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4Later: The rise of late night television

Could it be revived? (July 2017)

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DV
dvboy
thegeek posted:
RDJ posted:
There is no money to be made on late night television anymore. Not with the competition of hundreds of digital channels and on demand services. And needless to say advertisers won't pay for their adverts to be broadcast to seven viewers at crazy o' clock in the morning.

That's why the terrestrial channels opt for repeats, news or Roulette which will at least make a bit of money.
it's a bit disappointing to get to 4am on a quiet nightshift and discover that your viewing options amount to some rolling news or a three-year-old signed repeat of Location Location Location . I appreciate there's no advertising revenue at that time of the morning, but do channels really incur much of a cost by showing more repeats - even if it's just what was on earlier?


I agree I have long argued that they should repeat prime time overnight to give people a second chance to catch it or record it at least. You see more of it further up the EPG but it's strange that the most popular channels don't.
LL
Larry the Loafer
According to Applemask's brilliant episode of "ITV in the Face," it all went belly up once Heineken, "funding" the then-centrepiece of ITV's nighttime output Hotel Babylon, were revealed to have requested more of their drink in the show and "fewer black people". It's said in the video that, as Hotel Babylon was the lynchpin of ITV nighttime, it's demise brought down the rest of it, and sparked the beginning of the end with the likes of Nightscreen taking over.

If Hotel Babylon survived, do you think night time (at least on ITV) might've lasted longer?
NT
Night Thoughts
My memories of 90s post-pub TV are particularly hazy (since I mainly viewed them post-pub) but Hotel Babylon just seemed like an overcooked clone of The Word. The racism row broke out just before the show actually made it to air, according to this: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-tv-parts-that-black-men-cant-reach-1322406.html The show was paid for by Heineken so it may have been one last roll of the dice.

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