UPN & WB Merge; CBS renames news program

[TiVoJerry]

Two changes (one recent, one upcoming) may have an impact on existing Season Passes for many of our customers:

UPN & WB are merging to form CW
"CBS Evening News" is now "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric"

Since there is a likelihood that a large number of customers could be affected by this, we will be sending out a PTCM item with the following text to all TiVo DVRs:


Subject: Season Pass Alert: Important Naming Updates!

Read on for two important network announcements that may affect your scheduled recordings. To ensure you don't miss an episode of your favorite shows, please read this message in its entirety and follow the recommended directions.

First, "CBS Evening News" has changed its title to "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric." If you have a Season Pass recording scheduled for "CBS Evening News," please update your To Do List to reflect the new title. Here's how:

* From 'Pick Programs to Record,' use 'Search by Title' to find 'CBS Evening News With Katie Couric.'
* Select 'Get a Season Pass.'
* Once confirmed, select 'Season Pass Manager' to cancel the recording with the outdated title. While you're there, review and re-prioritize your Season Pass recordings, if necessary.
* Select 'To Do List' to confirm that 'CBS Evening News With Katie Couric' appears as a scheduled recording.
* That's it!

Also, around September 18, the WB network will be merging with the UPN network to form a new network called CW. If you have a favorite WB or UPN show, here's how to safeguard against missing an episode during the naming transition:

* Review your Season Pass(TM) recordings for UPN or WB programs
* Create a TITLE WishList(R) search for each of those shows, entering the exact title. Use the PAUSE button for quotes to indicate exact phrase-- and don't worry about apostrophes. (example: "AMERICAS TOP MODEL";"ONE TREE HILL", "EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS", "VERONICA MARS", etc.)
* Select "Auto-record."
* Select "View Upcoming Programs" to ensure the programs you want are being recorded.
* If necessary, edit the Title WishList search.

Once the merger is complete, and after you ensure your CW Season Pass recordings are still appearing in your To Do List, you can delete your WishList searches. For more information on how to use WishList searches, visit Customer Support on tivo.com and search for "Using WishList Searches."

/Bonus Tip/: Superfans of said shows may want to keep WishList searches as they're an excellent way to catch specials, retrospectives, and interviews with cast members on various talk shows.

[Sirshagg]

NBC Evening News also changed to NBC Evening News with Brian Williams

[jaydro]

Last I checked the weekend CBS Evening News has the same title and series ID it used to share with the weekday news, so don't cancel that if you still want to see it....

[murgatroyd]

The identifier for my former WB station (on my SP for Veronica Mars) has changed over already to reflect its new status as a CW station. 'View Upcoming Episodes' works fine, although nothing is getting picked up to record because the SP is FRO.

So -- no SP with orphan station IDs here. But I'll monitor the situation and re-create the SP if necessary.

Jan

[PeternJim]

So far, I'll only be watching Smallville and Supernatural, so it is easy enough to keep watching the SP to make sure they get picked up, and redo the SP once the new episodes are around.

[HTH]

UPN & WB are merging to form CW
Here's a thought: why not push us the new channel two weeks early so the SPs could be set up and wait to delete the old channel until the actual changeover date?

[lambertman]

Because these aren't channels, they're broadcast networks. The channels involved aren't going anywhere.

[jlb]

IIRC, the only ones likely to have a problem are if your show is in the network in your system that is going away. For instance, I record Smallville. But the station that is getting CW in the Boston area, is the WB station (56) that Smallville is currently on. That should be ok. However, if UPN38 in Boston was the station to have become the CW (it is not), then that would have been an issue......

IIRC.....

[Traal]

The identifier for my former WB station (on my SP for Veronica Mars) has changed over already to reflect its new status as a CW station. 'View Upcoming Episodes' works fine, although nothing is getting picked up to record because the SP is FRO.
I just noticed this, 3 months into the current season. And I never got that message on my TiVo (or I did and my roommate deleted it). So I've missed 9 new episodes. *sigh*

[TiVoJerry]

We definitely sent a PTCM (pre-TiVo Central Message) for this (I wrote it). Bad roommate!

[HTH]

Because these aren't channels, they're broadcast networks. The channels involved aren't going anywhere.
That hasn't stopped my TiVos from listing two different stations on the same channel for years. If it can handle that, it can handle pushing a new station label on an existing channel number.

If such a change is truly just the channel being renamed, it's no problem as the guide data will be there for the channel by the old and new names. But for something like the dropping of a channel and replacing it with another channel, a doubling-up of the lineup for two weeks would be a welcome solution. Or for any lineup change where channels get moved around.