Missing "Roswell, New Mexico" S4 Ep13

@XfinityAnna​ When we forum members report errors, we often receive responses blaming contracts.  Without seeing any contracts, I'm betting we all think it's pretty unlikely for a contract to say they will omit giving us just the free version of a particular episode.  This happens often enough that it would seem to be hand-waving to avoid researching the actual problem.

I do not hear you say that in this case the contract said they would not give us the final episode.  (And other shows from the CW network seem to have all their episodes, so I doubt that contracts with them expired suddenly.)

Doesn't it seem much more likely that someone simply goofed and failed to upload the episode (or that an upload error occurred and the upload wasn't retried)?

Thanks.

@CactusThorn​  

"Doesn't it seem much more likely that someone simply goofed and failed to upload the episode (or that an upload error occurred and the upload wasn't retried)?"

Exactly a point (somebody goofed) I've been making for a long time regarding an episode missing for no real reason.

Hi CactusThorn, thanks for your repsonse and concern. I understand your point and truthfully this could very well be the case but we cannot tell for sure because we do not control the content that each network provides. We only provide the feed for all of your favorite stations. If there are missing episodes or if content is listed as "paid" this would fall solely on the network and would be their responsibility to correct the issue. 

@XfinityAmir​ Thanks for your response.  However, it's not just an issue of "controlling content."

First, yes, you provide the feed, but you also provide the mechanism for the networks to insert their programming into the feed, and that might well incur problems on either side of the connection.

Second, the network might well be happy to correct the problem IF THEY WERE AWARE OF IT.  Comcast/Xfinity knows how to contact the appropriate people at the network; we, mere users, don't.  If you wish to publicize the appropriate contacts, I'd be happy to let them know, but my guess is you don't publicize them for good reasons.  (I did once try to contact a network myself--via a form provided on its web page--but that doesn't work because the people who handle contacts from the "outside world" don't necessarily even know what "on demand" is, so the request doesn't get to where it needs to go.  Plus, even if it did get there, coming from me, it might seem of questionable validity.)

Although the network needs to be involved in correcting the issue, it doesn't mean you shouldn't let them know.  A system with so many programs and episodes is bound to incur a glitch from time to time, and providing the means to find and correct these glitches should be part of the system.  The "system" is really Xfinity at the center, with all the networks feeding it according to the methods Xfinity has set up for them to do so.  Glitches will be detected on the Xfinity side, and should be reported back to the networks for correction.

I understand that sometimes people post here not realizing that episodes may expire, or that certain networks only keep the last five episodes, etc., which are actual policy decisions made about what content to provide for how long.  That is not the case here.  The policies, when one observes, create a "pattern" of episodes appearing and disappearing.  When I post here, such as in the "Roswell NM" case, it's only when there's a major break in the pattern that doesn't make sense as a policy decision but does make sense as a glitch/goof/error occurring somewhere in the process.  We users don't have the tools or access to chase it down further, and we rely on you to do so.

Thank you for your consideration.

@CactusThorn.

You are correct in this assessment. For us to identify if there is a programming error we need examples. After we've compiled enough, we open tickets that begin the dialogue between us and the networks. However, in this case, Rosewell: New Mexico is available via Netflix at this time and not Xfinity On-Demand.