Optus scraps TV magazine guide
The Optus will cease publishing its TV magazine guide after the February edition following a drop in demand.
The company said it took the decision to close down the operation as the majority of its Optus TV customers no longer take delivery of the magazine, instead switching to online guides and the Electronic Program Guide.
Optus magazine subscribers were notified of the news via inserts in the January and February 2010 editions of the title and also via email last month.
The Optus Digital TV title is published by ACP Magazines and has an average print run of 60,000. This is compared to Foxtel’s 882,000 and Austar’s 338,000, which are both audited by the CAB.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Hi Guys,
Well, just to give you an idea of my views, the following is an extract from a letter I recently sent to the management of Optus cable and the Board. Will be interesting to see if any of these people actually see the letter, let alone take any notice of it!! No response yet !!
As you can see this is point 7 and the letter was quite extensive and covered a few issue primarily focussed on loss of quality and customer service.
” 7. Finally, but not least in my list of whines, I am now losing my station guide! What quong-nong came up with this beauty ? Especially after Optus introduces umpteen additional channels to get confused with !!
Just so you understand what an average viewer really wants:
• Some viewers often like to know in advance what’s going to be on the set so they can try to be at home to watch a certain show.
• A lot of people do not have a laptop or computer sitting in their loungeroom and it is far easier to scan a few pages of a viewing guide than it is to plow through screen after screen of EPG and internet channel information. I think that is why commercial TV guides are still made available free in newspapers and sold as magazines.
By the way, do you realise how convoluted your website and EPG processes are?
One cannot even print out a daily, all stations guide on your website, even if one has the computer and equipment and actually understands how to do it.
• We are an ageing population with many viewers not familiar, with EPGs and modern technology and even if they are, the EPG only advances for one week and one has to scroll through multiple slow loading screens to try and find what might or might not be on. The only real benefit of the EPG is, that it does provide a programme synopsis and reasonably accurate programme times – other than that it really is tedious to use.
• and let’s not forget the little unreliability factor of programmes not being screened as per the actual time, or indeed not even being shown – What a gem!!
• Do you also realise, that the paper program doesn’t have to be the glitz and glamour tome that you currently provide and please don’t insult our intelligence with feedback about saving the environment!! Consider how much paper, ink and energy is wasted in one Optus promotional letter box drop or magazine insert.
The guides that I’ve seen overseas are really quite simple, half the size and manufactured on newspaper like material – still does the same job, without the unnecessary costs of glossy paper and unnecessary editorials.”
I think it is time these large conglomerates started to take a little notice of user requirements, show some consideration and stop feeding the big cat salaries for useless “save a dime lose a dollar” strategies. They might also like to think about the fact that we are an aging population who really don’t want too much change and aren’t as technically savvy as some of the “hotshot kids” they have working for them.
Just my thoughts…. what does the rest of Australia think??
Mike
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I totally agree with all of Mike’s comments and am seriously considering changing to Foxtel who are still printing a TV guide.
Sue
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I am also one of those seriously disappointed longtime users of Optus TV and I will be changing over to Foxtel. Didn’t I pay for a Guide? How about giving us a choice as I do rely on the guide to plan what I (and the rest of my family) can store for later viewing.
Hans
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