For anyone who is interested, tonight at 1.05am (Monday Morning/Sunday evening), there is a gap in the BBC Two Schedule.
This is most likely to be Pages From Ceefax, as BBC One is transmitting News 24 from 1.00am.
Also, NI & Scotland have been starting at 7.30am all week, and so have had PFC between 6am and 7.30am, here is an ident I captured from NI on Tuesday 28th June shown at 6.00am, in full.
BBC Scotland and NI have been taking CBBC every morning as the school holidays up start earlier than in England and Wales. This is so they can show extended children's programming on BBC2 throughout a larger part of the morning than the network offering, until the holidays begin down south. I assume CBBC's breakfast show doesn't start until 7.30am, leaving them with a bit of a gap. With BBC News 24 showing the same programme as BBC1 (but without regional programming), there's no other option but to either show their own programmes or bung Ceefax on.
Mind you, BBC Scotland have produced enough children's programming over the years - surely they could have a look into their archive? I assume however that they want one coherent form of presentation, rather than to show out-of-vision continuity for the first hour and a half, then crash into CBBC. It also means they can hit CBBC spot on half past seven, without worrying about timing.
All though you usually get good idents into Ceefax (like the Bounce Sombre Long Full at the top of the page) I don't really see why there's any need to show it at 6.00. Surely, as Digidude said, BBC TWO NI should show CBBC from 6.00 until 8.00 and then go to the CBBC channel at 8.00 if they want to show extended coverage of CBBC.
Out of interest what is taken at 7.30 until 8.00? Is it the Network BBC TWO feed or is it the CBBC Channel?
I think the reason for them not sticking with network BBC Two is beacuse Network CBBC doesn't have a programme ending at 7.00am & it may be awkward to organise an opt to the CBBC Channel that is timed correctly with when the CBBC Two junction ends.
Presumably Scotland and NI think it would be too clumsy to crash out of one network service (BBC2) and into the start of another (CBBC channel).
It could be handled by BBC2 saying at 7.30am something along the lines 'bye to our viewers in Scotland and Northern Ireland', like what used to happen when NI opted out of the broom cupboard five minutes early, but it could get quite clumsy (BBC2 referring to programmes coming up later which would never be shown in Scotland, etc).
It seems easier to join CBBC, rather than start in one programme and end up in another. Doesn't quite answer why they don't join them at 7am. Of course, why Scotland and NI can't join together to do their own programme is also a weird one. It's always good that the CBBC presenters to do a special welcome to those up north though.
