Anyone know why it is that cable networks and/or broadcast networks seem to be so sloppy when it comes to starting and ending their programs on time?
It seems to me that time synchronization should be a pretty trivial thing, in this age of computerized and automated processes. I’d imagine that even with some slop, you could be within a couple of seconds of the same time.
I’m getting kind of tired of missing the last 30-45 seconds of TV shows, or recording the last 10 seconds of some other show before what I want to see comes on.
They’re not being sloppy. It’s deliberate, and it’s to make you want to watch the shows live (rather than record them and watch them later).
Note that it’s the networks that have commercials that do this. They know that if you record their shows and watch them later you’ll probably zap past the commercials, and that makes their shows less enticing for their customers. (For the networks-with-commercials, you are not the customer. You are the product. The advertiser is the customer. The shows are just the means to deliver the product.)