Last Week Tonight censorship

[JonD1492]

Okay, so...

1 - The episode was uploaded and on Sky Catch-Up for about 36 hours, and mislabelled as Season 11, Episode 1 (which it isn't, as it's Episode 16)...

2 - ...However, sadly, it has now been pulled completely, which is insane!

3 - I'm trying to find out from Sky directly when it will be broadcast, as now the Election is over, they have no excuses NOT to broadcast it, and have plenty of time to do so, between now and Monday 22nd July, which is when Season 11, Episode 17 will air in the UK, but so far, no one at Sky has a clue about anything, so they're a dead end. (And yes, I have e-mailed the Viewer Relations team, and am awaiting their reply.)

4 - In response to others, who said "Well its [sic] hardly a continuing drama so it's not like it is a necessity for it to be broadcast prior to future episodes", that may be so, but it's still not right for you to say that - Superuser or not.  We understand why it was pulled - due to Ofcom regulations about political programming prior to the Election - but now the Election is over, to simply not show it at all, would smack of utter political censorship from a national broadcaster.  Which would actually be worse, than the episode being (rightfully) pulled at the last minute for legit reasons.  Just because you don't care if the episode is aired or not, doesn't mean those of us who watch and love the show feel the same. And the fact that people care enough to comment on the Forums about the show not being on, suggest plenty of people DO care about it being not shown!

I will reply once more, once Viewer Relations get back to me, and hopefully we can get the episode to air, before the next one - because for those who have seen it can attest to - it's very, very, VERY funny, and probably one of Oliver's finest takedown's of a political group ever!

[nolte]

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@JonD1492 wrote:

Okay, so...

1 - The episode was uploaded and on Sky Catch-Up for about 36 hours, and mislabelled as Season 11, Episode 1 (which it isn't, as it's Episode 16)...

2 - ...However, sadly, it has now been pulled completely, which is insane!

Checking on both my sky go and sky q, ep 16 titled "uk elections" is still available to download

What is your sky system?

[oj01]

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@nolte wrote:

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@JonD1492 wrote:

Okay, so...

1 - The episode was uploaded and on Sky Catch-Up for about 36 hours, and mislabelled as Season 11, Episode 1 (which it isn't, as it's Episode 16)...

2 - ...However, sadly, it has now been pulled completely, which is insane!

Checking on both my sky go and sky q, ep 16 titled "uk elections" is still available to download

What is your sky system?

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Same here and is available to Download until 18th February 2028 (Sky+HD) 

[JonD1492]

Hi,

Okay, the episode is now reuploaded, but having contacted the Sky Viewer Relations Team, all they would say is:

1 - The episode is (thankfully) back online, and can be accessed there

2 - Despite a very politely worded request, they wouldn't say if/when the episode will be broadcast, and they refused to give me any further information on the matter.

As such, as no episode is scheduled for next Monday 15th either, I think I'm confident in saying that Sky WON'T be broadcasting this episode at all, which is a disgrace, and politically, it's a truly pitiful decision to make on their part, especially now the Election is over-and-done with.

I'm so disappointed in Sky right now!

[oj01]

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@JonD1492 wrote:

Hi,

Okay, the episode is now reuploaded, but having contacted the Sky Viewer Relations Team, all they would say is:

1 - The episode is (thankfully) back online, and can be accessed there

2 - Despite a very politely worded request, they wouldn't say if/when the episode will be broadcast, and they refused to give me any further information on the matter.

As such, as no episode is scheduled for next Monday 15th either, I think I'm confident in saying that Sky WON'T be broadcasting this episode at all, which is a disgrace, and politically, it's a truly pitiful decision to make on their part, especially now the Election is over-and-done with.

I'm so disappointed in Sky right now!

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Am I missing something here? Why does it need to be broadcast when it's available to Download? 

[JonD1492]

@oj01 Well, for three big reasons:

1 - If it's broadcast, more people can actually watch the damn thing, and

2 - If I record the broadcast, I can keep it permanently, and this episode is worthy of being kept, and

3 - Because On-Demand services can delete/remove an episode at any point in time, and make it unavailable to viewers - which Sky will do in 2028.

That said, there was no legitimate reason for Sky NOT to broadcast the episode after the Election had ended on 5th July, and before the next episode aired on Monday 22nd.  So, the only reason you wouldn't air one that was so critical of the previous Conservative government, has to be because it was so explicitly critical of the previous Conservative government!

Sky literally chose not to broadcast it, which in my view, is tantamount to political censorship, or laziness, or both.  Either way, it's a long way from "Believe in Better"!

A monumentally stupid and bad decision on Sky's part, and one I will NOT forgive them for!  You may not care for this, and it's clear that you don't, but what's to stop them from doing something similar to some of your favourite shows?!

[nolte]

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@JonD1492 wrote:

2 - If I record the broadcast, I can keep it permanently,

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Nothing is permanent.

The hard drive of Sky q, sky+ boxes both may fail resulting in the loss of recordings (happened me last august. I lost all the recordings i was never going to watch)

[ftballman]

I don't know. I'll knock sky at the best of times but I think they did well on this one actually.

The easiest thing for them to do was to drop the episode and say due to election rules it couldn't be broadcast etc. But they went ahead and took advantage of a loophole to make it available on demand. Anyone who wanted to see it could and they didn't breach any rules either.

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@ftballman wrote:

I don't know. I'll knock sky at the best of times but I think they did well on this one actually.

The easiest thing for them to do was to drop the episode and say due to election rules it couldn't be broadcast etc. But they went ahead and took advantage of a loophole to make it available on demand. Anyone who wanted to see it could and they didn't breach any rules either.

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Particularly with on-demand viewing typically being how viewers consume content nowadays anyway I'm pretty sure having it only on-demand wouldn't have affected the viewership of that episode at all.