Channel 4

Hi there. Really interested in your comments about the idents and any other thoughts or feedback you have for Channel 4. If you want to put your comments to the viewers editor or programme makers you can do so at our Have your say blog - http://bit.ly/9h24tC

Somewhat surprisingly (to me anyway) Channel Four was profitable as an organisation last year.

Digital TV helps Channel 4 weather the recession

Broadcaster's digital services and costcutting helped it to offset loss of advertising revenues on main channel

Channel 4 made a small profit of £300,000 in 2009 as a strong performance from digital TV and costcutting helped offset a £61.6m loss on its main network.

Last year's recession, described by Channel 4 as the worst in its 28-year history, led to a 14% year-on-year decline in advertising revenues for the broadcaster's main terrestrial network, from £668.7m to £575.1m. The main channel's loss widened from £9.9m in 2008 to £61.6m last year, according to Channel 4's annual report for 2009, published today.

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For those interested, the programme was introduced with the Pigeon ident followed by the sponsor message as normal. When the programme itself started, there was no sound. The subtitles said 'PROBLEM WITH SOUND' which I thought was a bit misleading, maybe 'NO SOUND' would have been more accurate. There were a few seconds of this (basically the pre-titles sequence) before the CA spoke over the silent opening titles and said "Well, sorry about this. We seem to being having a few problems with the sound on Big Brother. Just stay with us, we are doing all we can to get the audio back". This announcement was also subtitled. Around 30 more seconds of pictures with no audio was followed by a Channel 4 slide letting us know that 'Programmes will continue shortly' with the CA adding "Ok, we have just taken it off for a moment or two. We are going to try to restore the sound Just bear with us. You are watching Channel 4 and we have Big Brother coming up in just a moment" and "Don't worry it's not your telly, it is us - our end. Sorry about that. You're watching Channel 4 and hopefully we can go back to Big Brother with the sound this time in just a moment or two. Please hang around a bit". After a few seoconds, Big Brother was played out from the start again (sans sponsor). The CA mentioned the sound problem over the credits and this mention was also subtitled.

What happened on Channel 4 HD? What happened on Channel 4+1?

The same as Channel 4.

Is there a reason Channel 4 choose, when using the next banner along the bottom of the screen, to squash the footage as apposed to just overlapping them? It can be so distracting at times seeing everyone's faces squished.

Also, after last night's soundless Big Brother, did people notice the marketplace Ident sqashed into the top left corner but never acknowledged?

Channel 4 having more problems this morning.
Didn't see how it started, but when I put C4 on, the sponsor for The 5 O Clock Show was frozen and the announcer spoke over it. Then the Channel 4 "Programmes will return shortly" slide came up with the programme coming back on after about 20 seconds.

I happened to record this programme on Channel 4+1 this morning. During the interview with Coleen Nolan the picture and sound started breaking up very badly (so much so that it was unwatchable). The +1 DOG went off and on during the break up and my TV switched ratios a few times. This happened for a couple of minutes and then seemed to be fixed. There was no mention of the problem while it was happening. The subtitles stopped completely during the break up, not even a "problem with sound" subtitle (the subtitles seemed to be typed live this morning for some reason and not a repeat of yesterdays). At the start of the next break (directly after the sponsor), we got an animated Channel 4 programme slide and an apology for the problems during the previous part of the programme. The adverts played out fine but we were left on the end of a Film 4 promo for a little too long, that's when the 'Programmes will continue shortly' caption appeared and the CA said they would return to the programme shortly. After a few seconds, the sponsor played out and froze on the last frame as the Film 4 promo had done. The CA said sorry again (over the frozen sponsor) and then cut to the 'Programmes will continue shortly' caption again. This was on for around a minute, then the programme played out until the end with no further problems. None of the CA bits were subtitled.

There, did I miss anything out?

WOW! Thanks for the info.

For some stupid reason I completely forgot about 4+1 because I could have checked it myself.
Sounds like a right kerfuffle from C4! Hehe

That is so annoying and I agree it should just be done as an overlay as the one is they use on the bottom right.

Anyone got any caps please?

E4 problems right now

EDIT: That is to say, E4 just had a problem going to the break during Big Brother's Little Brother. They played the titles, which froze on the last frame for a while. We then saw the VT clock for the start of part titles and heard some sound from the studio. There was no sponsorship, we were shown the IAMS cat frozen for a few seconds complete with E4 live dog (the DOG shouldn't be on at all during adverts). The DOG disappeared and allowed the IAMS cat to continue with his advert. The break then played out without further incident and we got a sponsor message before going back to the programme. There was no mention on air of any problems.

Second time in the same week for BB... first there was the sound issues followed by a distorted ident, and now E4 freeze on their ident with studio still audable, followed by a test card and a frozen advert for about a minute.

Must have left for their break too early.