BBC One

One of the casualties of the post-COW ident era has been the ability to keep things rolling along with a really tight junction. Minimum COW appearance was 3 seconds. The "muddy world" needed about 7 to establish or it looked like an accident on screen. By the time the balloons took off, with a bit of music to accomodate, duration was creeping up again, and the dancers and the circles have continued to demand lenthy airings.

At least the BBC 1 announcements finish as the programme starts. I can't stand the way the Channel 4 style of having the anno end followed by a bit of the ident music meandering along for a few seconds and then being sharply chopped. It always sounds to me as if they haven't bothered to time the junction properly.

When I was watching the ident into Neighbours earlier (the surf ident), it dawned on me, couldn't they try and fit all continuity into the ident before the form up, and have the form up notes going into the programme.

To me a much simpler solution to the problem would be to cut straight to the hook and the circle at the start of the ident (like BBC Two's short versions 2001-2007) and then having the anno immediately after. If there's a junction of say 15 seconds it's impossible to have a form up, either full or shortened, and a decent anno without talking over the top of the hook. At least if we started with the circle that would allow a good 11 or 12 seconds for the anno.

I think part of the problem is the amount of information that has to be given out. In most junctions there's some sort of plug of what's coming up later, what the current programme is, if it's available on HD, if there's any strong language etc. If this could be simplified somehow, perhaps with some sort of on screen caption, then the announcements can be shorter and focus purely on the upcoming programme.

praise be for duncan newmarch on bbc one last night.

"hopefully you don't have a problem with innuendos, personally - i've got a big one!"

into carry on camping.

http://www.rp-network.com/tvforum/uploads/niecp.jpg

I see NI have taken to credit squeezing again, albeit in the old way with new Next slide.

What is it with Northern Ireland breaking the pres rules all the time?

Oh dear... in comparison to what we got on the network:

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/9638/cap00005qy0.png

What's that? Not seen it before.

Did you try reading the writing in the post surrounding the image?

They're both as ugly as each other.

Which pres rules are being broken all the time?