Why are live shows delayed 3 hours for the west coast?

[chrisw27]

This is regarding mostly on local network stations. Why should they delay live broadcasts so we could see something 3 hours later than the rest of the world? Its not live anymore in that case.. I have to wait until 3 hours to watch something my friend in the east coast already saw. I don't care if its a TV show, but when they broadcast something they say is "live" from my own state.. it just throws me off that only the east coast can view it right then instead of us.

 

[TBarclay]

It's all about money. The west coast wants the maximum number of folks to watch and most folks aren't home at 5:00.

 

[Mr Tony]

Chrisw

I assume you mean things like "American Idle"...Only people who saw it live were Eastern/Central time zones. The rest were tape delayed.

Live Sports events are live (well, WWE Raw does the same thing)

 

[gbjbany]

LOL - love the typo ! like "American Idle"...

 

[markfp-1]

Besides the fact, that there would be a much lower number of people home to watch those shows at 5 or 6pm Pacific time, between five and eight is considered the local station's time and it's where they make most of their money with news and syndicated programs. While they might give it up on now and then on weekends for a big sporting event, I can't imagine they'd want to do it during the week. $$$$$$$

 

[Van]

Doesnt matter what it is thats live on the east and central its never gonna be live on mountain and west coast except for live news, olympics and wich ever finger puppet is in the whitehouse. Sindicated radio hosts are the only ones that I know of that are broadcast live across the nation.

 

[ElectricSlim]

Sports and the Academy Awards are live. It's all about getting the best programs in the time slots when the most viewers are available. Networks can not start their "prime time" schedules at 5:00 PM. Monday Night Football starts live at 5:00 PM and I never see the games. I have to TIVO them, hence it is not live!