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Popular Programmes in 2000

What was popular on TV in the year 2000? (May 2019)

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NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Si-Co posted:
Neil Jones posted:
IIRC the 2000 power failure meant the London news opt out didn't go ahead and they had to air something else ... all the regional opt-outs went ahead as normal and didn't have a choice but to crash back into this filler programme, I think it was an episode of Dad's Army.


... Why would regions need to crash into the filler if it was merely replacing the London news (unless it ran longer than the regional news would have done?).


The key events are documented here:

https://www.desandmick.co.uk/television/powercuts/ posted:

Tuesday 20 June 2000

5.00pm (approx) Power cut hits West London. Fire alarms at Television Centre triggered, and building evacuated. A skeleton crew stays on to keep services running. BBC News 24 output continues as normal.

6.25 (approx) The Six O'Clock News goes off air during a report on Euro 2000. On BBC1 analogue (control switched to Birmingham) most regions go to their news programmes early; BBC South East goes to a repeat of Dad's Army. BBC1 digital (both satellite and terrestrial) show UK Direct, a standby programme in place of UK Today. Meanwhile, News 24 goes completely blank.

6.30 (approx) BBC2 analogue (also controlled from Birmingham) is showing a Michael Palin travel documentary in place of scheduled programmes

6.50 BBC1 analogue: Regional programmes finish, most regions abruptly joining Dad's Army. South Today, on the other hand, has about five minutes' worth of trailers for Radio Solent.

6.55 BBC1 digital: UK Direct finishes, immediately followed by brief weather report read by the continuity announcer. Couple of trailers, then Euro 2000 coverage starts a few minutes early. BBC1 analogue: not quite so slick. ... Looked like analogue and digital continuity had no idea what each other was doing.
CO
commseng
Dad's Army was played out from Birmingham so must have been the only thing that was available to the network and therefore the London region which was unable to opt out.
GE
thegeek Founding member
Si-Co posted:
Couldn’t BBC One London have shown the UK Today special that went out on BBC One HD?

HD? In 2000? Smile
IS
Inspector Sands
Neil Jones posted:

6.55 BBC1 digital: UK Direct finishes, immediately followed by brief weather report read by the continuity announcer. Couple of trailers, then Euro 2000 coverage starts a few minutes early. BBC1 analogue: not quite so slick. ... Looked like analogue and digital continuity had no idea what each other was doing.

No because the two analogue networks were being fed from VT machines at Pebble Mill whereas the digital transmission area (DTA) which originated the 4 digital channels carried on as usual*.

So the junction from regional news to the football was a hard switch on analogue, but a normal junction on digital.


*it should be noted that all the playout areas at TVC stayed powered that evening. The analogue networks were replaced by standbys from Birmingham as a precaution even though in the end it wasn't needed.

The digital networks weren't considered that important at the time, hence they didn't have their own disaster recovery. I assume that if the power had gone totally then they'd just have been lost totally
IS
Inspector Sands
commseng posted:
Dad's Army was played out from Birmingham so must have been the only thing that was available to the network and therefore the London region which was unable to opt out.

Yes, the opt switch was at TVC so if something else was patched into the distribution to bypass TVC then the switch would have been bypassed too
BC
Blake Connolly Founding member
thegeek posted:
the UEFA Champions League titles are the only ones I can think of which have sponsor credits integrated into the title sequence.


The other unusual thing about the Champions League is that it has eight sponsors, cycling through two of them sponsoring the broadcasts each week.

A combination of the above two things means that for non-live Champions League programmes like highlights or the magazine show, the opening and closing titles and break bumpers have to be played out as seperate files so they can be changed each week. That makes the programmes themselves look quite strange when looked at individually in Playout as they just sort of start after where the titles would've been.
CO
commseng
Inspector Sands posted:
commseng posted:
Dad's Army was played out from Birmingham so must have been the only thing that was available to the network and therefore the London region which was unable to opt out.

Yes, the opt switch was at TVC so if something else was patched into the distribution to bypass TVC then the switch would have been bypassed too

If it had been a few years earlier, Crystal Palace could have been opted out by London Switching Centre at BH, but that area had been decommissioned by 2000. So many changes since then, that it's now TVC that's gone and BH has TV circuits again!
SP
Spencer
Andrew posted:
As pointed out in all these examples, sponsors imbedded in the titles was mostly a mid 90s thing, in the early days of sponsorship rather than a 2000 thing.

Therefore the Better Homes example stands out as being unusual. I’m guessing they were more than a sponsor and funded the whole show?


Probably a similar arrangement to 2014's Weekend Kitchen with Waitrose on Channel 4...



I presume incorporating a sponsor's brand in a show's titles generally makes life more difficult for repeat showings and exports, plus there's always the chance a sponsor may have to be pulled at short notice for a variety of reasons. Plus, you might not want to have to remake a whole title sequence when a sponsor changes. So I'm guessing having separate sponsorship bumpers is a situation which has evolved as being easiest all around, as opposed to a change of rules as suggested by a previous poster.
JA
james-2001
When More4 repeated an episode of The Word as part of the Channel 4 25th birthday celebrations, they did actually leave in the Swatch sponsorship, unusually.
JA
james-2001
JAS84 posted:
Why couldn't Challenge just splice in the titles from a later season of Play Your Cards Right? The show never changed it's logo, they just updated the titles to remove the sponsorship.


The opening titles were actually updated subtly by the second PYCR series, if you look closely.
IS
Inspector Sands
commseng posted:

If it had been a few years earlier, Crystal Palace could have been opted out by London Switching Centre at BH, but that area had been decommissioned by 2000. So many changes since then, that it's now TVC that's gone and BH has TV circuits again!

Well yes, there's probably no bit of infrastructure in the chain now that was in use in 2000. The whole way things get to air is totally different, and generally I think, much more resilient
SC
Si-Co
thegeek posted:
Si-Co posted:
Couldn’t BBC One London have shown the UK Today special that went out on BBC One HD?

HD? In 2000? Smile


I meant Digital!

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