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80s Channel 4 Commercial Breaks....

... or, more interestingly, the lack of them! (June 2011)

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MA
Markymark
Yes, I have heard an ex-LWT person refer there being a 'Channel 4 continuity suite' at the South Bank. Yes, as they had to put adverts into the channel all day it would have been straightforward as long as they had the correct slides for the ready in advance.

Presumably the reason it had to be done locally and not networked was because Bullseye was at a different time in every region although if that was only going out in London I'm surprised they didn't brand it 'LWT' rather than 'ITV'.

Ben posted:
That clip would be from LWT, I believe Trish started her career with LWT announcing for channel 4 only.

It must have been quite a regular thing if they hired someone especially for it, again presumably because the weekend schedules weren't as networked so there was less cross-promotion


Out of the regions I got to see back then. London, Central, TVS, and TSW, I only ever saw Thames and LWT do the announcements. Thames used the option to promote Thames News at six.

It always looked to me, that the announcements were pre recorded, so I think they were just loaded up on the cart machines that ran the C4 breaks.

Every ITV company had a 'playout suite' for the C4 ads. I think continuity suite is too strong a word. I recall one evening the main network feeds (for all four channels) into Southampton failed. It took about 10-15 mins for TVS to punch up an apology card on C4, and even longer for music to appear. However they still ran the ad breaks in the allotted slots.

That's not to say that other ITV companies might have had more extensive facilites. Don't forget that the S4C 'suite' at HTV Cardiff, was used from Jan 1 1993 to provide Westcountry's playout, although the pres studio itself was was still located in Plymouth.

As for IVC at closedown, yes, had that from day 1, and here is day 1:-

Note the funky C4 chair, from 1:50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi6ZobKTlQM
Last edited by Markymark on 16 December 2011 7:54am
:-(
A former member
I bet a lot of STV viewers believe there were getting local CA, when Paul Coila did them Wink

What a strange close down.
IS
Inspector Sands

It always looked to me, that the announcements were pre recorded, so I think they were just loaded up on the cart machines that ran the C4 breaks.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that the system that used to to the C4 ads was the same as was later used for BBC World's. That had 2 sets of pulses/schedule data - one for advert breaks and the other for other opts. I suspect C4 did the same thing either with regular slots that companies could use if they wanted or ones on request.

Quote:
That's not to say that other ITV companies might have had more extensive facilites. Don't forget that the S4C 'suite' at HTV Cardiff, was used from Jan 1 1993 to provide Westcountry's playout, although the pres studio itself was was still located in Plymouth.

Presumably it moved a few months before 1 Jan 1993 so they could set it up for Westcountry, possibly in-house to S4C?
GE
thegeek Founding member
Note the funky C4 chair, from 1:50

And the candle, presumably a nod to BBC 2's (second) first night.
MA
Markymark

Quote:
That's not to say that other ITV companies might have had more extensive facilites. Don't forget that the S4C 'suite' at HTV Cardiff, was used from Jan 1 1993 to provide Westcountry's playout, although the pres studio itself was was still located in Plymouth.

Presumably it moved a few months before 1 Jan 1993 so they could set it up for Westcountry, possibly in-house to S4C?


Probably did I suspect.

I've never managed to find out whether HTV Cardiff's insertion of ads on S4C was a lá C4, in other words S4C's station output was routed via HTV on the way to the transmitters.
Or whether HTV's ads appeared at S4C as an outside source ?
Last edited by Markymark on 16 December 2011 2:08pm
SC
Si-Co
Trish advises that the LWT cross-promotion on Channel 4 went on until C4 took over control of the advertising in 1993. She said LWT were the only region to do this continuity live, so presumably the others that did so (and we only know for sure about Thames) pre-recorded the links and played them out.

Typically these sort of announcements went out about six times per 'shift', and apparently Channel 4 weren't particularly happy about regions opting out of their own continuity announcements. Still, if there was an agreement in place, they couldn't do anything about it.

13 days later

CR
ColonelRed
Definitely no sign of separate announcements in Border or Tyne Tees, mind you not much sign of commercials in the early days of Channel 4 in Border, remember those interval slides all the time, used to wonder why they only had two pieces of music though
SC
Si-Co
Definitely no sign of separate announcements in Border or Tyne Tees, mind you not much sign of commercials in the early days of Channel 4 in Border, remember those interval slides all the time, used to wonder why they only had two pieces of music though


Two great tracks though! They ended up with a catalogue of well over 250 tracks by the late 80s of course.

Great showcase of early Channel Four idents and clean promos stings in this film:

IS
Inspector Sands
Incidently, I come past the old C4 building in Charlotte Street every so often. It's been totally re-furbished and re-clad in the last few years (and is home to, amongst others, the British Olympic Association) but it seems to have a small indication to it's former occupants on the front, this 5 colour sculpture:
*
I assume this was on the building when it was Channel 4, it seems odd it would have been kept, though even odder that it would have been installed 10 years afterwards
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 30 December 2011 1:44am
IS
Inspector Sands
Si-Co posted:

Great showcase of early Channel Four idents and clean promos stings in this film:

That's quite comprehensive, thanks for posting it

The unused 4 logo from 1991 is interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=owFNCvoyAOs#t=560s
It's fairly obvious why it was never used, however it does however have a slight similarity to the current theme for their idents in that it can only be seen at one angle.

The 'tapping' campaign in 1992 I like a lot, not that it would work these days now hardly anyone's got a glass telly
:-(
A former member
5 colour sculpture
Nothing to do with the 5-colours of the Olympic rings?
IS
Inspector Sands
5 colour sculpture
Nothing to do with the 5-colours of the Olympic rings?

Yes of course, I hadn't though if that. Although I'm sure one is purple, will have to check next time

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