Isn't that what they did?.... after all there was one channel still running. They was a contingency..... ad you saw it.
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Yes, as I've said, a contingency service did run...just not a very good one in my opinion. An extremely limited loop of video (and a very poor selection) played over and over...interspersed with fairly lengthy periods of black!
Inspector Sands posted:
As I said earlier, there is the weigh-off between the cost of having a top of the range contingency in another location ready to go when you need it and the amount of money you would lose. Say they lost £10 grand in 6 hours of no ads but duplicating their services somewhere else cost a couple of grand a month - one 6 month outage in a year or 2 is actually cheaper!
Also of course advertising is sold with 'circumstances beyond our control' disclaimers and missed ads are replaced in other (unsold) slots. ANy lost revenue can also be coverable by insurance.... depending on what caused the outage..
All depends how often they suffer issues like this. I would have thought that a system that integrated all seven channels in that way would be pretty risky! Two similar failures within 24 hours isn't very good now, is it? Goodness knows how many other similar problems they've had in the past. However, if they can afford it/can recover money lost, who am I to argue.
Yes as you say, insurance will cover things up to a point possibly. But of course, if problems like these occur regularly...I'm not so sure that any insurance company will be quite so simpathetic. As you say, it would depend on the cause too.
I'm not suggesting by the way that a contingency site be mothballed. Surely machinery that's in 24 usage needs some sort of maintenance from time to time and needs to be removed from the transmission chain. I'm curious to know how they deal with that.
Inspector Sands posted:
So you think a blank screen is better than a contingency service of pop videos. Lets hope you never work for any channels of mine!
In the words of Dave Clifton..... 'dead air is a crime'
I'm not suggesting that as a general rule . Merely expressing my dissatisfaction at the poor selection of videos that they did put out.. For me, the end result would have been the same - I wouldn't have stayed with the channel.
But would they have enough programmes and people for 2 channels?
Well, I'd certainly like to think so. AFAIK, they take their contingency very seriously.
Of course, with the new Broadcast Centre in operation now, I'm not quite sure what the contingency arrangements are. Certainly if Birmingham was still in the picture as an alternative site should the Broadcast Centre need to be evacuated for one reason or other, I'm sure the Birmingham site would have access to the servers on which the programmes reside in London (if the building is still operational) (the Nations certainly have this capability).
Ultimately, I can only surmise what their Business Continuity arrangements are. Perhaps one of the BBC folks on here could elaborate...
. Merely expressing my dissatisfaction at the poor selection of videos that they did put out.. For me, the end result would have been the same - I wouldn't have stayed with the channel.