Sunday Night Movies?

Last night, being a Sunday night, I was in my customary despair about what was worth watching on TV, on the "free-to-air" commercial stations.  I began to wistfully recall the regular Sunday night movies that always started around 8:30 PM and would run for 2 or even 2 1/2 hours.  Of course, there were far fewer ads in those days too, though the ad breaks probably occupied at least as much time as they do now.

Still, there was something comforting in a Sunday night movie.  It marked the end of the weekend and the start of a new school or work week.  Those movies always seemed to relax me and put me at ease with having to return to school or work for another week.

These days, the things that are programmed for Sunday nights are generally far from relaxing and I've found that my mood if very different at the start of the working week.  I'm less relaxed and, perhaps, just a bit more aggressive - and I find that I'm working harder because of the need to control aggression and trying to find alternative ways to relax.

I'm probably the only one for whom this is a problem and might even be eligible for consideration as an "old fart", but I find myself now having to resort to a DVD movie.  This can't be good for ratings on any of the commercial networks so it must be impacting on their ability to attract and retain advertisers - though I note that they seem to have quite a lot of those anyway... mostly of the shouting variety that also does nothing for my relaxation.

I suppose it's possible that the things that are now shown on Sunday nights might be easier for the networks to insert ads, but this doesn't seem to be a problem with movies that they show on other nights.  It can't be all that costly for them to put on a movie - the older ones (and maybe even some of the newer ones) might actually cost less than the money they have to pay for the programs that they now show.

"Aunty" often comes to my rescue, but not always.  For example, they keep cutting off good shows like Midsomer Murders which, in its latest reincarnation, was on Sunday night.  ABC has now also cut off New Tricks AND the long-running Taggart series.  Maybe I'm the only one who likes them too?

Perhaps it's all just the price of "progress" and I probably need to accept that.  Still, it would be nice to know why the commercial networks no longer show movies on Sunday nights - and what will happen with those great shows that used to be on the ABC.