TV programme timings

As alluded to in a comment I've been watching the Great British Menu and though I could (and well might) dedicate an entire entry to its faults this isn't the time; see it's time that I'm complaining about.

The Great British Menu finishes at 19:00 on BBC2; I then turn over to watch The One Show, [sigh] the things I do to keep abreast with what's 'popular'. This should be easy as The One Show starts on BBC1 at 19:00 and yet I've never seen the beginning of that programme. Even if I change channels just as the closing credits of the Great British Menu start I still miss the entire opening credits and introductions.

So what gives? There are no live programmes going on that could overrun (or even underrun) every programme is for a fixed time, the 'adverts' are for a fixed time and yet programmes simply can't seem to start or finish at the times stated in the listings magazines.

It could be something as simply as the listings being wrong, but it's difficult to believe that any channel would start a programme at 18:57 when it could be started at 19:00.

Worse yet these aren't the only programmes to fall like this, when recording Dr Who despite my box starting up 15 minutes ahead of schedule it would often only start recording 30 seconds in because the BBC hadn't sent or delayed a start signal. The commercial channels seem particularly guilty of odd timings. A programme scheduled to run from 19:00 to 20:00 may start just before 19:00 and finish at 19:55, then adverts then the next programme starts at 20:01.

Again I have to point out that every programme is a known length, every break is a known length with the only exceptions occurring for the rare live events or breaking news. Heck you can see this in the regional news broadcasts that are spliced in to the national ones; they start at this time, end at this time. You can clearly see this when it goes wrong and you're left with either the national news logo at the start or the reporter gets cut off at the end.

So why can't they apply this to the normal running programmes. My guess is that they could, but don't want to. If the timings are all slightly out then you have to stick to their channel, may sound odd when you consider the start of this entry was about BBC1 and BBC2, but not if you consider that they are in reality rivals.

If you know that the programme on the other side may well have started already, or may not have started it's possible that you simply decide to stick with the channel you're already watching.

Anyway I'm writing to the Radio Times about it as my original complaint deals with their corporations channels.

[Update - Oh typical the very day I complain The One Show starts at exactly 19:00 and not the normal 3 minutes early. Of course this had nothing to do with the Party Political Broadcast that occurred before it which has several laws attached to determine start times and running lengths. However just to keep things in step The Great British Menu overran by a couple of minutes]