noggin's posts, page 136

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NG
noggin Founding member

Children's BBC and BBC Ulster

I remember, on a different note, how BBC One Northern Ireland used to opt out a hell of a lot during Children in Need each year. I remember we used to either get to see key national sketches or routines much later than the rest of the network, or sometimes not at all.

1996 was one year where from 7.30pm until 1.00am, Belfast took control and opted back into the network when they felt like it. We missed out on a lot of sketches and routines from the big celebs and programmes, sometimes only seeing them during the highlights of the night round up at 1.30am near the end of the show.

Now, Northern Ireland like the rest of the UK sticks to the planned 5 minute opt outs and that is it really.


I think Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland historically opted out for the whole of the show (at least pre-2200 News) to do their own local show, and then would just record the incoming network feed and show clips of it within their main show. This was much safer and cleaner than trying to opt-in and opt-out of the network show where there were only junctions properly provided for shorter opt-outs (largely for the English regions)

In fact in the 90s there were later opt-out points that were only for the Nations and English regions who wanted to run later. These were sustained by network, rather than BBC London and South East regional content (as they had usually stopped too).
NG
noggin Founding member

BBC Scotland channel - service to also launch in HD

Sounds like a missed opportunity to launch it as HD only and see if anyone notices they can't get it. There can't be that many SD-only set top boxes around still, can there?


There are a reasonable number of SD-only DVB-T equipped IDTVs - even HDTVs were sold for a reasonable length of time with DVB-T MPEG2 SD-only tuners.

Of the 5 HD/UHDTVs in our house - only 2 have DVB-T2 tuners (the UHD sets).


Sometimes even sets in the same range have a difference.

I bought two Samsung TV's at the same time in 2014. Both the same model number, except the last two digits which is the screen size.

The 52 inch model for the living room? DVB-T only.

The 22 inch model for the bedroom? DVB-T2.

Now this isn't a problem because Virgin is hooked up in the living room so it can get the HD channels now, but both sets were advertised as "HD Ready". But only one was advertised as "Freeview HD".

I can see people getting confused between the two.


Yes - and there are still people who watch Freeview SD on their HD Ready TVs and think how good the HD is...
NG
noggin Founding member

BBC Scotland channel - service to also launch in HD

Sounds like a missed opportunity to launch it as HD only and see if anyone notices they can't get it. There can't be that many SD-only set top boxes around still, can there?


There are a reasonable number of SD-only DVB-T equipped IDTVs - even HDTVs were sold for a reasonable length of time with DVB-T MPEG2 SD-only tuners.

Of the 5 HD/UHDTVs in our house - only 2 have DVB-T2 tuners (the UHD sets).
NG
noggin Founding member

BBC Cuts

I do agree radio news could come together off peak at least. Radio 1 might need its own bulletin, but that could be prerecorded shortly before TX.


Are you suggesting the same on-air voices present Radio 4 and Radio 1 news bulletins off-peak? Not sure I see that working - and that's effectively salami-slicing, which is unlikely to solve the problem.

Small cuts here aren't going to solve a problem as big as this. It will need to be a service closure or two I fear, or a radical commissioning change.
NG
noggin Founding member

Good Morning Britain

Since you guys were discussing salaries before would it be reasonable to assume that as being a commercial broadcaster they get paid more than the BBC Breakfast people who do other shows?


It's reasonable to accept that might be a possibility, but it doesn't mean it's a certainty. The BBC does pay some talent very well. Given that Susanna left Breakfast for GMB - I can't believe a pay increase wasn't a major reason for her move...
NG
noggin Founding member

BBC Cuts

£800m across 3 years = £266m/year

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/reports/pdf/bbc_annualreport_201718.pdf

Annual costs in 2017:

Total cost of BBC Four = £67m (content cost £50.5m)
Total cost of CBBC = £96.6m (content cost £69.5m)
Total cost of CBeebies = £41.4m (content cost £28.7m)
Total cost of BBC News Channel = £64.9m (content cost £47.8m)

Total cost of BBC Local Radio = £151.1m (content cost £112.9m)

That gives you an idea of the scale of savings that need to be made and what the BBC currently spends in certain areas.
NG
noggin Founding member

Peston on Sunday to move to Wednesdays

Cando posted:
This will mean the production crew will be working fast overnight to get the Lorraine set ready for 8.30am Thursday. I do appreciate the fast turnaround of sets at Television Centre these days. Many worried that fast turnaround would be hard in the smaller three studio environment. But it is going well, especially TC1 with Bake Off Extra Slice, Jonathan Ross, Graham Norton and the Last Leg all on TC1 in one week.

By any chance do you know the SQ footage of these studios?


http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/index.htm#top%20of%20page

Is always a useful site for those kind of details for studios both past and present. (Beware metric feet though. A metric foot is 30cm not the 30.48cm that an imperial foot would be...)
NG
noggin Founding member

Top of the Pops

There was a 'Flash Gordon' device that the BBC used before Harding for a similar test. ISTR it was in use well into the 00s - but may date back earlier.

There were infamous 'banks of flash guns' sequences that were broadcast in News (I think one of Diana, Princess of Wales for instance) that were so bad that they were only allowed to be repeated in slow mo.


This isn't TV related, but it's a question I've had for a while. Presumably there are actors who suffer from epilepsy, how is this dealt with in regards to the paparazzi?


Not everyone with epilepsy has photosensitive-epilepsy, and there are other conditions that are photosensitive. I suspect if you know you suffer from a serious photosensitivity you try to avoid situations where you would be liable to be affected by those triggers.

It's also not just flashing lights that can cause people to have real issues. Driving past trees with the sun shining through them is a real issue for some people.

Also - its worth remembering that a scene that is shown on the TV that would be an issue, may not be an issue if you were there physically, and vice versa.
NG
noggin Founding member

BBC Two 2018 Revamp


{Devil's advocate}
As the populations served by those nations are comparable to some English regions, are license payers in England not already subsidising those in the nations? A viewer in Scotland gets a lot more "regional" content than I do in Yorkshire, yet we pay the same license fee.

Though of course in an English region the services you get are more local than, say, Scotland. The two Scottish BBC radio and two TV stations* cover a large geographic area (with a few short opt outs). Whereas in Yorkshire there's several radio stations and there's two tv regions.


It's swings and roundabouts, my BBC local station covers a large area, but it's still better than someone in Lerwick having their local station coming from Glasgow for 99% of the day


*one only part license fee funded


Though you could argue that BBC One and BBC Two Scotland are 'more local' because they provide more BBC Scotland content than just the English regional opt-out slots... (depends whether you define 'more local' as 'more local content' or 'content made more locally')
NG
noggin Founding member

Top of the Pops

There was a 'Flash Gordon' device that the BBC used before Harding for a similar test. ISTR it was in use well into the 00s - but may date back earlier.

There were infamous 'banks of flash guns' sequences that were broadcast in News (I think one of Diana, Princess of Wales for instance) that were so bad that they were only allowed to be repeated in slow mo.
NG
noggin Founding member

Blue Peter's 60th anniversary

In fact wasn't BP pretty much permanently in TC2 (Lorraine's studio) during the last few years before moving to Salford?


Yes - I think the 'small studio' Blue Peter era at TV Centre was mainly in TC2.

I think in the earlier 'big studio' era - where the studio set was flexible and staged specifically for every show (as it was usually set each week from a modular kit of parts) - that TC4 was a popular home for the show, but all of the medium sized studios ( 3,4,6 and 8 ) could have been used, along sometimes with TC1.
NG
noggin Founding member

Top of the Pops

Of course Japan will have regulations on flashing images, thanks to that infamous Pokemon incident.

Mind you I saw the Poltergeist film on Sky Cinema the other night and the amount of flashing images in that particularly around the static on the TV in the film was probably just on the borderline of acceptable IMO.


It's very simple. It passes or it fails. Often things that pass easily look like they should fail, and stuff you wouldn't necessarily consider to be problematic will fail badly (the spatial pattern tests can cause US flags in graphics to cause a fail for instance)

Theere are a number of different testing devices that are approved - and they don't all behave identically though...

Quote:

That being said, a lot of visual effects seem to apply in video and cinema films that it's questionable sometimes whether if it was a TV show they'd get away with it, unless there's a higher threshold for a cinematic film when its aired on TV?


The rules for all TV content are the same - they aren't different for different sources or genres. I don't know if there are any regulations for cinema - but the wider field of view (which could make things worse) and the generally dimmer (which could make things better) light levels could change the parameters.