When the ITV Schools on 4 section was on TV-ark, and when it returns, there are three videos which feature 09:25 intervals. One of them starts with the end of a trailer for Inspector Morse, and once it fades out to black, on the video, there is a noticeable glitch as the rotomotion device appears for the start of the interval.
When the ITV Schools on 4 section was on TV-ark, and when it returns, there are three videos which feature 09:25 intervals. One of them starts with the end of a trailer for Inspector Morse, and once it fades out to black, on the video, there is a noticeable glitch as the rotomotion device appears for the start of the interval.
There's a closer to the Channel 4 Daily here with the blip on screen at 9.25:00am...
ETA: PPBs on 4 were always national, I believe. I stand to be corrected though.
Don't think PPBs were shown on Ch4 back in the day. Party
Election
Broadcasts were, but I don't think they were regional anywhere then. I remember in NI getting ones for the main UK parties, which we mostly couldn't vote for.
... And until 1992, ITV regional contractors (plus TVam and Oracle) and Channel 4 were independent companies providing programmes to networks owned by the Independent Broadcasting Authority. The IBA owned the transmitters and the networks, the companies made the programmes (or in channel 4's case, commissioned them). The IBA also made the rules and enforced them very strongly.
Was Channel 4 an independent company? I thought it was owned by the IBA. It is now a corporation (still government owned) like the BBC.
Two very good questions! There was certainly an ad break just prior to 5.15 in very early days, as The Tube started at 5.15. This tended to be timed so the break finished before 5.15, so Thames will have provided the ads, with the next ad-break being handled by LWT.
Later the norm became to show a half-hour programme at 5pm, such as Alice, which had a commercial break about halfway through. The break would typically come at approx 5.10-5.13 (a pretty normal arrangement for any half-hour show) so perhaps C4 always made a point of not allowing a break to straddle 5.15 on the dot each Friday. I can't see that being too much of an issue unless a technical fault or late schedule change came into play.
There has been some discussion on this video uploaded by forum member Neil Miles. It contains footage of the ads played during a Good Friday Tube special in 1987, and appears to have been recorded in the London area. The first ad-break is only partially filled with commercials and we see a minute or so of a break-filler. Such break fillers were very rarely seen in London (or anywhere else for that matter as late as 1987), and one theory is that the break may have straddled the Thames/LWT switch, hence only part of the break being filled with ads from Thames. I've no idea what time of the evening this Tube programme was shown, so can't comment on whether or not this is a valid theory. [Both a horrible choice of lettering style and a bizarre choice of music in my opinion!]. Anyway, skip to about 4:30 for the caption:
I've no idea whether there was any visible 'jump' on Channel 4 London when the feed was switched from Thames to LWT.
Hopefully a Londoner will be able to give us some more information!
You've inspired me to dig out the recording of that edition of the Tube and check what time the first ad-break went out. The Tube was scheduled from 17.00 - 19.00 and the first break comes at 21 minutes in, well into LWT time, which blows a hole in the "straddling the switch" theory. Maybe they just had some technical issues?
It surprises me that Tyne Tees's C4 suite wasn't synchronous to C4 network, and that the IBA didn't notice (wouldn't Emley have been monitoring?) and have something done about it. I thought the IBA were quite hot on technical issues?
Genlocked cuts in and out of network programming were not an IBA CoP requirement. IBA CoP did allow
the 'drifting' of H and V timing to allow a programme contractor to gently bring themselves into sync with the
next network source. Frame syncs were expensive things in the early 80s. Southern never had one as far as I know, but TVS had purchased one in use within a couple of months of taking over the franchise. (It had an annoying drop frame fault for a few weeks, that I complained to the IBA about, two years later I found myself working for the bloke from the manufacturers who had to sort the problem out !)
During the early months of C4, The Tube also started bang on 17:15:00, often preceded by the C4 Clock
I presume watching the filmed telerecordings of the 60s elections gives a better idea of how the non-sync cuts looked to viewers at home than the 70s videotapes?
I presume watching the filmed telerecordings of the 60s elections gives a better idea of how the non-sync cuts looked to viewers at home than the 70s videotapes?
Yes.
I recall lots of non sync cuts on Nationwide during the 70s. I spent a week in Belfast in 1991, and was
horrified to see that BBC NI's 'local' pres crashed in and out of BBC 1 network with non sync cuts at every junction. I've no idea why, presumably some medium term technical issue ?
I recall lots of non sync cuts on Nationwide during the 70s. I spent a week in Belfast in 1991, and was
horrified to see that BBC NI's 'local' pres crashed in and out of BBC 1 network with non sync cuts at every junction. I've no idea why, presumably some medium term technical issue ?
I'm not sure if this was the same thing, but there was always a noticeable blip in the first few seconds into a networked programme which had been preceded by an BBC NI ident. This even happened after the launch of digital for non-peak hours which were still fed from analogue continuity for a while.
I recall lots of non sync cuts on Nationwide during the 70s. I spent a week in Belfast in 1991, and was
horrified to see that BBC NI's 'local' pres crashed in and out of BBC 1 network with non sync cuts at every junction. I've no idea why, presumably some medium term technical issue ?
I'm not sure if this was the same thing, but there was always a noticeable blip in the first few seconds into a networked programme which had been preceded by an BBC NI ident. This even happened after the launch of digital for non-peak hours which were still fed from analogue continuity for a while.
I suspect that might have been BBC NI routing the network feed to by-pass the local vision mixer once the programme was under way, very similar to coming in and out of 'soft opt' in the English regions ?
With SDI paths these days it's much harder to spot, the giveaways now are a stutter owing to longer/shorter latency through the different devices (something not an issue in the analogue days)
Would I be right in saying that when this service was on ITV, it was effectively forbidden for advertising to be shown during the service. Did this also apply to when the schools service was moved to Channel 4 in 1987? IIRC I don't remember seeing much in the way of any advertising around the service up until Channel 4 dropped the entire service a few years ago.