THEY KILLED KENNY!--The South Park DVR Disaster

FYI’s persistent IDs and exacting standards of data and metadata administration make sure giant problems don’t occur.

“What kinds of problems?” you may ask.

Consider this posting from a competitor’s message board. It illustrates the problem quite well.

Wow. Missed DVR recordings and—perhaps worse—South Park, one of the most controversial and edgy shows on television, is listed as “Religious programming.”

Those who have ever seen an episode of South Park can use their vivid imaginations to wonder what a person searching for “Religious programming” would think after lighting upon Cartman and the boys.

The takeaways from this little event are many:

1.  DVRs frequently make note of programs they record. If an incorrect program has been recorded with a particular ID, it may not record again to save space. Even if that ID has been resubmitted with the proper program.

2. When conflicts in airing material arise, a system should already be in place to resolve conflicts, particularly associated with the release of new programs.

3. South Park is NOT generally considered a religious program.

We at FYI were able to detect the potential problem and remedy it by creating a new program ID—insuring that missed recordings with the improper ID wouldn’t block out new recordings. And, of course, attributing the correct program info to the correct airing.

FYI looks well beyond standard data entry to identify issues and to create resolutions for clients—on the fly without manual interaction or request.

That’s an elaborate way of saying that guides powered by FYI—and their customers--had the correct info and were able to record South Park automatically via DVR. Those using other data? Not so much.

And that pretty much says it all.