Nothing on the box? Blame TV non ratings period. Picture: iStock

And unless it’s on the cricket pitch or tennis court, the dearth of Australian accents.

Another clue? Endless promotions for new shows but with no date for when they will actually air.

The reason is because it’s non-ratings period on free-to-air television with networks replacing domestic shows with repeats and overseas programs. And it’s short-changing Australians in summer time.

But canny networks and streaming services are beginning to discover tinkering with the non-ratings schedule can reap rewards.

For two weeks around Easter — and a whopping two months in summer — broadcasters mostly just give up. Their excuse? No one is watching.

So all the high-rating shows are held back, thus ensuring no one watches.

It seems like as far as the networks are concerned, we’re all either watching or playing cricket, caravanning across the Nullarbor or down at Aunty Jean’s eating her stale shortbread.

Except we are watching the box. Millions of us. David Knox, creator of TV website TV Tonight told news.com.au the networks are ignoring Australians.

“Networks charge advertises lower rates over summer, but that’s of little consequence to viewers who have plenty of time on their hands and looking to binge.

“The US also has its ‘sweeps’ and summer season, but it isn’t full of re-runs and observationals,” he said.

In the coming week, between them, networks Seven and Nine will show not only repeats of the homegrown Border Security but also the UK, US and even Irish versions.

Sometimes the changes are more subtle. Australia’s own Highway Patrol becomes New Zealand’s Motorway Patrol. First Dates Australia mysteriously becomes First Dates UK. See — it is all about the accents.

Not that non-commercial ABC is immune. This week, in prime time, we can watch The Checkout: Best Before. A clever way of saying, The Checkout: The Bits We’ve Already Aired.

ARE WE REALLY WATCHING LESS?

Certainly on Christmas Day audiences fall off a cliff. The highest rating show on Christmas Day was Seven News but at just 675,000 viewers it was way below the million-plus the bulletin can usually muster.

But other than that, the theory that less people are watching television seems to be on shaky ground.

On Tuesday, the Oztam ratings showed five programs with more than one million viewers.

Compare that to late October in the heart of ratings season, when only three shows had more than one million viewers. One of those was the Australian Survivor grand finale — a big audience drawcard while the current schedule has no first-run Australian reality shows.

Married At First Sight experts John Aiken, Sabina Read and Trisha Stratford. It’s still weeks before we’ll see them again.Source:Supplied

So, what can we choose from instead? Well go back to Monday and Australia essentially had a choice of sport, sport, sport and A Good Day to Die Hard — easily the weakest of the yippee ki yea franchise.

It’s enough to turn you to pay tv and streaming services such as Stan and Netflix.

“Foxtel does not follow the commercial ratings season patterns so we continue to premiere great shows as they go to air in the US or UK, or our own original programming,” a spokesman for the broadcaster (half owned by News Corp Australia, publisher of news.com.au) said.

Foxtel has, or will, premiere a slew of shows over the break including Coast Australia, The Mr Robot and two Home and Away special episodes as well as the much anticipated HBO documentary Bright Lights starring the late Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.

While Netflix wouldn’t reveal to news.com.au whether streams increased in non-rating period it did point out it had saved many of the year’s biggest shows for the summer.

Series that are likely to be a hit with families, like Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and Trollhunters are two of Netflix’s big summer releases. While to much anticipation, the US streaming service uploaded a Christmas special of hit drama Sense8.

Stan, meanwhile, is heavily advertising its wares by talking up new shows such as the Benedict Cumberbatch feast Sherlock. It’s being screened at the same time as in the UK where non ratings doesn’t really exist.

Some stations seemed to have sensed the frustration of viewers. 9 Now, the network’s catch up service, has announced a summer time ‘binge for free’ collection of popular programs such as House Husbands available for download in advance of new shows kicking in.

Nine’s digital chief, Alex Parsons, said the downloadable shows was designed to fill the schedule gap. “We have 2.3 million customers who have signed up to 9 Now and we know they will want quality Australian content over the holiday period.”

Stan has been heavily pushing BBC show Sherlock during free-to-air non ratings period.Source:Supplied

Other networks have spied an opportunity.

Channel 10’s morning show, Studio 10, has become something of a sleeper summer hit reaping the rewards of staying on air during non ratings as its cutthroat rivals either head off for a siesta or air ‘best of’ repeats.

“Studio 10 will surely be getting extra eyeballs with new episodes on fresh topics,” said Mr Knox.

“It still has ground to make up against the competition but the rising tide lifts all boats whenever there is more people home on holidays.”

Studio 10 says ratings have gone up. Picture: Instagram.Source:Supplied

Channel 10’s strategy will be that some of those extra eyeballs stay glued when ratings kick in again come February.

To a lesser extent, all the big commercial channels have been trying a similar tactic, at least towards the end of the off season.

“In the last few years, networks have all launched big shows before the ratings starter gun to try and get a head start,” said Mr Knox.

“The two-week period between the end of the tennis and the start of [ratings] is peak for new shows. Any earlier and you risk competing with any Aussies in the [tennis] final and school holidays,” he said.

“Nine has already confirmed Married at First Sight for January 30 to try and claim the space, but Seven won’t have a bar of it. I’d pencil in I ’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here for January 29, if previous years are anything to go by.”

But that’s still weeks away.

“Streaming services, iView and SBS On Demand are great alternatives if you have fast internet,” advised Mr Knox.

So, perhaps if the networks are ignoring us through the TV schedule we should ignore them and check back in during the last week in January when TV once again takes Australia seriously.

benedict.brook@news.com.au