TV Home Forum

US TV

Live, except on West Coast... (October 2003)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
TW
TWO ident Founding member
I know that in the US for most networked programmes there is a 3 hour time delay on the West Coast so that if a programme is shown at 9 PM Eastern/8 PM Central it will be shown at 9 PM Pacific.

Does this occur even with programmes that are, by their nature, meant to be shown live? Such as sport, news and awards ceremonies? Are there any programmes like this that aren't delayed? If not it must be annoying living on the West Coast when you can get the football result before the "live" game is broadcast.
:-(
A former member
TWO ident posted:
I know that in the US for most networked programmes there is a 3 hour time delay on the West Coast so that if a programme is shown at 9 PM Eastern/8 PM Central it will be shown at 9 PM Pacific.

Does this occur even with programmes that are, by their nature, meant to be shown live? Such as sport, news and awards ceremonies? Are there any programmes like this that aren't delayed? If not it must be annoying living on the West Coast when you can get the football result before the "live" game is broadcast.


We generally get sports live. I know Local News Is indeed live for the west coast, not sure about national. We do not get awards shows live.
TW
TWO ident Founding member
Yes I've heard that even award ceremonies that are held in LA are still shown first in NY, then 3 hours later in LA Rolling Eyes
:-(
A former member
TWO ident posted:
I know that in the US for most networked programmes there is a 3 hour time delay on the West Coast so that if a programme is shown at 9 PM Eastern/8 PM Central it will be shown at 9 PM Pacific.
Does this occur even with programmes that are, by their nature, meant to be shown live? Such as sport, news and awards ceremonies? Are there any programmes like this that aren't delayed? If not it must be annoying living on the West Coast when you can get the football result before the "live" game is broadcast.

Yes most programmes on the WEST COAST are delayed until their airing time. But all the networks have a double feed. There is a EASTERN/CENTRAL feed and MOUNTAIN/PACIFIC feed. That way the promos and such will be correct for each half of the country...so it you live in NYC or CHICAGO...it promo will say for instance : ER NBC THURSDAY at 9central 10 eastern. Then of course its changed for the west coast feed. Major sporting events and award ceremories are carried live. They will insert "dumped" programming after it where normally the east will be showing local news. Like after the Academy Awards. They will announce: YOUR LOCAL NEWS IS NEXT..EXCEPT ON THE WEST COAST. They normally dont muck around with sports broadcasts. The fact remains is the population centres are larger on the east coast than the west coast. Most networks will also broadcast a live version of the naitonal news at 5:30 / 6:30 for the west coast.
DC
dcomp11
I live in Canada, but since we get the US networks:

- Sports are live most of the time
- Local News is live
- Network news is live on the east coast, taped on the west coast
- Award shows are always live on the east coast and taped on the west coast, even though many of them are in California.

In Canada, we are lucky to have the privlege of being allowed to receive affiliates of Canadian and US networks from different time zones. So if you live on the East Coast, and miss a show on NBC at 8pm, you can catch it again at 11pm. And on the west coast, you can watch the show at 5pm Pacific on a station from the Eastern Time Zone, or at 8pm on a Pacific Time Zone feed.

Cheers,

-- Dan
DV
dvboy
Doesn't it get confusing for you in that situation, having to work out what time things are on because of the different time-zones?

Then again I guess you'd get used to it...
:-(
A former member
Lee Stanley posted:
Doesn't it get confusing for you in that situation, having to work out what time things are on because of the different time-zones?

Then again I guess you'd get used to it...

Actually if you live say Chicago any they say. You only hear the 2 times zones so after awhile its quite easy to understand they are refering to the eastern timezone. So most people know to subtract an hour.
WO
Woody_streatham
I am sorry if I am being really thick, but my understanding of American TV was that there were no 'ABC' or 'NBC' channels as such. They are broadcast through affiliates. So WXBN 4 would be the 'ABC' channel for where-ever. So why the 8e/7p times? Why don't the affiliates round the country just air the programe locally at a set uniform time?
:-(
A former member
Woody_streatham posted:
I am sorry if I am being really thick, but my understanding of American TV was that there were no 'ABC' or 'NBC' channels as such. They are broadcast through affiliates. So WXBN 4 would be the 'ABC' channel for where-ever. So why the 8e/7p times? Why don't the affiliates round the country just air the programe locally at a set uniform time?

Well you are correct about the affiliate system. But the networks take over the affiliates during primetime. It would be an absolute mess if everything was aired independently. They dont want to leave control of expensive programming to some goofy gallery tech. Plus the networks usually own the stations in the top markets. SO they can control them remotely from satecoms in Chicago and NY and in CA. But the cool part is that the affiliates have local advert cut-ins during the national adverts. So you might see a local advert from say a local banking company and then a national FORD ad and then it switches to a 10 sec local news promo. This is all seamlessly inserted from hundreds of stations across the country. These type of ad breaks usually happen during the mid point of the hour and at the bottom of the hour.
DR
dramzan
Quote:
Well you are correct about the affiliate system. But the networks take over the affiliates during primetime. It would be an absolute mess if everything was aired independently. They dont want to leave control of expensive programming to some goofy gallery tech. Plus the networks usually own the stations in the top markets. SO they can control them remotely from satecoms in Chicago and NY and in CA. But the cool part is that the affiliates have local advert cut-ins during the national adverts. So you might see a local advert from say a local banking company and then a national FORD ad and then it switches to a 10 sec local news promo. This is all seamlessly inserted from hundreds of stations across the country. These type of ad breaks usually happen during the mid point of the hour and at the bottom of the hour.


In rare cases there are fouls ups, mainly on FOX during prime-time. During American Football in sunday, the transitions and up to the min. timing of all the games and with the anchors in CA is what some call a "TV anorak's dream." Heck, FOX is so cocky with thier TV sports ratings on Sunday, that they even broadcast the pre and post game shows in HD under the: FOX DIGITAL WIDESCREEN High Definition Television. Also the are the only one's doing digial widescreen and HD, while the other main networks and TV stations are only doing HD only - in addition to their standard definition signal.

Newer posts