I caught a mention on one of the news networks claiming that CBS would no longer be running anything live, but would be utilizing the five-minute delay that they used for the Grammys.
They are also planning to supply the equiptment for their local affiliates, so that they can comply with the wishes of the CBS brass.
Just think of the repercussions:
Every sports program will actually be five-minutes off from reality.
Every news program will be tape-delayed, making it pretty hard for the local news to claim they are the first to bring you the news, as my local CBS affiliate is currently reporting.
Certain news-worthy events, such as presidential debates, state of the union addresses, election results, will also be five minutes behind the other networks.
Pretty sure these key News programs would not be on a 5-minute delay. We’d better look up the actual details of what is proposed. Besides, you do not really need five whole minutes. A single minute is a lifetime in live broadcasting so a mere 90-second delay should provide any self-respecting director/producer plenty of time to cut away, redirect, squelch, etc…
I’m sure this is all a well-meaning effort from CBS to protect us viewers from distasteful elements on our airwaves, such as anti-war protesters, Michael Moore’s Oscar speech, and anyone left of Ann Coulter. :rolleyes:
I was about to say that they wouldn’t do this for the sports games, then I remembered that the Janet Jackson tit thing happened at a sports event.
I really don’t know how they’re going to do this. For example, my dad watches Redskins games with the TV on mute while listening to a local radio station (because with very few exceptions, the TV announcers suck). It’s bad enough that the radio signals get to us a second or two before the TV signals do, but if they do it for five whole minutes…
I don’t think you’ll notice much difference. Our local TV station started delaying Saturday Night Live five minutes (not because of any censorship problems, but because they wanted it to start at :35 past, just like the Tonight Show during the week). At the beginning there were a couple of instances where someone screwed something up and what we saw jumped between the live and delayed version, but that hasn’t happened in awhile.
As JRDelerious noted, CBS doesn’t need five whole minutes. They might want to delay something by five minutes when they’re afraid something might happen, but only 7 seconds if they’re pretty sure everything will be “safe” but just want a safety cushion.
And think about it. If your local news is delayed by five minutes, they’ll start five minutes earlier in the studio. Then your local anchor REALLY will be bringing you the news first. You just won’t be receiving it right away.
You delay the halftime show by 2 minutes, and show the actual gameplay “live” or on a delay of seconds (in case someone in the stands decides to moon the cameras). You cover the speedup/slowdown with ads (perhaps showing tasteful, family-friendly footage from Budweiser of a horse fart being lit in a woman’s face…)