BBC2 Closedowns over Christmas

Was just wondering if anyone knows what BBC2 will broadcast this christmas when they closedown through the night.[learning zone rest]My guess is it will be CEEFAX with music then tone.It would be nice if they could put up a test card for a change this christmas.Like they did last year,for the engineering work....Because according to the christmas tv guides BBC2 will be off for some considerable time over the festive period. 1am-7am most nights.I'm surprised they havent penned in news 24 for nights when BBC1 closes late

Anyone actually remember when the BBC used to conserve energy at night by cutting transmission totally ie.snow after a few minutes of blank screen and testcard.Why dont they do it now if the shutdown is for quite a while.It would save a bit of money

It stopped when BBC1 went 24 hours, I think.

I can't quite remember what the closedown sequence was, but NC1 would transmit:

Clock with closedown announcement
National Anthem over the globe
then black and silence for a set time
then (I think) Testcard F

And for opening:
Test Card F
Ceefax and Music for just under 15 mins
BBC 1 Symbol and opening announcement
One or two trails
BBC 1 Symbol
1st programme


BBC2 was similar, but didn't play the National Anthem. Some of the more adventurous Network Directors would mix from the clock to the clock's background (thus making the clock face disappear) then mix to black. Others would end with one of the BBC2 animations - Eerie was a great one to finish with! I think there's a grab of eerie on MHP...

BBC2's shutdowns ended in early 1999. Ceefax replaced the testcard in downtime approx. six months earlier.

I don't know the schedules this year for December on BBC Two, but I assume they will be doing what they did last year which was to close down for a couple of weeks at 12.30am, then towards Christmas they close down much later usually about 3.00am or so. But with changes to the Learning Zone schedule afoot, this thing of having Ceefax on overnight, all night, won't probably last much longer. Though BBC One I seem to recall showed Ceefax at 5.00am some mornings over Christmas.

Yes, BBC2 closedowns became rare after The Learning Zone came about. But initially, TLZ only ran Sunday into Monday to Thursday into Friday.

So on Friday and Saturday nights, BBC 2 closed down in the manner mentioned in my earlier entry.

The weekend Learning Zones are still a bit half-hearted, with usually only one two-hour programme. Still, it gives us a chance to see a bit of Ceefax & Music, I suppose !

It depends how long the closedown is, it takes a while to get all the transmitters up and running again afterwards - it works in a sort of tickle effect up the country. I'm not sure that the network is even configured to close down in the way it was.

It is actually easier to leave such transmitters running, especially in the winter. Turning them off and back on puts more strain on the electronics and if they've been left on continuously for the last 50 weeks there is always a chance that they won't come back on again in the morning... and none of the TX sites are manned 24/7.

I had a tour round a big TX site in the summer. The very old transmitters there used to get turned off every night when TV closed down, but for the last few years of their life were left on 24/7. Now they can't be turned on again as the switches have seized - they on-off action was the only thing that kept the mechanics in working order

A couple of weeks ago someone said LZ may be continuing over Christmas, although I don't really think there's much point, very few people will be thinking "OOOH - Must set the video for the OU Physics Special at 3am" on Christmas Eve!

I find it somewhat hard to believe that any transmitter is turned on/off using a 'big switch' in this day and age.

I was of the understanding that certainly all television transmitters could be turned on/off remotely...using telemetry.

Did I say anything about a big switch? I was thinking more of relays. No matter what way they are switched off there is a mechanical element to it somewhere. The huge voltages and power levels involved require some sort of non-electronic switch and then there's the cooling system which is all moving parts.

The main issue with turning such things off is the warming up and cooling of the equipment which even with modern TX equipment runs very hot. In the old days transmitters were often left on during cold spells purely for that reason.





They can be operated via telemetry as well as automatically by on site computers. No sites are fully manned but then modern equipment is very reliable.

I believe the old way of closing down BBC TV was to press a button which removed part of the signal (either the syncs or the vision, I can't remember) which would then trigger everything to close. In the morning the opposite happened, but it would take a while till the last stations in the top of Scotland came on

The term 'big switch' was the result of the vision I was left with from a comment in your previous mail: ''...as the switches have seized...".

...which painted a picture of a large mechanical mechanism.

It was not a direct quote.

However - thank you for the further explanation.

I can't remember exactly - but I thought that in the early 90s the analogue (there were no digital services) transmitters were switched on automatically as soon as a valid video signal was presented. (This is why the testcard was present before programmes)

After closedown the syncs were removed - causing the transmitters to automatically switch off?