Big Issue

Who are the winners & who are the losers?


Missing Series Links - Conclusion

So there we are................over the past few days I have hopefully highlighted to you the general behaviour of the Series Link. Although it is a function that Sky designed and implemented, it is up to the individual broadcasters to offer this service to the standard that subscribers expect. Because of this they are responsible for controlling their own praise and criticism.

We all have our own favourite programmes that we watch, and no doubt when that programme is set and that link then appears, we all sit there with that satisfied look emblazoned across our faces, safe in the knowledge that your favourite programme will be set for the next day/week.

For these programmes we become complacent, and indeed why not! However my intention in this latest article was to bring to your attention all those programmes that could have been linked, but indeed failed to offer the choice.

Below you will find the ' Victors ', the ' Close runners up ' and last of all the ' Could do much better ', that has been put together from my findings.

Due to the late arrival of five to the world of Series Links, the only difference to the overall findings was that five's week commenced from Saturday 12.07.03 from 06:00hrs to 06:00hrs on Saturday 19.07.03.

1 - Over the course of the week Sky One came out the true champions. They broadcast 208 programmes and 175 of those offered the Series Link. This is a very admirable 84.13 % of programmes linked.

2 - In second place came newcomers five, with 245 programmes broadcast, of which 173 were linked. This equated to 70.61 % of programmes being linked.

3 - In third place came Channel 4. The broadcaster offered 139 links from 226 programmes, which totalled 61.50 % of programmes being linked.

4 - In fourth place came BBC1, with 170 programmes broadcast, it offered 96 links, totalling 56.47 %

5 - In fifth place came BBC2. 240 programmes were broadcast, with 120 linked, therefore equating to a safe 50 %

6 - In last place came ITV1. Over the course of the week 219 programmes were broadcast, but only a very poor 64 programmes offered the Series Link function. This totals a very weak 29.22 %

As mentioned, the above are the figures that each broadcaster actually offered. Taking it a step further, below you will find the list of the same broadcasters for the very same week, and the calculated figures had they used the link to its full potential, considering their original number of broadcasts.

1 - For the week Sky One could have only increased their use of the links by 24, equating to an extra 11.54 %. This would have then given Sky One a weekly total of 95.67 %

2 - Five could have increased their links to an extra 36 programmes. This would have been an extra 14.69 %, offering a new weekly reading of 85.30 %

3 - Channel 4 could have increased their links to an extra 44 programmes. This would have been an extra 19.47 % linked, offering a new weekly total of 80.97 %

4 - BBC2 could have increased their links to 70 programmes, an increase of 29.16 %. This would have then shown a new weekly total of 79.16 %

5 - BBC1 could have increased their links by 58. This would have been an increase of 34.11 %. The new weekly total could have been 90.58 %

6 - Lastly ITV1 could have increased their links by a huge 134. This would have equated to a massive 61.19 %, which would have given them a new weekly total of 90.41 %


So there we have it, Sky One aside, all the remaining channels have certain room for improvement. ITV1, after coming out rather high from a previous Series Link article, really need to look in their handbook and concentrate on that section ' Series Links - Point Of ' The BBC channels should maybe feel a tinge of embarrassment considering Channel 4, a fairly late arrival to the world of links seems to be performing better.

Though Sky may have been handed the ' Link Crown ' I feel the real recognition should go to five. Their figures read very nicely indeed, and with a bit of tweaking and fine tuning with their daily news bulletins, things can only get better. Despite the fact that they are late arrivals, within 1 week five have shown us that they have grasped the idea and made recording on five far more pleasurable for Sky + users.

 
BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV1 | Channel 4 | five | Sky One | Conclusion



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