Conspiracy Theory

I suppose some may think that a form of paranoia is overtaking me, or that I am getting more easily annoyed as I get older. Chances are good that both are happening - let me explain. A couple years ago I bought a PVR (aka DVR or Tivo). Mine is from my satellite company, Dish Network. Works fine, never had a problem with it, love it.

But recently, I have noticed that the programming is getting out of sync with the clock, meaning that when I set my PVR to record a show, it often misses the last 30 seconds to 2 minutes of the show. This only happens when the show continues past the hour or the half-hour just a little. It’s just enough for you to miss the preview of the next episode, or even the conclusion of the show. Really annoying.

Why is this happening all of a sudden? I don’t remember having this problem until just a few months ago. Why would the networks start doing this? Certainly the way they sell commercials has changed, breaking up many of the ad time slots into short 5-15 second bursts of high volume intense messages. Who knows, maybe in time they will get even shorter, possibly just a subliminal blur of logos and product names that flows right into your cortex. But that’s probably not be related to my timing problem.

Here is where the paranoia comes in. Believe it or not I am starting to think that the networks are doing this intentionally, just to annoy me. I think that is it entirely possible that they have this plan where, for their most watched shows (and consequently their most lucrative ad time), they are intentionally running the shows past the hour so that I will be dissuaded from “Tivoing” that particular show and choose to watch it real time! Then I won’t miss the ending. and will be more likely to pay attention to at least some of their ads.

I suppose there could actually be some business reason that they are doing this, like the ad rates for the show I’m watching are higher than the next one coming up. Therefore they extend the show a couple minutes so they can cram in a couple more spots while people are glued to their sets. Makes you feel manipulated doesn’t it?

Well, I’m not going to give up! Even if I have to reprogram my shows manually to extend the time a few minutes into the next hour, or pause a live show for 15 minutes and then advance through the commercials.

The days of ad agencies forcing you to watch Immodium and Preparation H commercials at dinnertime are just about over, my friend. No wonder the networks are getting desperate.