NJ
Neil Jones
Founding member
They can and have done I believe.
The whole point of a break bumper is to provide separation between programme and content. Its a requirement for those to be separate. In days of old a simple fade to black would have done it, but these days with even a nanosecond of black is frowned upon and seen as an opportunity for viewers to flip over during that nanosecond. Hence the break bumper.
The whole point of a break bumper is to provide separation between programme and content. Its a requirement for those to be separate. In days of old a simple fade to black would have done it, but these days with even a nanosecond of black is frowned upon and seen as an opportunity for viewers to flip over during that nanosecond. Hence the break bumper.
BC
Blake Connolly
Founding member
The relevant Ofcom rule is:
Break bumpers tend to be simple, usually just station identification but sometimes you get simple promotional ones for upcoming programmes and there are also ones with a bit more like the examples from Dave or BT Sport below, so I can't see any reason why they can't contain now and next info.
Quote:
Television advertising must be readily recognisable as such and kept quite separate from other parts of the programme service. Breaks containing advertising spots of any kind, including teleshopping spots, must be identified in vision and/or sound, for example station identifications going in and out of breaks.
Break bumpers tend to be simple, usually just station identification but sometimes you get simple promotional ones for upcoming programmes and there are also ones with a bit more like the examples from Dave or BT Sport below, so I can't see any reason why they can't contain now and next info.
JF
Best example of a break bumper to me at least was definitely Comedy Central.
The fact it was basically a "blink or you'll miss it" was genius, it allowed Comedy Central to basically tear apart the topics of the week in an unexpected place: the break bumper. That, or you pause to read them.
The fact it was basically a "blink or you'll miss it" was genius, it allowed Comedy Central to basically tear apart the topics of the week in an unexpected place: the break bumper. That, or you pause to read them.
RD
rdd
Founding member
In the olden days before break bumpers, there’d typically have been other ways of separating content from advertising. Some shows might have (and some, such as sports often still do) have a shortened version of the programmes title sequence. There might also have had still captions with the name of the programme and the station logo or even the good old fashioned “End of Part One”. UTV used to use a still of its logo at the end of every imported programme. Sky One, for most of the 1990s, had a US style practice of running a lower third caption with its logo and the name of the programme on return from breaks (stopped at some point early in the 1998 look, IIRC).
What’s never been required in the U.K. or Ireland is a caption actually stating “Advertising” as happens in France - although Eurosport have or used to have one.
What’s never been required in the U.K. or Ireland is a caption actually stating “Advertising” as happens in France - although Eurosport have or used to have one.
KU
Thank god for that ..
I hate hate hate the "pub/werbung/pubblicità" inscriptions, it's so unnecessary, given the fact each break has the same things!
As you're too stupid to know what's coming up in a break,yeah, or in order to protect you from the evils of an ad break or something.. and in Poland, they even have something similar for the promos!
BTW, in the UK it's not necessary before or after the adverts themselves it seems, you can even place them before the promos, as long as there's a separation between the content and the ad break, and it makes sense
In the olden days before break bumpers, there’d typically have been other ways of separating content from advertising. Some shows might have (and some, such as sports often still do) have a shortened version of the programmes title sequence. There might also have had still captions with the name of the programme and the station logo or even the good old fashioned “End of Part One”. UTV used to use a still of its logo at the end of every imported programme. Sky One, for most of the 1990s, had a US style practice of running a lower third caption with its logo and the name of the programme on return from breaks (stopped at some point early in the 1998 look, IIRC).
What’s never been required in the U.K. or Ireland is a caption actually stating “Advertising” as happens in France - although Eurosport have or used to have one.
What’s never been required in the U.K. or Ireland is a caption actually stating “Advertising” as happens in France - although Eurosport have or used to have one.
Thank god for that ..
I hate hate hate the "pub/werbung/pubblicità" inscriptions, it's so unnecessary, given the fact each break has the same things!
As you're too stupid to know what's coming up in a break,yeah, or in order to protect you from the evils of an ad break or something.. and in Poland, they even have something similar for the promos!
BTW, in the UK it's not necessary before or after the adverts themselves it seems, you can even place them before the promos, as long as there's a separation between the content and the ad break, and it makes sense
NJ
I have seen that if an advert is long enough it usually gets a caption saying its an advert. Channel 4 "ran" a live advert a few years ago (it took up an entire break) and it had to be tagged that it was an advert.
In fact a quick shufty on YouTube and it was this one, notice the "Live Ad from Spain" tag throughout:
Neil Jones
Founding member
What’s never been required in the U.K. or Ireland is a caption actually stating “Advertising” as happens in France - although Eurosport have or used to have one.
I have seen that if an advert is long enough it usually gets a caption saying its an advert. Channel 4 "ran" a live advert a few years ago (it took up an entire break) and it had to be tagged that it was an advert.
In fact a quick shufty on YouTube and it was this one, notice the "Live Ad from Spain" tag throughout:
TI
I have seen that if an advert is long enough it usually gets a caption saying its an advert. Channel 4 "ran" a live advert a few years ago (it took up an entire break) and it had to be tagged that it was an advert.
In fact a quick shufty on YouTube and it was this one, notice the "Live Ad from Spain" tag throughout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJtdeqZru_k
Also anything that looks like a news report or any other programme.
Example being the old Channel 4 Comedy Gala ad breaks.
What’s never been required in the U.K. or Ireland is a caption actually stating “Advertising” as happens in France - although Eurosport have or used to have one.
I have seen that if an advert is long enough it usually gets a caption saying its an advert. Channel 4 "ran" a live advert a few years ago (it took up an entire break) and it had to be tagged that it was an advert.
In fact a quick shufty on YouTube and it was this one, notice the "Live Ad from Spain" tag throughout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJtdeqZru_k
Also anything that looks like a news report or any other programme.
Example being the old Channel 4 Comedy Gala ad breaks.
BC
Blake Connolly
Founding member
Yes, anything that could be mistaken for a programme has to be labelled as an advertisement for at least 5 seconds per minute, so that's either commercials that are very long or ones that look like a programme (e.g. Carol Vorderman flogging life insurance ads in the style of a daytime TV show).
SC
Just to clarify a couple of things - in the UK, “break bumper” tends to have a different meaning than it does in, for example, the USA. Stateside, “bumpers” are programme-specific graphics, often the title card accompanied by a musical sting. For those who mentioned such graphics or slides, we in the UK would call these “end of part (or EOP) captions”. A “break bumper” over here is something shown as well as the EOP caption (or recently, in the case of multi-channels like E4 or 5-Star, and many Pay-TV channels, instead of them). Break bumpers came and went in the days of regional ITV, but then the EOP cap was always shown. Channel 4 didn’t use them until 1993, but TVS went to the trouble of making their own bumpers for Channel 4 using footage from promos they had recorded down the line!
The graphic between ads, also referred to above is actually a “break flash” or “optical” - they were much more common in the early days of commercial television, and ITV(1) brought them back for a couple of years in the mid-00s with the four squares (three blue, one yellow) shown between ads in the regions played out from the STC at Kent House. Viewers in the north (it must have been terrible for them!) missed out on these flashes as equipment at the NTC at Leeds couldn’t generate something so short (I forget why exactly - hopefully someone else can remember). Also, Channel 5 used a five-colour “bar” between ads in their early days.
The graphic between ads, also referred to above is actually a “break flash” or “optical” - they were much more common in the early days of commercial television, and ITV(1) brought them back for a couple of years in the mid-00s with the four squares (three blue, one yellow) shown between ads in the regions played out from the STC at Kent House. Viewers in the north (it must have been terrible for them!) missed out on these flashes as equipment at the NTC at Leeds couldn’t generate something so short (I forget why exactly - hopefully someone else can remember). Also, Channel 5 used a five-colour “bar” between ads in their early days.
IS
Channel 5's optical between every ad lasted a while didn't they? At least a couple of rebrands, possibly until Richard Desmond took it over.