BBC NI Presentation

I'm seeing more and more errors creeping into junctions on BBC NI of late. Another monumental one just now were we had what seemed like 20 secs or more of BBC London News instead of BBC Newsline. BBC London News titles are not an uncommon sight on BBC NI but this seemed to be a more lengthy serving than usual.

Just before midday, about 10 secs of black during a junction followed by one second of a Network trail before a locally branded version of the same trail cut in. If the black originated from London, why the heck are BBC NI relying on London for sections of junctions? Why don't they cover the entire junction themselves. Surely it isn't that difficult to acquire trails from London (rebrand them if necessary) and run the whole junction from Belfast?

In order that I don't send out the wrong impression, I should point out that the vast majority of junctions on BBC NI are quite slick and certainly put their London counterparts to shame. As with most organisations though, there are one or two weak links in the chain.

I expect it's just a problem with YOUR television.

The only junctions they are worried about this week is the road ones, and whether they can get home.

If you've got nothing worthwhile to contribute Mr Harvey - and you rarely do - I suggest you go back into your box.

Don't like it when somebody does it to YOU, do you?

Now you know how it feels.

What ARE you on about?!?!?

As usual, you're talking out of your backside. Feel free to continue blethering, making things up, feeling hard done by etc etc etc. I'm sure someone will listen.

Yes I got the same (in Yorkshire) after the CBBC - a black screen for about ten seconds, all though it felt longer, then a trail cut in. I perosnally don't see the need to have NI branding on a trail unless it is going to be shown at a different time on NI or is a NI exclusive programme.

I guess the difficulty that the Belfast pres director has is knowing what's going to happen on the network feed, it would look even more crap if London decide to ditch the trail and run the programme early, so you had to crash out of the trailer

With the move to the Broadcast Centre, Network junctions appear to have become more unpredictable; you just don't know what's going to happen. All the more reason to cover the entire junction locally, even if you're transmitting a trail with Network branding.

If a problem in London resulted in the programme starting say ten/twenty seconds late, then a long run for a local ident or if the problem persisted cut to a breakdown cap after the ident has run to a finish. I do recall a very well handled local junction into a Football Focus programme a couple of months back where this did happen. If the programme started slightly ahead of schedule - which in my opinion, Network should never do at such short notice (i.e., amending start time during a junction because of technical issues with trails) - well, I'd say joining a programme a little late (e.g., during a title sequence) is no big deal. Most viewers probably wouldn't even notice. Much better than a much more obviously botched junction. If the programme start has been brought forward slightly and joining the programme at the top is crucial, drop a trail or even your own ident to minimise impact.

There are lots of parameters at work here and things that should be considered etc etc...but, I still feel that a more professional result can be obtained by the Nations running their own junctions. They are then in control and not relying on certain trails running in London so that they can slot the odd locally originated one in.

Yes, problems could arise of course if we are taking a network trail out of a programme then scheduled to run our local trails into the next programme. If the network trail fails from London, then that potentially could screw up everything for the nations and regions, as London's first priority is to get everything back on track and THEN worry about everyone else.

As regards BBC London taking to air instead of Newsline, it shouldn't happen. End of story.

On a slight tangent, how do the headlines in the news work in the nations? Does pres opt to London and then to the local studio for their contribution or does pres cut up the local studio who have a feed of network on their desk?