TiVo updates over here have been lagging since they were bought out Rovi, which happens to be a EPG data supplier. My TiVo only connects to the network every one to two days to check for a new schedule. Before once in a blue moon there’d be an incident in the morning with a special in primetime and it would be updated. Granted we never have the type of instant program update Europeans have.
Yep - it's a pity that the US has never used PSIP to its full potential. I guess the fragmented, affiliate, nature of TV transmission in the US means it would be more difficult, or even next-to-impossible, to distribute EPG data for other stations in the same market (as the UK does)
Some stations carry a TV Guide branded service. It’s not universal and many TVs don’t have the option for the guide only current program information. Also the big difference is that our schedules are so different, yes primetime and morning shows are consistent but the time frame over night and day side vary from station to station.
Not sure I follow about 'schedules are so different'? Surely each channel has its own schedule? Every channel has a different schedule doesn't it? The schedule is the schedule? The content of the schedule shouldn't change the reality of generating an EPG should it?
I guess if you are opt-ing in to a parent feed that you don't schedule for large periods of the day then you would need to source the metadata for that parent feed to integrate into your local variations, and that could be complicated to implement, unless a well engineered solution is available.
You just need to effectively capture that metadata accurately and then distribute it on your own platform and to other platform operators? AIUI a lot of US stations don't do this that effectively (I guess they don't see financial return in it) - and when their PSIP data is reasonably accurate it is only for their own channels, and often for only 24 hours or a couple days ahead? It may also be explained (or be a catch 22 loop) as to why OTA DVRs are less popular in the US (other than TiVo?) Here if you use a DVR driven by DVB EIT data, recording a show on a reactive channel like the BBC or ITV, you will almost always find the recording starts very cleanly with the announcement into the show. They aren't perfect - but they are usually very consistent.
The UK transmitter operators (when there were multiple transmitter providers) decided to share schedule metadata between transmitters (on a regional basis), as well as other platform-wide data (such as other transmitter frequencies) As a result we have a well-co-ordinated national EPG system, as do many European countries. This is helped by nationwide transmitter operators - but the broadcasters themselves syndicate their EPG data effectively to multiple platform operators and have engineered solutions to do so.
Last edited by noggin on 19 September 2018 11:11am
The Kilroy loops make the programme sound more sensationalist than it actually was. Generally the audience was full of people that had shared similar experiences alongside experts in that particular field. Kilroy's skill was remembering the stories of each of these people in the audience and referring to them throughout the programme.
Yes. It was in a different league to Kyle, and usually quite a bit less sensationalist than Vanessa and Trisha on ITV. The last ITV show of that format that was similar-ish in tone was 'The Time, The Place' (which was - if anything - higher brow?)
Kilroy was quite 'tabloid' for a BBC show - but did handle serious stuff pretty sensitively too.
How does that handover work? Are both studios fed to Chiswick on separate circuits and they cut at the agreed time, or is there some kind of switch at TV Centre?
Certainly sounds like it's not a soft opt situation where TC3 cuts up TC2.
I would expect that TC2 and TC3 are routed separately to ITV's playout areas.
It would, of course, be possible for TC3 to cut to TC2 (with ITV playout staying on TC3's circuits) for the handover until the first commercial break (to keep it tight and allow a bit more of a finessed sound junction), and then ITV could switch to TC2's circuits direct after the first break. Whichever way round it is - I'd expect the cut to be on a hard count not a 'whenever the person has finished talking' junction.
Sorry I'm a bit late to this thread, but the nature of the TiVo scheduler precludes updates much more frequently than the 5ish hours it is currently.
Personally I'll take the extra functionality of TiVo over the alternatives, it's not a major issue if you're aware of live events IMO.
I wonder if this is a sign of the US-centricity of TiVo - where ATSC 'in band' EPG data is far less likely to be dynamic (and in some cases is downright terrible) than it is in Europe, where DVB 'in-band' data can be very accurate indeed.
The TiVo out-of-band EPG is richer, but there should be a way of properly marrying it to the DVB in-band data to achieve the best of both worlds.
TiVo updates over here have been lagging since they were bought out Rovi, which happens to be a EPG data supplier. My TiVo only connects to the network every one to two days to check for a new schedule. Before once in a blue moon there’d be an incident in the morning with a special in primetime and it would be updated. Granted we never have the type of instant program update Europeans have.
Yep - it's a pity that the US has never used PSIP to its full potential. I guess the fragmented, affiliate, nature of TV transmission in the US means it would be more difficult, or even next-to-impossible, to distribute EPG data for other stations in the same market (as the UK does)
BBC Studioworks own the studios. It is part of their business, it says so on their website.
Yes - BBC Studioworks own the TV Centre TV Studio business. They have leased the studio and ancillary capacity from the owners of the long-term lease of the site, Stanhope (or whoever they are called this week). The BBC retain the Freehold.
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It is sub-let to ITV under contract, and ITV are not stupid, they know it is a BBC Studio premise, and would have to arrange an agreement with BBC Studioworks.
Yes - my understanding is that it is bought-out by ITV under contract, and that ITV have the rights to use TC2 and TC3 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year as part of their contract (i.e. they don't pay a daily rate, and thus pay on a usage basis but instead they pay an agreed buy-out figure, however much or little they actually use the facilities). That's their buy-out, and the framework of their buy-out. I may be wrong - but that is definitely the perceived wisdom in the wider industry.
Whether there is a clause in ITV Daytime's contract with Studioworks that precludes them from "selling on" spare capacity under their buyout deal I don't know. If there were such a clause I'd expect there were also clauses that allow ITV Daytime to receive compensation when they agree to this excess capacity being sold on by Studioworks, and obviously they'd have to agree to it.
However I wouldn't be surprised if ITV had framed their contract with Studioworks to allow them to sub-hire to third parties, but with co-operation from Studioworks. There will be a lot of ITV Daytime-specific equipment in ITV's galleries (PCs running iNews, Servers on ITV post production networks, graphics boxes connected to ITV systems, vision mixers and screen processors with specialised set-ups etc.), so it would definitely make sense for ITV to have a lot of input into other users of the studio so that these systems aren't impacted.
Staffing is a separate issue - I have no idea how the staffing deal between ITV and Studioworks will have been framed for Studioworks support staff working in TC2 and TC3.
There will obviously need to be agreement between ITV Daytime and BBC Studioworks as to how TC2's downtime is handled - if it is. However the framework could work in multiple ways.
I imagine the EBU are terrified of Russia winning in the coming years because then they will be withdrawals - the BBC would have to think long and hard for a start.
Lol, no they wouldn't.
Politically it might be quite offensive to go to Russia and do a light entertainment contest while they hiding murderer's of a British citizen,
I'm quite impressed by that title sequence, knowing what video editing was like in the early 70s.
I'd have thought it would have been done at least in part using film?
That certainly looks all video-sourced to me - the game elements that have been edited and frozen and masked all have a very EMI 2001 look. (EMIs have a very distinctive 'pale pink' flesh tone) The overlaid black bars and split screens are very nicely done, but all do-able with 70s tech. I wouldn't be surprised if the Ampex video disc slow motion system was used to do the freezes. The BBC certainly had one (or more) for instant replays and slow-mos back then.
The Quad Split effect is foxing me though - as I don't think the BBC had any digital system to do that (unless there was an R&D special knocking around). The 1976 Montreal Olympics was famously the first time a Quantel system was used to do a corner shrink live. You could obviously re-position pictures using the 'camera pointing at a screen' technique - so it may be they did that.
The other option is you take the video content, telerecord it to film, do film opticals, and then telecine it back - but the pictures don't have a 'telerecorded' look.
The end card could be a film animation - but I suspect was a physical caption with a camera move on it.