I am hearing strange noises coming from another room. They are unhappy and frustrated noises. These noises are only ever heard when a commercial "catch up TV" service is being watched.
Further investigations have revealed that the ITV / Channel4 and Five catch up TV services have a very major flaw built into them. It's called advertising overkill. And it's driving my wife absolutely mad.
If I was watching a programme on the BBC iPlayer service and my connection to the network was lost, there isn't really that muh of a problem. I simply return to the service, find the programme again, scroll through to the time I watched up to and I'm straight back into the programme. Simples!
This doesn't seem to be the case with commercial catch up services though. It would seem that before you start watching ANY programme on those services you are subjected to a series of adverts before the programme even begins. Adverts that you are unable to fast forward through. During the programme you also get advert breaks, and those pesky techie guys have removed the ability to zoom through those too.
However, this is not the problem (afterall a commercial service doesn't have the license fee and so needs the adverts to keep it running). No the biggest problem is when the service is interrupted and you have to start again. You are forced to sit through the "pre show" adverts again. And if you lose the connection a second time - those same adverts pop up for another showing.
Even worse, when you do get past those pre-show adverts and want to fast forward back to where you where in the programme, before the programme starts to play EVEN MORE adverts appear (and yes, you can't zoom through them). It's overkill on the adverts, it's sending the wife loopy, and I'm getting the hassle (you see the network is down to me, and so I get the moans whenever it goes down).
Please ITV / Ch4 / FIVE. Introduce a feature that bookmarks where you got to whilst watching a programme, and if the connection is lost - go straight back to it WITHOUT the need for five years of adverts to play before the programme resumes. Please - for my own sanity!
