KEY POINTS:
Tragic though it sounds, I have been known to turn down dinner invitations in favour of television. I have feigned illness - and worse - to skip parties, so I can watch certain programmes. Tragic, yes. Dishonest, totally. Unusual? I doubt it.
I know for a fact several people were late to a public engagement last month as they had to attend a "close friend's funeral". The fact that the friend was Toni from Shortland Street went unmentioned.
Just last Friday, as some friends and I planned our night out, there was hesitation to set a time. As emails were fired back and forth, the real reason for our indecision slowly emerged. We all wanted to watch the premiere of The Jaquie Brown Diaries at 9.30. A compromise was eventually reached that we would congregate at a mate's house for a viewing party before heading out. But it highlighted a growing concern for viewers.
The days of videotape are dead. And barring a few fancypants out there, MySky is but a distant dream for most of us. Never mind that high-definition television required to make the most of the new technology.
As for DVD recorders, well, they've proven about as popular as laser discs. Remember those? Exactly.
It's become a case of watch it live, or not at all. Or so I thought. Searching the TV3 website the other day, I stumbled upon the section "3 for View" and discovered - to my overwhelming delight - that some of my favourite programmes were sitting there, just waiting to be screened, ad-free, at my leisure.
Missed Outrageous Fortune? The Wests are waiting there in all their leopard-print glory. Didn't catch Rove's latest ramble? Download it free. Better yet, Rove is available whole, or fragmented into its various segments, which means you can skip those annoying bits you don't like (Hughesy Loses It ... Hughesy should get lost altogether.)
Unlike TVNZ, whose video on-demand service launched last year to a loud and proud fanfare, TV3 seems to have slipped its service completely under the radar. The network has opted for a different model to the TVNZ service, which offers a comprehensive back catalogue of nearly every local production ever made for the state broadcaster - including the classic Goodnight Kiwi clip that used to mark the end of the night's programming.
Instead, TV3 has made its most recent programmes available (local productions only, with the exception of Rove), for one week following their broadcast. If you missed Tuesday's Outrageous Fortune, you have seven days to catch up before the next episode screens.
Sister channel C4 has adopted the same system, with the most recent episode of the brilliant Skins available each week.
The very nature of Shortland Street as a soap opera means you can miss an episode - or five - and still be able to follow the storyline. But with just six weekly instalments of The Jaquie Brown Diaries, you don't want to miss a single minute.
Now if they could just figure out their media player - and introduce a collapsible control panel that doesn't take up a third of the screen - things really would be perfect.
But at least I no longer have to kill off fictitious relatives to get out of dinner...
