It’s strange how we’re pretty much the odd ones out. Our system makes so much sense. Maybe it’s just the British love of things being calm and orderly.
It
does
make sense in the way it splits up programming and clearly signposts what's coming up next, but from a broadcaster POV it actually doesn't make much sense as it effectively gives the audience a "switching off" point after every show. I'm in the USA right now, and I'm constantly finding myself watching the next programme after the one I planned to watch as the follow through is so streamlined. As one show ends, you find yourself already hooked into the next one - which is exactly what a broadcaster wants!
ITV has started setting this trend with their daytime output, and I can see it becoming more of a norm going forward.
You say ITV have started this trend, it’s not as though they flow straight to the show, which they could do; The only difference now is the lack of end credits (which GMB and Lorraine didn’t have anyway) and non announcer, there is still a large chunk of adverts, trailers and sponsorship in between.
I liked the American system when I was over there and I too found myself watching onto the next programme, but I can’t remember how it works with programme sponsors.
ABC1 tried it over here and I quite liked it, but it's never really taken off, even when ad rules were relaxed which permitted all channels outside the three main commercial channels to have two breaks within a half hour show. I've only really noticed C5 take advantage of that for Home and Away on 5Star. Not sure if they do it for other shows, or indeed still do for Home and Away.
Similarly the ad limitations in primetime do actually somewhat enable broadcasters to skip the ad break at the top of the hour if they wish, but this is far from the norm. It'll happen if channels want to launch a new show off the back of something, or for occassional slots (E4 rarely have a break after Hollyoaks for example), but usually only where it's convenient. For example with News at Ten on most nights they'll be no ads at 10pm, and indeed right through to the end of the regional news, but if they have a big hitter at 9pm they always prioritise an ad break at 10pm over starting News at Ten straight off the back of the show.
Bringing it back to the BBC and it's a similar story really but with self promotion - indeed Strictly into The Wheel is the only noteable recent example of skipping trailers completely between shows. Even where there is a schedule running slightly late and an opportunity to catch up by skipping the trailers that is generally something they don't do.
Bringing it back to the BBC and it's a similar story really but with self promotion - indeed Strictly into The Wheel is the only noteable recent example of skipping trailers completely between shows. Even where there is a schedule running slightly late and an opportunity to catch up by skipping the trailers that is generally something they don't do.
There's a hell of a lot of rounding up and down in schedules, especially on a Saturday night, so it's not necessarily the case that every time they're running slightly late is by accident - you can see that by how Pointless Celebrities is sometimes in a 45 minute slot and sometimes 50 minutes, when they're all around the same length. And as someone said on Twitter recently, given it's always billed in a 45 minute slot, look at the lengths of the most recent episodes of Newsnight on iPlayer. So they need that ballast in the schedules.
Also as well losing a few trailers hardly makes a big difference in the scheme of things. If the Cup Final's overran by half an hour, skipping a few trailers isn't going to make much difference. You're still going to be running late, and at least it's obvious to the audience why.
I don't really see the relevance of some of the comparisons with other countries. We may be one of the few countries to have idents and announcements, but so what? Other countries have plenty of familiar conventions in their TV which haven't caught on with the wider world. I can't believe anyone is truly advocating the US model of more ad breaks within a show, no real viewer would want that to happen.
Many European mainland commercial operations, especially Germany, Italy , Spain have adopted many evil presentation elements from the US, and I can tell you, it sucks.
In a 60 mins programme, especially, in order to have the so called "flow" between two shows, you would have to have an extra break, 4 internal breaks in an hour (currently OFCOM doesn't permit that, rightly enough) otherwise longer ad breaks up to lasting 6-7 mins (something again common in these countries mentioned) , so, no, not nice at all.
Here in Italy, we still have 2 minutes as break in a 42-mins drama (like in the past in the US), especially from the US.
But since many commercial operations in mainland Europe, don't care for times either, you have things at seemingly silly times like 20:55,21:50, 22:45 etc. (Stripping never caught on)
So overall, the effect is that you get less adverts in countries like Spain, France, Italy, Germany.
But still I prefer the UK tight scheduling and shorter ad breaks than anything in. The mentioned countries and especially the US, which has very frequent ad breaks
And especially the presentation, which is much poorer in many European countries bar Scandinavia , and in the US is non existing
Spanish TV presentation was messy when I went to Barcelona a few years ago, I'd say even worse than US TV as there's at least a pattern - ad breaks were frequent but there was a lack of flow grammar, you could easily get lost as to where you were in the schedule from an outsiders perspective.
A quick google search reveals that they have broken the EU's ad limits quite frequently in the past.
The MediaSet channels (Antena 3, La Sexta) have long ad breaks in some markets with a breakfiller of local views after the ads run out in smaller markets like the Canary Islands opt out.
Yes, very messy, it's even messier than the Italian one, and that is messy as well.
They have less ad breaks, but heck they're longer.
The ironic part is that there's a part in the Spanish advertising laws dictating even how many promos and non-advertising presentation (autopromociones) should be shown, 5 minutes (so only 17 minutes of presentation per hour can be shown: 12 minutes of adverts + 5 mins of "filler" material), but apparently many broadcasters don't care much about that .
German TV can have very long ad breaks too, and often flow between shows, but overall a bit more regular.
French TV CSA limits for many programmes ("audiovisual works") 2 as breaks inside of a show (used to be one), so yeah, even the French TV market, can have less frequent but long ad breaks, since the limit per hour is still 12 minutes.
NBC 2000 was the project which influenced the flows of American TV currently, it was to counteract messy station breaks and cluttered junctions, and the introduction of the ECP. This from around 1995:
NBC 2000 was the project which influenced the flows of American TV currently, it was to counteract messy station breaks and cluttered junctions, and the introduction of the ECP. This from around 1995:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaxqB1lka18
The credit style used there clearly must have influenced ITV’s smokey hearts end credits format from the turn of the millennium. Very similar.
Pretty sure there was at least one Simpsons episode that showed its credits (the international/syndicated version) in that NBC style, except it looked a bit more "flashy" than that. I think it was done for some behind the scenes footage for whover the big star was that episode (I seem to have ended up thinking of NSYNC?) but I don't know how close it was to the Fox presentation of the time.