OS
Some of it appears at the start of this, from the OnDigital launch day, complete with a little tour of the DTA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHfODJV2Ol4
That promo was diabolical. No wonder BBC Choice didn't take off if in the early days of they were promoting programmes that looked like they had the budget of L!VE TV.
I remember very clearly a promo for BBC Digital featuring a lot of 0s and 1s, narrated (I think) by Richard Wilson and Angus Deayton which actually managed to make the whole thing sound a million times complicated than it was. Can't seem to find it online anywhere even though it was played at practically every junction.
Some of it appears at the start of this, from the OnDigital launch day, complete with a little tour of the DTA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHfODJV2Ol4
That promo was diabolical. No wonder BBC Choice didn't take off if in the early days of they were promoting programmes that looked like they had the budget of L!VE TV.
RE
Who can forget this monstrosity?
There was another campaign before that of the BBC personalities ripping their heads off which I can't seem to find.
There was another campaign before that of the BBC personalities ripping their heads off which I can't seem to find.
MI
Seek and you shall find...
A teenage girl ripping her face off to reveal George Alagiah...
https://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/tv-commercials/bbc-digital-freeview-family-5300905/
Who can forget this monstrosity?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaRF277497Y
There was another campaign before that of the BBC personalities ripping their heads off which I can't seem to find.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaRF277497Y
There was another campaign before that of the BBC personalities ripping their heads off which I can't seem to find.
Seek and you shall find...
A teenage girl ripping her face off to reveal George Alagiah...
https://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/tv-commercials/bbc-digital-freeview-family-5300905/
JA
Cliffhanger went a bit beyond being hated I think, pulled after only one evening. After spending god knows how much money on it and "teasing" it for weeks.
DE
Interesting to see the DTA again after all these years. You’ll notice that, despite being a widescreen digital transmission area, most of the screens are 4:3 glass tube CRTs. The 16:9 screens in virtually all the monitor stacks were actually domestic (albeit very good) Sony Trinitron televisions. Istr being told at the time that buying 16:9 Grade 1’s in the number required for the DTA was totally prohibitive. I think at the time it was built there weren’t even really any on the market.
IS
The only professional 16:9 CRT monitors I ever used were at my first HD place. Odd as we were using HD CRTs to quality check material that would never be seen by the public in HD on a CRT
TI
This one?
That is, somewhat ironically, why I still find something like the 'Radio Times' useful. Its easy to catch a promo for an upcoming (series) but one off programmes are easier to miss, and magazines / websites are good for picking out the new and / or interesting. At a glance they are highlighted and you can have a quick look to see what's coming up. I still find that easier than scanning through an EPG. Then there are likes of TiVo or Sky Q that start to learn the things you like and point you towards them.
The other factor is that you learn the channels that are likely to offer things you're interested in. For example I know that programmes I'm going to ejoy are likely to be on one of just a few channels. I know I can safely ignore the vast majority of channels, but if they do happen to show something I'm interested in (like the 'Michael Palin in North Korea' programmes on Channel 5) its often highlighted by the Radio Times or a similar magazine / website. I can then record it and so when I want to watch something (that isn't a live sporting event) its there in a list infront of me.
I see this a lot on other sites (Reddit, Facebook).
"Why should I pay my licence fee if there's nothing to watch, all the BBC show in the evening is Eastenders & Eggheads. No wonder people are ditching it and moving to Netflix".
I replied to one of these last week stating that
"This week on BBC2, just on evenings, there is Monkman & Seagull's Genius Guide to Britain, Black Earth Rising, QI, The Flu That Killed 50 Million, Upstart Crow, Back in Time for the Factory and Mock the Week"
I must have received about 20 "Oh, I had no clue about that flu documentary by Christopher Eccleston - It sounds interesting" or "I didn't know Mock the Week and QI were back" comments.
So Tony or Duncan, if you're reading this, please pass this on to the people at marketing - People want to watch BBC shows, they just have no clue that they're on (and to be fair, I don't blame them, when capturing the final day of the 2's - which ended up getting blocked but that's beside the point - I must have saw the same Mighty Redcar and The Cry trailers about 20 times, yet saw no promotion for Back in Time or MTW)
Who can forget this monstrosity?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaRF277497Y
There was another campaign before that of the BBC personalities ripping their heads off which I can't seem to find.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaRF277497Y
There was another campaign before that of the BBC personalities ripping their heads off which I can't seem to find.
This one?
I know what you mean about choice though. With four or five channels, it was easy to choose what to watch. When you've got hundreds, finding the good stuff is more of a challenge.
That is, somewhat ironically, why I still find something like the 'Radio Times' useful. Its easy to catch a promo for an upcoming (series) but one off programmes are easier to miss, and magazines / websites are good for picking out the new and / or interesting. At a glance they are highlighted and you can have a quick look to see what's coming up. I still find that easier than scanning through an EPG. Then there are likes of TiVo or Sky Q that start to learn the things you like and point you towards them.
The other factor is that you learn the channels that are likely to offer things you're interested in. For example I know that programmes I'm going to ejoy are likely to be on one of just a few channels. I know I can safely ignore the vast majority of channels, but if they do happen to show something I'm interested in (like the 'Michael Palin in North Korea' programmes on Channel 5) its often highlighted by the Radio Times or a similar magazine / website. I can then record it and so when I want to watch something (that isn't a live sporting event) its there in a list infront of me.
I see this a lot on other sites (Reddit, Facebook).
"Why should I pay my licence fee if there's nothing to watch, all the BBC show in the evening is Eastenders & Eggheads. No wonder people are ditching it and moving to Netflix".
I replied to one of these last week stating that
"This week on BBC2, just on evenings, there is Monkman & Seagull's Genius Guide to Britain, Black Earth Rising, QI, The Flu That Killed 50 Million, Upstart Crow, Back in Time for the Factory and Mock the Week"
I must have received about 20 "Oh, I had no clue about that flu documentary by Christopher Eccleston - It sounds interesting" or "I didn't know Mock the Week and QI were back" comments.
So Tony or Duncan, if you're reading this, please pass this on to the people at marketing - People want to watch BBC shows, they just have no clue that they're on (and to be fair, I don't blame them, when capturing the final day of the 2's - which ended up getting blocked but that's beside the point - I must have saw the same Mighty Redcar and The Cry trailers about 20 times, yet saw no promotion for Back in Time or MTW)
LL
When I studied Film and TV Production at university, I showed one of the lecturers John Cleese's "what have the BBC ever given us" advert, and she thought it was amazing. I've been saying for a few years now that the BBC - for want of a better expression - don't have the balls to promote and stand up for themselves anymore.