Repeats

[gordoncampbell49]

Asking sky the question, why can't the indicate when a programme is a repeat, I'm sure they used to. Comments please Gordon.

[PandJ2020 · Accepted solution]

That's probably a question for viewer relations: [email protected]

That's probably a question for viewer relations: [email protected]

[TimmyBGood]

@gordoncampbell49 

One possibility is that the arrival of streaming services has rather complicated the issue: is something which has been distributed online but not broadcast before a 'repeat'?

[Marlu-Nyu]

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@gordoncampbell49 wrote:

Asking sky the question, why can't the indicate when a programme is a repeat, I'm sure they used to. Comments please Gordon.

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The basic answer is they could, and very easily. They could very well enter a repeat column into their database and add it to their API. But the issue is; would broadcasters sending data to Sky use it? Maybe, maybe not. There would be no incentive to use it or update the broadcaster's system to use the  "repeat" tag. 

Sky has the following tags for every programme:

• st - start time in Unix timestamp - e.g. 17871762OO
• d - duration in seconds - e.g. 1800 (30 minutes)
• eid - event ID - e.g. E49f-7c7
• cgid - content/category genre - e.g. 10024
• programmeid - unique ID - e.g. 4c3e4e02-68b2-49ba-9684-5a7979e939c1
• seasonnumber - season/series number -  e.g. 1
• epsodenumber - episode number - e.g. 21
• seasonuuid - unique ID - e.g. 8c173f7b-1000-4ed2-9c94-dbfa71b9282a
• seriesuuid - unique ID - e.g. bea84b4d-c67c-4bdd-a356-f9dba557b105
• haschildren - if child elements are connected (e.g. episode 21 is a child of series 1) - e.g. - true/false
• t - title - e.g. Bluey
• sy - synopsis - e.g. Blue Mountains: The Heeler family...
• esg - EPG genre -  e.g. 2
• tso - title sort order flag - e.g. 0
• r - rating - U, PG, 12, 15 or 18
• at - audio type - S (Stereo) or M (Mono)
• s - subtitles - true/false
• ad - audio description - true/false 
• hd - HD - true/false
• canl - can series link - true/false
• canb - can broadcast (??) - true/false
• hasAlternativeAudio - alternative audio, like Welsh or Irish - true/false
• restartable - watch from start - true/false
• slo - sign-language overlay (??) - true/false
• w - widescreen - true/false
• ippv - impulse PPV (buy on-screen via Select (e.g. on Sky Box Office), red or green button) - true/false
• oppv - ordered PPV (order via a menu or with broadcaster) - true/false
• signed - sign language - true/false

[mr.tickle]

Broadcasters have had a "repeat" flag in the data they supply for many, many years. They send the same data to many different listings outlets. Sky is only one of many. Not all will use the data they are given.

It means a repeat on that same channel, or group of channels. Eg a first broadcast of "Grand Designs" on Channel 4 would not have the "Repeat" flag, but the showings on E4, More4, 4Extra, whatever other channels names they've got this week would all have the flag. Then the Sunday (etc) showing in the same week on Channel 4 gets the Repeat flag.

It's often not used properly - the problem is not the flag or lack of, it's all about broadcasters supplying complete and accurate data initially, and then also on all (far, far too many) subsequent edits to the schedule between then and the day of broadcast, which completely screw over paper listings magazines.

Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for the first version of a schedule to be incomplete, which is later filled in by an update closer to the date. This happens pretty much every week with "Panorama" where it's not revealed what the episode title/synopsis are until very late. But much of the time, it's deliberate bad behaviour / sloppiness from the suppliers of the data. They have no incentive whatsoever to supply 100% complete and accurate data - only "good enough" data :-(. 100% is something we viewers want, but no-one else in the supply chain really does! And it's a tremendous amount of work. Sky's only sanction is to boot channels off the EPG who don't supply data, but this is an extreme measure, rarely enacted.

Back to repeat flags: It tends to be that some broadcasters set the flags all the time, and others consistently don't set the flags.