MS
What exactly is a 'Continuity Announcer'?
Thank you.
I can understand you not knowing, there are several cultural and political hoops to go though in order to get at this one.
Firstly, imagine that a continuity announcer is (I know that this is difficult) :- an actual real and live person, that is one who does actually genuinely exist. Probably a member of EQUITY, but human none the less, not a server.
That this actual, real, live person exists is evident, because in many cases you can actually see them. Now, as well as appeearing in-vision occasionally, they actually tell you useful things, like what’s going to be on the telly, or if its going to rain. They even used to read the regional news, and congratulate kids on their birthdays.
Some of these continuity announcers, the ones who worked for the BBC that is, used to control the output, put themselves in vision, show a slide, play a gram (cart) and even opt-in and out. As this was Look North, they were probably referring to Brian Baines, one of the stars of regional BBC in the North.
Over on ITV, although not self-op, the announcers were always there, and used to interrupt if nasty thing happened, like the Post Office (BT) cutting up the wrong circuit (feed), thus delivering the wrong programme.
Rather than todays rather laid back approach announcements were made with some pride and gravitas :-
"This is BBC North from Leeds"
or
"This is Angla"
We even had a proper Labour government as well!
Continuity Announcer
InteractiveTV posted:
What exactly is a 'Continuity Announcer'?
Thank you.
I can understand you not knowing, there are several cultural and political hoops to go though in order to get at this one.
Firstly, imagine that a continuity announcer is (I know that this is difficult) :- an actual real and live person, that is one who does actually genuinely exist. Probably a member of EQUITY, but human none the less, not a server.
That this actual, real, live person exists is evident, because in many cases you can actually see them. Now, as well as appeearing in-vision occasionally, they actually tell you useful things, like what’s going to be on the telly, or if its going to rain. They even used to read the regional news, and congratulate kids on their birthdays.
Some of these continuity announcers, the ones who worked for the BBC that is, used to control the output, put themselves in vision, show a slide, play a gram (cart) and even opt-in and out. As this was Look North, they were probably referring to Brian Baines, one of the stars of regional BBC in the North.
Over on ITV, although not self-op, the announcers were always there, and used to interrupt if nasty thing happened, like the Post Office (BT) cutting up the wrong circuit (feed), thus delivering the wrong programme.
Rather than todays rather laid back approach announcements were made with some pride and gravitas :-
"This is BBC North from Leeds"
or
"This is Angla"
We even had a proper Labour government as well!
Determine the level of acceptable regional service, and then set-out to advertise for a provider.
The provider could be paid either by receiving a discount on their licence payments. This would apply to five and ITV, and actually represents only a minor extension of the de-facto conditions under which ITV currently operate.
