Enough already with the Witty Channel 9 Content Descriptions

Started by ozbear, July 31, 2006, 09:48:20 AM

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ozbear

 >:(

The first couple of program content descriptions for various Channel 9 shows were cute/funny/humourous but enough is enough.

I sympathise with IceTV about Channel 9's outrageous court action but I am paying for content descriptions, not all the opinion expressed in the TV Guide.

Knock it off already.  We get your point, now get back to doing what we are paying you for, providing content description.

Oz

Mitch IceGuide

The descriptions (or at least majority of) you are referring to, simply replaced generic synopses. The content and format of programs like Nine News, Current Affair etc etc are no mystery to most. The Guide team do not believe any further information can be derived from other EPGs with these programs. We thank you for 'getting the point', however, 'the point' is not yet made on those who can put this whole issue behind us all. Thanks for your patience and understanding on this.

goldcoastguy

To me, the "content description" is merely the Program Name and Subtitle and (expected) time of airing.

Everything else (on the commercial networks) has to be resourced and written from scratch. And really, is there much more you can add to some of these programs (e.g. news)??

The witty comments (love the Big Brother comments last night and tonight!) are a refreshing change from the stock standard synopsys you get in other media (newspapers, etc) and is one of the reasons I subscribed.


Of course, if Channel 9 somehow win this case, you can forget about reading ANY synopsis (and probably any other guide info as well).


Treat the comments as a bit of light-hearted fun.


Evan :->

pvogel

To expand further on Mitch's comment, our commentary on Nine's programs are not just a cheap shot.  

We are trying in a humorous way to convey to the public that Nine have not only sued us but they are refusing  to communicate with us except in court.

In a reasonable commercial world I would expect that if someone has a grievance with you, they should first attempt to resolve it by negotiation.  The Federal Court should not be their first port of call.

We have invited Nine to meet with us and understand the issues however they have refused to do so. Eddie McGuide has not returned our calls.

The consequence is that our float failed and now we are spending vast amounts of money on a legal defence that we should not be subject to until after alternative dispute resolution has been exhausted.

You, as an IceTV subscriber, are not getting the benefit of new and improved services as your subscription fees are going into the pockets of the lawyers rather than our developers.

As Mitch said, our "political" commentary is not intended to detract from the information presented, if we have slipped up please let us know which programs have been impacted so we can correct them.

Best regards,

Peter Vogel

CTO IceTV

mtb

Quote from: ozbear on July 31, 2006, 09:48:20 AM
now get back to doing what we are paying you for, providing content description.
Let's just look at the bigger picture for a moment i.e. the descriptions across all channels.  The description against the 18:00 News on channel seven reads as follows...

"Contemplating a half hour of News with Seven? Or is that 19.5 minutes after commercials. That would be maybe 16 minutes before the Sport. Oh, there is weather and finance ...... OK, if you're contemplating 11 minutes of News with Seven. Turn the radio on instead."

...as opposed to...

"With Susannah Carr and Rick Ardon."

Ok, so perhaps the radio comment is a little tongue in cheek but the rest of the Ice description is disturbingly accurate - I recorded it a couple of nights and checked the values - they were pretty close and more amusing.  So if you are wanting accuracy in your program guides, Ice are providing it and I, as another paying subscriber and potential investor, see no problem in Ice airing their views this action by Nine, particularly when the alternative description would add nothing to the content.
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ozbear

The point is that we have gotten the point.

I am not paying for IceTV's opinions things and I believe this is a misuse of your position as content providers.

They used to be witty, but are now, as so many things done ad nauseum become, tiresome.  A non-IceTV user who was over at my house was looking through the channel Guide and laughed at the first couple, but his delight soon turned to consternation eventually resulting in "Gee...these guys need to give it a rest...not funny anymore".
I was, frankly, a little embarrassed.

I also do not care for the tone used in replies to me in this thread from IceTV staff.

You are doing yourselves a disservice by continuing this and should look at threads on this in the XPMedia Center forums for similar comments.

Don't spoil our support of your company by being churlish.

Oz

philzgr8

Peter,
I really do have to say I think you have got it wrong here. As I have said before I am not really offended by the content but more bored and a little bemused with the preoccupation. While you may argue that some subscribers actually support your actions, (I myself was partly motivated in subscribing by the desire to help you fight nine's action,) you can't get away from the fact that people are paying you to provide accurate EPG data and not political commentary. At the very least I think you should make that stuff optional by creating 2 sets of EPG data for channel 9 and anyone else you choose to make commentary about. At least that way those who find it annoying can opt out by mapping to different data sources.

Just my 2c

mtb

Oh for goodness sake!

So you would prefer that Ice spend what little development funds they have not given to the lawyers on something which removes what little voice they have against Nein.  I can't believe what I'm reading... Eddie must be laughing in his boots when he sees this sort of thing - he doesn't need to silence Ice, you're doing it for him!

As for the witticism aspect, something does not become less witty simply because you choose to look for and re-read it over and over again and thus tire of it, it is still in essense witty of itself...

wit·ty (wĭt'ē) adj.,:

  • Possessing or demonstrating wit in speech or writing; very clever and humorous.
  • Characterized by or having the nature of wit; funny or jocular: a witty saying.
  • Quick to discern and express amusing insights or relationships.
  • Entertainingly and strikingly clever or original in concept, design, or performance: a witty sculpture; witty choreography.

Of course, intentionally going looking for and reading these comments will create the feeling of them being tiresome, but no more than would repeatedly reading the static...


  • "With Susannah Carr and Rick Ardon."
  • "Dixie Marshall and Sonia Vinci present the day's top local, national and international news stories."
  • "Mike Amor presents the latest news, sport and weather from around Australia and overseas."

...comments found elsewhere, given the static nature of the programme content.  At least the Ice descriptions provide some amusement (by your own admissions) and are potentially informative.

So, in the same way that you don't have to watch a programme like Big Brother if you find it offensive, if you don't like what is written instead of the bland (and fundamentally obvious) programme descriptions on a minority of generic programmes, don't read them!  Nobody is forcing you to and, unless you cannot remember what the News programme is going to be about(!), you really shouldn't need to.

As regards the 'tone' of the Ice staff, I can't see a single thing in their posts here that could be taken as offensive or inappropriate - they are at most accurate, succinct and to the point, nothing more. 

I think you are taking things a little too far if you found the replies or descriptions offensive or upsetting.  At the end of the day, you can still record programmes far more accurately that if you did not have Ice, which is after all the whole point of this service.
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ancall

Wow!
I didn't realise there were so many engineers out there!
ancall

ozbear

Quote from: mtb on July 31, 2006, 03:58:27 PM

As regards the 'tone' of the Ice staff, I can't see a single thing in their posts here that could be taken as offensive or inappropriate - they are at most accurate, succinct and to the point, nothing more. 

I think you are taking things a little too far if you found the replies or descriptions offensive or upsetting.  At the end of the day, you can still record programmes far more accurately that if you did not have Ice, which is after all the whole point of this service.

You don't get a vote in what I might find offensive, inappropriate, or upsetting.

For the record, I never said "offensive" or "upsetting" so please don't put words in other persons' mouths.  That is rude and disingenuous.

Oz

mtb

Quote from: ozbear on July 31, 2006, 04:12:19 PM
For the record, I never said "offensive" or "upsetting" so please don't put words in other persons' mouths.  That is rude and disingenuous.
"For the record", to presume that I was replying just to you is equally so.
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guvner

Quote from: mtb on July 31, 2006, 04:19:21 PM
"For the record", to presume that I was replying just to you is equally so.
I think someone is trying just a little too hard to be clever!

If you are attempting to argue that your comment was directed at person(s) other than, as well as or instead of ozbear - precisely who else in this thread has mentioned their objection to IceTV staff's tone?

Short answer - nobody else has mentioned it - so who other than ozbear could you be replying to? - or was that just the sound of someone trying to defend a weak position?

impact

As I've said before - at first I was annoyed, then saw the joke in it - and they dont bother me anymore... But I understand the thoughts along the lines of feeling somewhat annoyed for paying to get this political comment....

There is probably no real answer to it all - well one that keeps everybody happy and amused... But I am wondering how big a problem this is ?

I have only ever noticed it on News / Current Affairs shows / and the occassional thing like Big Brother. Its only on items that would have a generic text included.... so its not like we are missing the synopsis of a movie or anything.

But I am wondering if it would be worthwhile for the icetv guys to post a listing of all the shows that have the 'unusual' commentry - so that we can see if it is really a big problem or not... and maybe if neccessary we can come to an arrangement whereby Iceman can have his fun on News at 6pm, but leave .... with a generic comment? Worthwhile - otherwise this thread will just go on for ever - and the only solution will be, if you dont like it, nobody forces you to use icetv ... etc...

Maybe even a competition to help iceman out... you can provide a satirical comment for show xxx next week....

I reckon icetv is doing a great job, I'd just like to know the definitive list that this thread is discussing for the benefit of all.....

Jason W

The best possible solution I can see here is to effectively have 2 feeds. An option to hide the rants in one's account settings.

When I first saw this happening (funny comments in general, not those targetted at Nine), I thought very little of it, "oh, they have no better description. Why not a little fun?". Then I noticed it occuring more and more and now, essentially attacks against Nine.

Myself personally? I couldn't care less. As others have mentioned, we do not appear to be losing any content. This has however caused me to not recommend this service to 2 people now who have asked me "My Media Center doesn't have any TV guide?" after seeing my MythTV setup. I would have said, "There's a great service available now with good reliable data, descriptions and everything!" and I'm pretty sure they'd have signed up.  I do not want to tarnish my professional image by recommending this service as it stands now with the descriptions. They would notice, they would definitely care.

Is there any chance of an "opt out"?

peteru

Food for thought: "How do you think MediaWatch would see this use of IceTV's editorial power?"

I always find the MediaWatch  moral "high horse" point of view and the ability/willingness to criticise among their own ranks a good way of gauging just how far a publishing company can step without going over the line.