Coincidence? Or supernatural goings-on? YOU be the judge!

I've been inspired to finally make my very first post to this here blog due to the occurrence of an amazing phenomenon. Just yesterday I posted a letter to Channel 7, kindly requesting that they consider allowing Foxtel to use their electronic program guide. I have written to Channel 7 before, with little (no) success, and expected similar (identical) results this time round.

I was wrong.

Lo and behold, I just read today, less than 24 hours later, that Channel 7 has finally decided to...you guessed it...allow Foxtel to use their electronic program guide.
Was it just a waste of a stamp? Or, more likely, do I have...power? Am I some kind of television superhero? Not like The Greatest American Hero, but someone who can actually achieve good in the real world.

With television.

Anyway, here's the letter I wrote (it contains much less vitriol than my usual rants, as I was actually hoping to get something done - my other letters should be more entertaining):

Programming Department
Broadcast Centre
Channel Seven
160 Harbour Esplanade
DOCKLANDS VIC 3008

12 February 2008

RE: Electronic Program Guide

Dear sir/madam

I would like to ask that Channel 7 provide its Electronic Program Guide (EPG) to Foxtel.

Many of our favourite shows are on Channel 7, including Lost, 24, and My Name is Earl. However, now that we have Foxtel (with IQ), we rely almost entirely on Foxtel’s Electronic Program Guide when working out what we will watch and when. As a result, since Channel 7’s listings are always blank, we constantly miss shows we would like to watch. This also means we are missing advertising for other Channel 7 shows, and, of course, the products of your advertisers.

As a consequence, we missed pretty much all of My Name is Earl last year, and most recently we missed the pilot of Dirty, Sexy Money last night, which is what finally provoked me to write about this. Since we’ve missed the first episode and there doesn’t appear to be any other way of watching that episode (apart from downloading, which we don’t do), we probably won’t end up watching the series at all, which is a shame as we were looking forward to it.

As you probably know, Foxtel is now in something like 25% of homes. It makes sense for you to tap into that market and give Foxtel viewers the best opportunity to watch your shows – particularly since watching your rivals’ shows is so easy (and we don’t really like Channel 9 or 10 shows these days).

Also, we can tell you that my wife is a shareholder in Channel 7, and she doesn’t mind if you provide your EPG to Foxtel. In fact, as it would increase viewers, we expect it would increase Channel 7’s revenue, and hence Channel 7’s share price.

Finally, Tivo’s yesterday’s news. Don’t worry about it.

Regards

(the rilestar)

According to The Age, "The deal was unexpected because Seven is preparing to launch its TiVo digital video recorder, to challenge Foxtel and its iQ recorder.

"Foxtel chief executive Kim Williams conceded the agreement to re-broadcast Seven on Foxtel had been "a long time coming"."

Spooky.

This has inspired me to provide more of my private rants to the world, just in case there's something more at work here...