The 'News' ident may seam too 'jolly' but I am surprised nobody has come up with the obvious solution.
Bring back the clock!
Wouldn't work - the reason the clock was ditched was due to the introduction of digital TV - with the delay in transmission due to encoding the clock would always be a few seconds out on real time.
Incidentally, for the record. The only regions to use the Christmas ident this weekend into the Politics Show were:
Network (London)
North West
Northern Ireland
Scotland
South
Wales.
The 'News' ident may seam too 'jolly' but I am surprised nobody has come up with the obvious solution.
Bring back the clock!
Wouldn't work - the reason the clock was ditched was due to the introduction of digital TV - with the delay in transmission due to encoding the clock would always be a few seconds out on real time.
Why then is there an on-screen clock on BBC News (24)'s output if the few seconds delay is likely to cause such widespread confusion to the British public? Even analogue transmission wasn't truly immediate.
The BBC are quite happy to call the 6pm bulletin 'BBC News at 6', without any disclaimer that it's actually 'at 18:00:06 - please don't sue us if you're late for a meeting as a result'.
Surely a clock would be an elegant and authoritative intro to serious, time-specific programming?
The 'News' ident may seam too 'jolly' but I am surprised nobody has come up with the obvious solution.
Bring back the clock!
Wouldn't work - the reason the clock was ditched was due to the introduction of digital TV - with the delay in transmission due to encoding the clock would always be a few seconds out on real time.
Why then is there an on-screen clock on BBC News (24)'s output if the few seconds delay is likely to cause such widespread confusion to the British public? Even analogue transmission wasn't truly immediate.
Surely a clock would be an elegant and authoritative intro to serious, time-specific programming?
Because the clocks on news channels are digital clocks that contain no indication of seconds whereas the analogue clocks have a hand counting the seconds. People were always more likely to set clocks/watches by the pips on radio or Ceefax rather than the digital clock on news channels... and I guess they considered that a digital clock ident just didn't look right.
The "digital delay" was always a bit of an excuse. The real reason is that the branding people much prefer to use their expensive idents into all shows rather than a time-piece into several slots a day.
I'm sure Lorraine Heggessy - controller of BBC1 at the time the clock was dropped - was on record as saying the clock "slowed down key junctions".
What the hell difference is 3-6 seconds going to make to someone's day?
Exactly... and they could always set the clock three seconds fast!
I actually rather like the Christmas idents, but then I always enjoy a bit of cheese. It does seem a bit odd that people are complaining that there is too much variety in the package; for the past couple of years there's been endless moaning that everyone's bored of seeing the same ident all the time over the extended festive season.
All that said, BBC One's package isn't a patch on what BBC Two have done.
What the hell difference is 3-6 seconds going to make to someone's day?
Exactly... and they could always set the clock three seconds fast!
I actually rather like the Christmas idents, but then I always enjoy a bit of cheese. It does seem a bit odd that people are complaining that there is too much variety in the package; for the past couple of years there's been endless moaning that everyone's bored of seeing the same ident all the time over the extended festive season.
All that said, BBC One's package isn't a patch on what BBC Two have done.
It's not the variety that people have an issue with, it's the fact it doesn't tie together. We've got a mixture of carol singers, celebrities, cakes and food, animated characters and Christmas jumpers.
I'm sure Lorraine Heggessy - controller of BBC1 at the time the clock was dropped - was on record as saying the clock "slowed down key junctions".
How can it slow down key junctions? It was only ever on for ten seconds at news time - the only time it was ever on for an extended period was closedown until the anthem would be brought in (usually at :00 or :30 seconds past the minute).
