Missed advert break, stuck on static screen during the Simpsons
(February 2013)
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JA
james
When watching the Simpsons back then, the advert break never appeared and instead we were treated to a still shot of someone in the taxi. It seems like eventually they abandoned the break as after around 4 minutes of the image, they simply went to part 2 of the show. Very odd - You'll be able to catch it on Channel 4 +1 in just under an hour if you want to see it.
I don't think they abandoned the break at all, as you say the Asian gentleman in the car was on screen for a number of minutes, it didn't go straight back to The Simpsons either it went to a trailer for Gogglebox (which looks quite interesting, someone should start a thread about it). The CA apologised for "any technical problems you may have seen during The Simpsons there" over the end credits. This was on Channel 4 London SD, I understand it was the same on HD. What happened in other regions?
I switched back between SD/HD to see whether either it was a problem with my box or the channel. I also checked E4, which was broadcasting normally: so it wasn't a general problem with their playout.
The C4 CA did apologise for the techincal problem at the end of the Simpsons.
In northern ireland it was just stuck on a still off the lucozade sport advert for the whole ad break went to a trailer then just went back to the simpsons.
I switched back between SD/HD to see whether either it was a problem with my box or the channel. I also checked E4, which was broadcasting normally: so it wasn't a general problem with their playout.
No and of course the Simpsons was fine. As it was just the ad break affected I assume it was just the part of the playout system that does those. As they're regionalised they would be handled very differently and come from a different set of server ports to the programmes - maybe even handled by a different control room/area
When watching the Simpsons back then, the advert break never appeared and instead we were treated to a still shot of someone in the taxi. It seems like eventually they abandoned the break as after around 4 minutes of the image, they simply went to part 2 of the show. Very odd - You'll be able to catch it on Channel 4 +1 in just under an hour if you want to see it.
Saw the exact same thing, Yorkshire region. It appears that both London's playout and the regional opt-outs failed. And yes, I saw it on +1.
They had a bit of trouble at the junction into 8 Out of 10 Cats Uncut on Wednesday night - there was just black instead of the sponsor bumper, and a brief flash of colour bars before crashing into the programme.
Probably just two isolated incidents, I'd imagine.
