TV listing stupidities

Every programme obviously has a time when it begins and ends. And two programmes can't overlap on the same channel, just as obviously. Er, but no.

• BBC News; Weather
• 15:25 Children's BBC. Tweenies
• Compound programmes like Open University containing a dozen others with no indication of when one stops and the next starts
• Any combination of the above, eg OU followed by BBC News; Weather all in the same timeslot.

But we want to select programmes individually, and keep some kind of sanity in the files. Would like to guarantee that two programmes cannot clash if they are on the same channel!

Solution: the 'clumpidx'.

  <programme start="20020313090000 UT" channel="bbc1.bbc.co.uk" clumpidx="0/2"><!-- source: day1_bbc1_2 -->
    <title lang="en">Kilroy</title>
    <desc lang="en">Lively studio discussion with women who have given up on men. Presented by Robert Kilroy-Silk</desc>
    <desc lang="en">Lively studio discussion with women who have given up on men</desc>
    <desc lang="en">Women who have given up on men</desc>
    <category lang="en">talkshow</category>
    <audio>
      <present>yes</present>
      <stereo>stereo</stereo>
    </audio>
    <subtitles type="teletext"></subtitles>
  </programme>
  <programme start="20020313090000 UT" channel="bbc1.bbc.co.uk" clumpidx="1/2"><!-- source: day1_bbc1_2 -->
    <title lang="en">BBC News; Weather</title>
    <category lang="en">news</category>
    <subtitles type="teletext"></subtitles>
  </programme>

• Better than nothing, but I'd still prefer that the listings creators didn't do this.
• Can also be used for splitting OU - see next slide

Also, listings sources carry varying amounts of information and omit things. Films are often labelled as 'black&white' but would they be explicitly labelled as colour?

Solution: as far as possible the absence of an element in the output means 'don't know' rather than 'no'. For example, the fact that an actor is not listed in the <credits> section doesn't mean he definitely didn't star.