older episodes in the same or much the same timeslot (I don't think there is ever a time when C4 don't show at least one episode of Friends in a primetime slow each week). Does it matter if some of these repeats are shown mid season so that they can stay up to date?
As I said myself, with such easy access to US material months in advance of a UK broadcaster airing it, surely the onus is now on the UK broadcaster to get things aired sooner rather than later, to put people off bothering to download and thus watch it on your channel.
Taking this issue to it's next step, what starts off as a way of getting new episodes early can soon develop into something more troublesome for UK broadcasters/distributors. Once people see how easy it is to get the new episodes and how convenient it is to have entire seasons of TV shows archived to CDR, a fan might then look at getting the older ones too. Taking Friends as an example again, every single episode that exists is available on there at some point during the day. If you have a fast connection and really get to work on it, you can easily get hold off the whole lot inside 10-14 days. Even taking it at a more leisurely pace, it need take no longer than 6 weeks. Once you've then got a big box of CDRs on your desk containing every episode in existance, what possible reason do you have for ever watching any episode of it on C4 or E4 again? What possible reason do you have to go out to a video shop and buy a DVD/Video of something you allready have?. What if this affects more than one show?
eg, 3 of Channel 4's flagship imports (if not THE flagship imports - I think ER's heyday is over) are Friends, Enterprise and The Simpsons (soon to be The Simpsons anyway). What I just said about Friends applies to these series too. It is entirely feasible that the budding broadband user could hold complete archives to all of these. Suddenly, these people have no reason to ever watch C4's 3 biggest shows be they in new episodes in primetime or daytime repeats. This surely is not good for advertising revenue.
But, if they got their imports out within a day or two of the US airings, they could prevent this curiosity from developing in the first place, and thus nip the problem in the bud.
When broadband and internet use and awareness of file sharing services like Kazaa become commonplace (the legal and moral issues really won't come into it for many people - it really just isn't seen as being wrong in general), I can seriously see this becoming a big problem.
The broadcasters may miss their unbroken seasons, but I really believe the time has come to let them go. If they don't, more and more potential viewers will go elsewhere, and advertising revenue - and thus the channel - will suffer.
Last edited by cwathen on 10 December 2003 8:42pm
CW
I knew this would happen. Ever since Rick Berman lost the fight to call Nemesis just 'Nemesis' and not 'Star Trek: Nemesis' I knew in time he'd have to give up on the policy of doing this with Enterprise too.
It was a stupid decision in the first place. Despite any jibes, Star Trek remains the most succesful, biggest, and most profitable sci-fi franchise in the world. Not to associate something that is part of Star Trek directly with it is madness. And when for legal reasons all things Star Trek must contain 'based upon Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry' in the titles, any attempt to 'move on' is immediately thwarted. And since they still sell all merchandise under the Star Trek name and Enterprise's online presence is still on startrek.com, the attempt was weakened further.
Hopefully they'll replace the theme tune at the same time - there is a video on the internet somewhere of an early edit of the title sequence with the visuals in place but before the theme tune was ready. Instead it was played to the theme tune from Star Trek: Generations, and sounded really good. If not this, then something like it is needed.
cwathen
Founding member
Quote:
Yes they have the rights for the 3rd season. It is now to be called Star Trek: Enterprise as opposed to Enterprise so one can pursume a slight adaption of titles.
I knew this would happen. Ever since Rick Berman lost the fight to call Nemesis just 'Nemesis' and not 'Star Trek: Nemesis' I knew in time he'd have to give up on the policy of doing this with Enterprise too.
It was a stupid decision in the first place. Despite any jibes, Star Trek remains the most succesful, biggest, and most profitable sci-fi franchise in the world. Not to associate something that is part of Star Trek directly with it is madness. And when for legal reasons all things Star Trek must contain 'based upon Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry' in the titles, any attempt to 'move on' is immediately thwarted. And since they still sell all merchandise under the Star Trek name and Enterprise's online presence is still on startrek.com, the attempt was weakened further.
Hopefully they'll replace the theme tune at the same time - there is a video on the internet somewhere of an early edit of the title sequence with the visuals in place but before the theme tune was ready. Instead it was played to the theme tune from Star Trek: Generations, and sounded really good. If not this, then something like it is needed.
OB
I knew this would happen. Ever since Rick Berman lost the fight to call Nemesis just 'Nemesis' and not 'Star Trek: Nemesis' I knew in time he'd have to give up on the policy of doing this with Enterprise too.
It was a stupid decision in the first place. Despite any jibes, Star Trek remains the most succesful, biggest, and most profitable sci-fi franchise in the world. Not to associate something that is part of Star Trek directly with it is madness. And when for legal reasons all things Star Trek must contain 'based upon Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry' in the titles, any attempt to 'move on' is immediately thwarted. And since they still sell all merchandise under the Star Trek name and Enterprise's online presence is still on startrek.com, the attempt was weakened further.
Hopefully they'll replace the theme tune at the same time - there is a video on the internet somewhere of an early edit of the title sequence with the visuals in place but before the theme tune was ready. Instead it was played to the theme tune from Star Trek: Generations, and sounded really good. If not this, then something like it is needed.
It will be interesting to see what has changed when it is shown in january. I have been told that the move to add the Star Trek name was in response after a backlash from fans. Although Enterprise is good i fear that we are having too many stories like we see on Voyager. The current storline from 'The Expanse' is too be extended across much of the 3rd season, although the episodes will not be directly linked. A Romulan story arc is expected soon.
cwathen posted:
Quote:
Yes they have the rights for the 3rd season. It is now to be called Star Trek: Enterprise as opposed to Enterprise so one can pursume a slight adaption of titles.
I knew this would happen. Ever since Rick Berman lost the fight to call Nemesis just 'Nemesis' and not 'Star Trek: Nemesis' I knew in time he'd have to give up on the policy of doing this with Enterprise too.
It was a stupid decision in the first place. Despite any jibes, Star Trek remains the most succesful, biggest, and most profitable sci-fi franchise in the world. Not to associate something that is part of Star Trek directly with it is madness. And when for legal reasons all things Star Trek must contain 'based upon Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry' in the titles, any attempt to 'move on' is immediately thwarted. And since they still sell all merchandise under the Star Trek name and Enterprise's online presence is still on startrek.com, the attempt was weakened further.
Hopefully they'll replace the theme tune at the same time - there is a video on the internet somewhere of an early edit of the title sequence with the visuals in place but before the theme tune was ready. Instead it was played to the theme tune from Star Trek: Generations, and sounded really good. If not this, then something like it is needed.
OB
Yes, the theme is the weakest link in the whole franchise i think, a brave move maybee, but i dont think they can pull it off. I would love to hear a great orchestral score as the theme.
RD
Nope, "Faith of the Heart" is staying. Apparently, it has been slightly re-arranged though. Still sung by the same bloke, but with a faster tempo or something like that.
rdd
Founding member
cwathen posted:
Hopefully they'll replace the theme tune at the same time - there is a video on the internet somewhere of an early edit of the title sequence with the visuals in place but before the theme tune was ready. Instead it was played to the theme tune from Star Trek: Generations, and sounded really good. If not this, then something like it is needed.
Nope, "Faith of the Heart" is staying. Apparently, it has been slightly re-arranged though. Still sung by the same bloke, but with a faster tempo or something like that.
OB
Russel Watson('the voice') performes the theme, so Russel Watson is still there in the new theme!! a interesting if predictable move.
JA
Jammers
Founding member
They have "jazzed" up the theme. When I first heard it I thought it was even worse but it grows on you. Vocals are the same. Episode 3 or 4 is where Star Trek appears on the credits.
It does not appear that the Romulans will be making an appearence this season. They are really building on the Xindi story line. Its def the best season so far and Im really into Enterprise now.
The current season is to last for 24 episodes - Ive just seen episode 13 and the next 4 or so are continuing the Xindi storyline arc so i expect the season finale will probably bring the Xindi to an exciting conclusion. Twilight (episode
is an excellent episode.
Regarding repeats, Enterprise has been on repeats for a week now with the next new episode airing in the middle of January.
It does not appear that the Romulans will be making an appearence this season. They are really building on the Xindi story line. Its def the best season so far and Im really into Enterprise now.
The current season is to last for 24 episodes - Ive just seen episode 13 and the next 4 or so are continuing the Xindi storyline arc so i expect the season finale will probably bring the Xindi to an exciting conclusion. Twilight (episode
is an excellent episode.
Regarding repeats, Enterprise has been on repeats for a week now with the next new episode airing in the middle of January.