I agree, but I get why they’d opt for an EST start time as every other 9Gem promo also has an EST start time. But I think a promo like this should warrant both CST and EST start times or at least ‘EST’ next to it. Better yet, why not add ‘LIVE at 6.30’ which removes all doubt to the viewer.
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Yes, perfect idea.
If i’m not mistaken, 9Gem actually runs on EDT now during the daylight saving period?
If so, having the promo run as “Weeknights 7:30” is just even more ridiculous in my opinion!
“LIVE at 6:00 CST” is the perfect solution IMO
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Yeah, forgot about DS! Definitely should be more attention given to promos for programs like these.
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Well, Gem might be running on EDT but if the ad’s only running on Imparja North and not on Gem itself, they probably thought it should still be given in QLD time like everything else on that channel.
So promoting it at “6.30 on Gem” on Imparja would be “correct” even though it takes up the “7.30” slot on Gem.
Ugh. 
Trying to justify it on that basis shows the mess of the limited VAST space where they can run two versions of IMP itself but only one of the multis.
Time zones would help of course (esp. since none of them applies to the NT!) but of course they haven’t used them since they went from CST to EST ages ago and stopped making all promos themselves…
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The VAST channels need the American approach of promos. Eg “tonight at 9, 8 central”.
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LOL, and who would pay for the production?
Won’t happen.
And too many time zones, VAST North/South have 4 of them to contend with at this time of year.
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Actually only 2 time zones would need to be in the promos. Eastern and Central.
Because the North and South VAST feeds account for the states that take DST in the summer.
Not to mention the SCA channels mostly source a dirty feed and take the metro promos top and or tail of the break anyway.
Would be a massive cost to:-
- Tag each promo detailing the multitude of timezones stamped at the end
- To schedule them and for the SCA servers at the NPC playout centre to store and play them out.
Which costs money the VAST services do not have.
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The SCA and IMP HD VAST channels are both north and south, the one and the same transmission stream to save costs. So in DST, you would need to tag with 4 timezones.
ABC TV National’s approach is still in use today. Could be adopted by the commercial networks and be added by presentation instead of having to retouch promos.
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Just don’t tag those HD channels then. It will never will be a perfect system.
I’m not saying VAST should do it. I was just commenting on an American convention that solves a similar problem. But thanks for your replies @TC25. 
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Do they stiil do that in the US?
Can easily understand in the early longline days of networking before videotape and server delay that they did this.
Am sure the main networks now provide 4 network bed feeds for the affiliates to sit on. Being Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones and that the network switching centre looks after delaying live programing and co-ordinating the switching in of live sport and live rolling news events and special reports into each of these separate time zone specific feeds?
Maybe some affiliates in the Central time zone like to live in the past and stay on Eastern time?
I think only Alaska and Hawaii do their own thing, sitting on the Pacifc feed and doing a combination of live and local delay. They are not large enough areas for the main networks to provide specific time zone network feeds.
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The ABC should still be available in each time local zone for Foxtel satellite viewers as it was mostly before. I understand this national feed was a compromise when the state based feeds were discontinued to save ABC uplink costs.
Why can’t the ABC, Foxtel, VAST and Optus come to an arrangement where Foxtel boxes source the separate state based VAST ABC feeds which are in the same spot 156 degrees east C1/D3 spot in the sky?
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I have been asking this question since 2010. Perfectly good HD and timezone-based feeds are sitting there yet they aren’t shared among other platforms and CA systems. Same with the Sky Racing HD channels, and even the VAST commercial channels. It would be so easy to dual-encrypt all these services and allow them to be watched on a Foxtel box.
One drawback would be - the Foxtel boxes that take most advantage out of satellite-based FTA’s like ABC and SBS are all legacy MPEG-2 boxes. Most of the more modern MPEG-4 capable boxes have DVB-T tuners. So they’ve ‘missed the boat’ somewhat. When establishing VAST, they should have utilised the existing ABC and SBS channels already in use by Foxtel rather that implementing new MPEG-4 services for VAST only.
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Wasn’t the Federal Govt doing a VAST review at some stage being they pay for most of it including the carriage of commercial services?
The simulcast of ABC/SBS VAST services for FOXTEL viewers should be included in that review.
Is silly that the ABC and SBS pay for 3 X satellite uplinks, FOXTEL and VAST on C1/D3 and the D1 DVB-S2 mux feeds direct to their DVB-T regional TV transmitters.
There can’t be that many Austar boxes out there still surely? They would be way past their economic end of life.
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Yes and it resulted in funding to keep it going. I would say the Foxtel versions were included in that review, because soon after, ABC cut down their services and created ‘ABC TV National’.
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Christmas ID
News promo
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Do Imparja even know what time zone they’re trying to cater to?
9Gem runs on the AEDT Timezone feed, so 9 News Darwin actually airs at 7:30pm by the time zone that the channel is running on. Yet the ad said 6:30pm. It makes no sense. Even worse when they’re targeting viewers in the NT with that ad - where it airs at 6pm local time.
Back in the days of the “coming up tonight” signpost things that used to air, they did correctly list 9 News Darwin at 7:30pm on those each night.
The promo says to me …. here’s 9 News Darwin which is on at 6:30pm - but not 6:30pm for the people in the NT that this ad is targeted to, and not 6:30pm by the Timezone that everything else on this channel is advertised in…
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That ad was probably made for Imparja North and 9Go! North. All promos on those channels are advertised in AEST, so it makes sense from that perspective. But I agree, the target audience is in ACST and they could have saved them from having to do the usual 30 minute deduction in their heads when viewing the promo. “Weeknights Live on 9Gem” would have been fine.
I really don’t think 9Gem is the best channel to use in this case. 9Go! North would be way more appropriate as it would have less impact on the wider audience, and place news at a reasonable time schedule wise. Darwin’s news replaces key 7.30pm programs on 9Gem. They now use 10 or 20 minutes of gap-filler programming at 8.30pm to catch them up to the metro schedule, rather than bringing programs forward and using the gap filler later in the night. So I doubt they’re rescheduling the missing programs at alternate times like they used to.
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