Challenge - June 2016 onwards

I suspect the editing is more of a trend generally because on the repeats of Tipping Point on W they've been trimming various short segments out of that too - and not just the semi-daily competitions.

I know the smaller commercial channels (ie anybody but ITV, Channel 4, S4C and Channel 5) can (or at least they used to be able to) have a slightly higher adverts-per-hour average than the PSBs but can't be sure whether this is still the case or something's changed in the Ofcom regulations recently to allow them more advertising...

Aw no I really don't like the "weird edits", it spoils the whole thing!

I've spotted weird edits on Catchphrase too. There was one the other day where it came in from a break and jumped to Roy recapping how much money the contestants had won so far before the Ready Money Round.

and from what I have seen it is the first series of sweep from 1993 as Dale mentioned that contestants would recieve a parting gift whereas in later series he didn't

There was a period where they had competitions on Catchphrase so it could be those getting cut out.

Challenge had an episode of Catchphrase recently where Roy talked to the camera about how members of the public can apply to be on the show, then we saw a behind-the-scenes video of viewer applications being received and sorted, and then clips of those selected being interviewed and taking part in group activities as part of their audition, the highest scoring of those were the ones who made it on to TV.

It was odd Challenge left that in but it was very interesting and strange to see.

Gladiators did something similar and featured no end of behind-the-scenes fodder throughout the run. It sometimes felt like the main competition was secondary to the filler material.

Yeah that's right that's why it jumps straight to the score recap.

I've noticed Challenge seem to be cross-promoting Real Lives quite a bit at the moment - which is a bit odd since Real Lives is only available on Sky and Virgin Media.

I presumed the rebrand a year or two ago was a precursor to a move to FTA but as of yet it hasn't happened.

Seems Sky are getting a bit more out of the Challenge programming too - I've spotted Robot Wars on Sky 2 as well as The Chase on Real Lives. I'm sure I've seen something on PickTV too.

Gladiators has incidentally aired on Real Lives - they’re starting to spread some of the Challenge programming to their other channels.

Real Lives is more associated with Pick and Challenge, of course, but they can’t convert the channel to FTA whilst they have the archaic three channel limit that Ofcom imposed on them when Freeview launched - their share of the capacity has not proportionally grown compared to the likes of UKTV, Sony and CBS.

And capacity on COM5 is almost entirely full, with leftover hours that are not attractive to broadcasters.

Pick TV used to house the older quiz stuff (what used to be on Sky 1) before Challenge came into Sky ownership. It worked the other way too, as Challenge used to air things like Brainiac as well.

Doesn't stop them from changing the channel to FTA on satellite and launching on Freesat though - nor IPTV if they wanted to do that.