Death of the TV guide

Hard-copy television guides are becoming irrelevant thanks to digital television.

Why should we keep the weekly free TV guide from our Sunday newspaper when we can read program information on the electronic guide on our digital television or the internet?

With the analog signal slowly being phased out in Australia and more people upgrading to digital television sets, should the TV guide be phased out too? After all, the star ratings for programs are just based on one person's opinion. Plus if we're interested in watching a film why can't we just read a simple unbiased description on the electronic guide?

TV guides, particularly Adelaide's, are becoming outdated just like analog television. With the launch of more and more new digital channels on free-to-air Australian television, the Adelaide TV Guide program layout is looking messy and cramped.

In today's Guide there's a write-up about the four main female characters in the drama Gossip Girl. The spread is there to entice us to watch but why wasn't this article published in last week's Guide in time for the season launch?

Here at Media Muncher we'd hardly miss our paper TV guides since we can check our digital guide instead and put our paper guide from the Sunday newspaper in the recycling bin on Sunday.

A Current Affair weather update

For the past few weeks Channel Nine's A Current Affair has integrated Australia's weather forecast into the program. The weather flyaround is played after the last lot of advertisements is over. Pop music always plays in the background of the animated weather map without a weather presenter or a voice-over. It's just tacky and ACA need to abandon the idea. Showing the weather interrupts the flow of the program and isn't even necessary to play. The sooner ACA ditches the weather flyaround the better.

In the credits for the Channel Nine cooking show Alive and Cooking it says they use Wikipedia as a "fact reference". Don't get me wrong, I love Wikipedia but it's a joke to use it for a proper reference. Doesn't Alive and Cooking know that anyone can contribute "credible" information on the free encyclopaedia? If they didn't admit to using Wikipedia then we could believe "facts" learnt on the show.

Cooking or news: time to decide Channel Nine

What happened to Nine Morning News at 11am for Adelaide viewers today? Despite the usual news updates with Wendy Kingston throughout Mornings with Kerri-Anne, a repeat of cooking show Alive and Cooking was aired followed by a new talk show Daily. Alive and Cooking normally airs at 3pm in Adelaide and we've been watching repeats for weeks now.

Turns out Channel Nine decided to play a new episode of Entertainment Tonight at 3pm as they do in the eastern states. While that was a refreshing change, some notice would be nice in the TV Guide. Who knows how long this programming will last, a few weeks then back to normal?

There's nothing wrong with the Nine news hour at eleven. In fact, the worst thing Nine did was ax the cooking show Fresh Cooking with the Australian Women's Weekly. Had they known Australians would fall in love with the cooking phenomenon that is MasterChef, perhaps they would've kept Fresh at 11.30am.