Catch Up TV - what's the point?

[murfitUK]

I really don't see the point of this catch up tv business. When it is not "Temporarily Unavailable" (which seems to be most of the time) it never shows the programmes I actually want to watch. For example, in the last week I have been unable to watch the following programmes and thought I'd be able to "catch up". Guess what? None of them are available on Catch Up TV.

Thursday BBC1 Waterloo Road
Saturday BBC2 Timewatch
Monday BBC1 Messiah part 2 (I caught part 1, but now can't see part 2)
Monday BBC1 Panorama
Monday BBC2 Atom
Monday C4 Dispatches
Tuesday C4 Medicine Men

These are all home made progs so I doubt there are any licencing issues that prevent them being shown.

I suppose catch up is OK if you enjoy shows like A-Z of Bad Boys and Bravo's Scariest Police Chases Caught on Video or whatever its called.

For the BBC's progs I tried the iplayer but my VM "superfast" broadband isn't quite capable of keeping up (but that's a separate issue).

That's my tuppenceworth

ALL of these except Atom are available on my Catch Up TV On Demand.

You must have a local issue. I am in an exTelewest area in Livingston, Scotland.

PS I've just checked and Atom is not available on the BBC'c own iPlayer either so it's probably not a Virgin Media issue that it's not on Catch Up.

[Cerberus]

Originally Posted by Ernie_C

ALL of these except Atom are available on my Catch Up TV On Demand.

You must have a local issue. I am in an exTelewest area in Livingston, Scotland.

Same here, G73 - Glasgow

[ntl.wotcha]

Yeah I also get very little on catchup. E17 London.

IMO catchup should go back more than 7 days. If you are showing a series over say 6 weeks, and you miss the first 2 episodes, how can you "catch up" if the first episode is more than 7 days gone ? You can't, so "catch up" = nonsense.

It's a repeat service, you can watch the last episode only. It's not catchup.

[Chartwell]

All of the programmes you listed except Atom are on in Croydon. Think you should you report your problems to customer services.

you can always catch up on these programes on the web eg BBC iplayer for example click here

[murfitUK]

Originally Posted by mlayzell

you can always catch up on these programes on the web eg BBC iplayer for example click here

Have tried but the streaming over my VM broadband is too poor - watch for five seconds then pauses for five while buffering. Watch for five seconds, then pauses for five......

I didn't realise that catch-up differed depending on which area you are in. Thought it was the same for everyone. Will get on to customer services.