[islesfan]

In the past two weeks, I have had to go to the Internet five times to see episodes that were preempted or just dumped from live TV, and it is getting really old! I know none of this is DirecTV's fault. It is all on our local affiliates here in Reno, but that still begs the question, what am I paying for? CW Reno has always been a joke, but every week, it just goes black for 5-10 minutes during Vampire Diaries. Last week, it just quit after 40 minutes. Person Of Interest? Well, I guess CBS thought that was less interesting than a wildfire, so they broomed the whole episode in favor of talking heads chatting on and on about the wildfire. Not that an emergency isn't important, but the same info could be conveyed with a crawl along the bottom of the screen.

The time for local affiliates is done. DirecTV should have access to a national feed for when the locals go all college broadcasting station on us. OK, so that will probably never happen, but it really is a shame that we don't have choices.

 

[markfp]

If there was an emergency or natural disaster in my area, I'd sure want my locals to pre-empt network programs for it. Networks shows get repeated. Maybe a wildfire isn't burning at the foot or your driveway, but it might for others in your area. Get real. In the scheme of things, especially when people's lives are at risk, TV shows aren't important.

 

[spartanstew]

Wildfires and Tornadoes are always a touchy subject and I can see both sides. For me, however, a crawl, or updates during commercials is almost always all that's needed - especially in this era of the internet where better information (on weather and other) can usually be found, but prime time programming can't be (legally).

 

[islesfan]

If there was an emergency or natural disaster in my area, I'd sure want my locals to pre-empt network programs for it. Networks shows get repeated. Maybe a wildfire isn't burning at the foot or your driveway, but it might for others in your area. Get real. In the scheme of things, especially when people's lives are at risk, TV shows aren't important.

This wasn't exactly "news." The wildfire had been going on for 24 hours, everyone who needed to be evacuated had already been evacuated (and if it were all that important, ABC would have preempted Wipeout for it too). This was just face time for local anchors. Nevertheless, of course an emergency is more important, and that's why I said a crawl along the bottom would be sufficient. Don't preempt programming for everyone to talk about a problem for a small section of a city. That's just abuse of the airwaves!

 

[zimm7778]

This wasn't exactly "news." The wildfire had been going on for 24 hours, everyone who needed to be evacuated had already been evacuated (and if it were all that important, ABC would have preempted Wipeout for it too). This was just face time for local anchors. Nevertheless, of course an emergency is more important, and that's why I said a crawl along the bottom would be sufficient. Don't preempt programming for everyone to talk about a problem for a small section of a city. That's just abuse of the airwaves!

May I ask something? I don't watch this person of interest show. Was it a rerun? I watch a lot of other CBS shows and they have been primarily in reruns since Christmas. Network affiliates are known to preempt those for their own programming from time to time. This is not an abuse of airwaves by the way.

 

[Herdfan]

When our local network preempts shows like that, they usually re air them after the late night talk shows. If you have a DVR, that could be a solution.

PoI has not been in reruns for some reason.

But this just clarifies the point that affiliates are becoming useless. Every market should have a "local" station for news or emergencies, but there is no reason it has to be an affiliate of a network. Isn't that what Public Television is for?

 

[spartanstew]

May I ask something? I don't watch this person of interest show. Was it a rerun? I watch a lot of other CBS shows and they have been primarily in reruns since Christmas. Network affiliates are known to preempt those for their own programming from time to time. This is not an abuse of airwaves by the way.

Most shows started back up with new episodes a week or two ago, including Person of Interest.

 

[Stuart Sweet]

I think that question is something everyone has to ask for himself. There are more and more choices for "cutting the cord", and at the same time providers like DIRECTV are adding more functionality like mobile device connections.

No matter what it is that you decide, the good news is that there are a lot of alternatives so you're bound to find one that works for you.

 

[zimm7778]

Most shows started back up with new episodes a week or two ago, including Person of Interest.

Yeah but they've been staggered. 1 week new, then another week or two have inexplicably been reruns and this isn't the case with every single one they air. It's been very hit or miss depending on the show and since I don't watch that one, I was curious.