Ordinary Gweilo

TVB has been advertising ‘Shrek’ for some time. Fair enough, it’s a good family film and it did very well at the box office.

So, what time did they show it? Early evening so kids could watch it? No, it was in that well-known family viewing timeslot of 9.30 – 11.30 in the evening. What’s the matter with these people – couldn’t they have shown it at 8 pm (or even a little earlier)? Especially as Friends has now finished.

What I find so bizarre about the way they schedule programmes is that everything seems to be set in stone. The news is at 7.30, with headlines at 9.30. Monday to Sunday, 365 days a year. Nothing changes at weekends or on public holidays, unlike virtually every other broadcaster in the world. It’s almost as if no-one really cared.

Well, that’s not quite true, I suppose. Sporting events do seem to the exception to this rule (who can forget the marvellous innovation of all four terrestrial channels showing the same World Cup games live simultaneously, two with English commentaries and two with Cantonese), but these days most events have been bought up by subscription channels, so even that is a rarity. Apart from horse racing, of course.

The biggest irony is that most people who wish to watch Shrek will already have it on DVD or VCD, and so aren’t subject to the whims of the schedulers working for TVB or ATV.