aberdeenboy's posts, page 10

Networked ITV - 1990s and before...

Did you mean... could the relays in Dumfries and Gallow rebroadcast Darvel instead of Caldbeck?

I honestly don't know. I'm not a technical person. But obviously a means could be found of switching over these relays to STV if that was ever required. The question would be how and at what cost.

Networked ITV - 1990s and before...

Good points too pcuk.

My gut feeling, as I've said before, is that we'll eventually see a civilised divorce between STV and ITV. STV could be C3 in Scotland with ITVplc free to distribute ITV1 in Scotland openly on commercial platforms with a lower placing on the EPG. If this happens, there's a very good case for making sure the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway are looked after by STV.

If, on the other hand, ITVplc bought STV then redrawing the regions to make sure the south of Scotland got a Scottish news programme is straightforward enough. An application to Ofcom followed by a consultation.

I don't see how local news stations are ever going to be commercially viable. The barriers to entry can be removed but that doesn't mean they can be sustainable. Jeremy Hunt has spoken about allowing some kind of affiliate system so that each station does a few hours of local programmes each day but relies on a sustaining service. But does that not sound like a recreation of the old ITV system but with Euronews rather than the winning network content?

Then there are the practical problems. You could run "Glasgow TV" from Blackhill on a tight beam. But what about people who principally use satellite rather than Freeview? Would they watch - is there a market for discussions about Glasgow City Council's licensing committee's deliberations? Would all the local stations pay for satellite carriage? Would Ofcom ask Sky and Freeview for a dedicated EPG slot or would the local stations be in obscure places?

As for the problems in rural areas like the south of Scotland, well "Scottish Borders TV" would need to go on the relay transmitters as well as Selkirk to get meaningful coverage

As you know, the UK Government says there will be no public funding for local news stations. In the current climate, it would be impractical for the Scottish Government or councils to provide cash too even if they weren't opposed in prinicipal.

Networked ITV - 1990s and before...

Whatever solution may be found to the problem of news provision in the south of Scotland, it isn't going to involve ITV franchise changes as such.

The current licences run until 2014 legally but I don't think anyone expects a franchise round in any sense. It would be unrealistic. ITVplc would almost certainly not enter the contest for the English and Welsh franchises and simply provide ITV1 on satellite, cable and one of the other slots on Freeview.

Ofcom has spoken of rationalising the system when the current franchises run out with four licences - one for each nation - which presumably could see the south of Scotland, or at least Selkirk, move to STV. But there are too many ifs and buts over the next few years to predict what will happen. For a start, the relationship between STV and ITVplc may continue to evolve to the extent that the C3 network as we have known it won't really exist.

Anyway a few points people in the south of Scotland may want to consider.

*If you are not a Scottish nationalist, why is the legally enforcable case for REGIONAL news within the south of Scotland any different to the case for regional news in the south west of England or the East Midlands? These are larger, more commercially viable areas which no longer have a distinct service.

*Why should a commercial organisation be legally obliged to provide a layer of local news coverage which the BBC doesn't?

*Border Selkirk and the Scottish relays of Caldbeck could move to STV in 2014 in theory - but would people in the Borders get more local news? We still don't know what form STV's news provision will take in a few months time after the collapse of the IFNCs. The status quo is not a long term option and it is possible they may propose moving to a Scotland-wide service (ie STV and "Grampian") with some sub opts.

*The UK Government does not believe in artificially preserving the current regional set up. It wants to find ways of making genuinely local news viable.

Scottish pres discussion Thread

I spotted this on TV-ark.

My hunch is that this was a one-off made at the Gateway. I reckon it's a little older than TV-ark claims as well. Regardless of when Granada showed it, the voice over at the beginning is Paul Coia so presumably it was made when he was an STV announcer pre C4.

It was the sort of programme STV, and the other middle sized companies like HTV and Anglia, used to do which often struggled to get the kind of network slot which it might have earned purely on merit as the Big 5 carved up the best slots between them. (Winston Churchill The Wilderness Years from Southern - wasted at 10pm on Sundays.)

My hunch is that if it was networked it would have gone out at 10.30pm or late on Sunday evening... or it might have been the kind of programme many regions screened locally. (Remember there used to be several programmes which were never quite networked... but which often ended up being screened in most regions anyway at wildly different times.)

(Not a fan of Mr Last I'm afraid. A relative of mine used to subject me to his music in the car, the kitchen, the garden...)

1969 changeover from black & white to colour

Also worth remembering that on BBC2 in the late 60s, there were a few programmes which one might normally have thought of as BBC1 programmes... even though the BBC would have insisted it was not trying to make BBC2 more popular.

I'm thinking, for instance, of Morecambe and Wise's first series for the BBC and - unbelievable as it seems now - the Black and White Minstrels. Add on The High Chaparal and sport and special events... and you actually had quite a few relatively mainstream colour programmes on 2.

However, as far as I'm aware, no actual BBC1 programmes were made in colour and shown specially on BBC2 or even repeated before their time - so it isn't as if BBC2 became a sort of "BBC Colour" channel. Programmes commissioned for BBC1 remained in black and white until the weeks leading up to the launch of BBC1 Colour, (For instance, most of the third series of Dad's Army went out "officially" in black and white although it was made in colour... including the episode which was restored to colour a few years back!)

1969 changeover from black & white to colour

Good point. Although, to be fair, the bulk of children's programmes were in colour quickly.... Watch with Mother, Play School, Jackanory, children's drama.... (On the other hand when did the repeats of Champion the Wonder Horse finally end!!!!!)

GMTV (1993 - 2010)

To get back to GMTV... it will be interesting to see how the core audience reacts to the changes. Will they accept them initially? Or will they come to like them? Or might the loyal audience turn against the changes? (Never underestimate the loyalty of regular daytime viewers to their favourite programmes and personalities.)

Talking about the revamp of Breakfast Time and the launch of BBC Daytime brought this all back to my mind.

Initially back in 1986 it soon became apparent that BBC daytime faced a problem - the fact that the baby had been thrown out with the bathwater and the two main existing daytime programmes had either been axed or dramatically changed. (Breakfast Time changed after the BBC accepted it would never beat TV-am and should provide an alternative that played to corporate strengths - Pebble Mill at One finished so the resources could go into other programmes for the daytime schedule.)

However both these programmes had such a loyal following that the decisions were initially unpopular. In the case of Breakfast Time, the initial upset proved worth it in the medium term but PM@1 was effectively brought back a year later, albeit with different presenters and changes in style and content.

GMTV (1993 - 2010)

Indeed... BBC Breakfast News was essentially just a revamp of Breakfast Time Mk2. New graphics, slightly changed set, Nicholas Witchell and - er that's it. The last remaining soft features on Breakfast Time which survived the cull of 86 - like the TV previews - had gone quietly by then.

Of course, the launch of BBC Breakfast News was put off at the last minute too because of union problems... so Breakfast Time Mk 2 continued for a few more weeks.

GMTV (1993 - 2010)

Indeed... if I remember, the new look Breakfast Time was originally billed for the last week of September - to coincide with the Labour Conference - but simply failed to appear. Instead the old format continued until about the middle of November, two or three weeks after daytime tv had started.

As you say, if they'd gone for something like the current Breakfast - news based but relaxed - it might have been less controversial. And, of course, Breakfast Time during this period only ran from 7am to 8.40am.

GMTV (1993 - 2010)

No expert on GMTV - it isn't a programme I would normally watch - but I'm reminded that the single biggest change to BBC breakfast tv happened in a relatively low key way.

In 1986 Breakfast Time was overhauled dramatically. The sofa, the sweaters, all but one of the main presenters and most of the light features went. In came harder news, desks, suits and Jeremy Paxman and Sally Magnusson as a regular. This change was much more dramatic, from the viewers point of view, than the change to BBC Breakfast News and later BBC Breakfast - all of which were essentially evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

Yet, on the last Friday of the old Breakfast Time there wasn't much warning of what was to come nor were the departing members of the team given much of an on-screen send off. (And unbelievable as this may seem now, when taking breakfast tv upmarket and making it newsier was undoubtedly the right thing to do long term, there was quite a lot of criticism of the new format initially.)

ITV Discussion Thread

Indeed... though, to be fair, even watching upscaled is an improvement on SD at the receiving end!

A friend of mine was watching the 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice on Blu-Ray recently. His comment? "Almost as good as HD".

As nearly all drama, apart from soaps and continuing drama, from the early 90s onwards were either on film or "filmic" I would imagine that it's possible to remaster them to make them look really good.... even if they might not look as good as new ones on HD.

As for the extra ITV HD channels, I'd have thought that in the not too distant future, ITV2 could be largely HD. Emmerdale can't be far off going into HD.... and I can imagine the Loose Women and Jeremy Kyle's of this world in HD before long too. (In the case of Jezza's guests that isn't necessarily an appealing thought!!)

1969 changeover from black & white to colour

Much as I hate applying modern terms to past events, if you had a 625 line black and white television in 1969 then the BBC1 Colour service was almost the equivalent of an upscaled HD channel today.

Even without colour, a good black and white 625 line picture was still sharper than a 405 line pic. I think by the mid 60s all BBC network programmes were made in 625 lines even when they were produced for BBC1 which still transmitted in 405 lines.

Certainly viewers with monochrome 625 line sets who lived in UHF service areas were always advised to switch to the UHF service and abandon VHF. The 405 line service fast became the equivalent of analogue today - it increasingly existed for people with old equipment and rural viewers.

Thinking of digital switchover in Tayside tomorrow, I'm reminded of an aunt who quite happily watched their 1950s VHF set (which was in excellent working order and didn't need fixed once) until the late 70s. BBC2 didn't appeal to her and colour was then out of her reach so switching to UHF made little sense... until my granny persuaded her that she'd get a better picture on STV (which my aunt usually watched) from the local UHF relay than she got from the relatively fuzzy relay of Channel 10 carried by the local Rediffusion cable system!!