LocateTV Blog

Repeats and LocateTV make natural bedfellows. Missing a key episode of your favourite show, but scouring the listings for a chance to see it again to no avail (Sunday afternoon? Surely it’s repeated on Sunday afternoon) – is exactly the kind of scenario in which Locate will be a godsend.

Moreover, the launch seems particularly timely, as repeats are on the increase. Back at the start of July the BBC director general Mark Thompson warned that the airing of cost-efficient repeats is likely to rise as the corporation’s licence-fee settlement has proved lower than they hoped - particularly painful as they are currently facing a £2 billion shortfall. In fact, it is also particularly ironic, as back in 2005 the BBC chairman Michael Grade declared that prime time hours on BBC 1 and 2 should aim to be ‘repeat-free zones’ within ten years.

However, this is not just a trend imposed by TV execs. The weekly ratings from the US networks certainly indicate that repeats are what people watch most; old episodes of shows such as CSI, Law & Order and Despearate Housewives regularly top the Neilsen charts, and a recent CBS All Repeat Night beat the other networks’ offerings easily.

Repeats have also become part of national traditions. Only Fools and Horses is as much a part of a British Christmas as soggy sprouts, and the little-known comedy sketch Dinner For One is, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the most frequently repeated TV program ever, watched throughout Germany every New Year.

Of course, most of us also claim to love innovative new drama, and bemoan ‘lazy programming’; our relationship with repeats seems pretty love-hate.

Surely the differentiator between repeats being a good thing or a bad thing is the ability to choose. For some, heaven is a late-night Sex and the City rerun after a night out, and hell finding nothing but old Simpsons back-to-back. For others, it’s the reverse.

I for one am looking forward to using LocateTV to catch up with frustrating misses and revisit old friends whilst filtering the dross - especially if repeats are only going to be…. well, more repetitive.

Lottie