The 24 Hour TV Day

In the Testcard J thread, Asa pointed out that in the UK, the 'TV day' has (through historical reasons) come to mean the 24 hour period from 6am until 6am the following day.

Now that round-the-clock broadcasting on multiple channels is fully established, is it time that the on-screen captions etc moved to the 24 hour clock and covered the period from Midnight to Midnight?

Your votes and opinions are welcome!

(Edited by Andrew Wood at 4:45 pm on July 26, 2001)

Hey,I thought that up before Asa!

Another important point is that the listings magazines also cover the period 6am to 6am.

I very much support the 12-hour clock, I've never got my head round 24 hour. When I see 17.54, I just think 7.54pm. When it gets above 20.00 my head just goes in a spin. I think the use of am and pm is sufficient.

So in other words I support the current and established system. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

I disagree - the 24 hr system is better for a number of reasons

one of my hates is my alarm clock (digital) it displays 12hr time and a little am pm light, and i want to change it to 24 hr, but i can't. it is hard to tell which light is which at about 3 in the morning and you're still dozey!

also, video recorders work in 24 hr time when you are recording. most other countries work in 24hr time all the time - UK is odd in europe as it doesn't. it saves confusion and is much easier to understand.

i wish that the TV listings would show the times in 24hr clock - it would be much easier for the programming of my video ~!

james

If programme trailers don't go for 24hr clock they should at least show am or pm. If the trailer shows 8.00 you can probably work out it is going to be in the evening - unless they are promoting Breakfast or GMTV - but when you get 11.30 - it is isn't quite so clear cut and you have to dive for the Radio Times or Ceefax/Teletext.

What's really annoying is on BBC News 24, when they advertise something as being at, say 9.30pm, or 9.30am, in 12-hour mode, but the clock DOG is in 24-hour mode, which is confusing to say the least!!

Now - if you're in bed - it's dark outside and you're dozey - coupled with the fact it's 3 in the morning - I think it might just be showing the am light

ah - no - you may have accidentally injected yourself with an anasthetic, and by the time you come round you're in the middle of a solar eclipse! No?

It's possible!