Just found this on YouTube, the first Channel 4 closedown of 1993, and presumably the first showing of the short lived "programmes start at..." downtime caption, used for a few months after the demise of ETP-1, before 4-tel on view returned in mid-1993.
Just found this on YouTube, the first Channel 4 closedown of 1993, and presumably the first showing of the short lived "programmes start at..." downtime caption, used for a few months after the demise of ETP-1, before 4-tel on view returned in mid-1993.
Jan 1 1993 was also the day C4 ditched BT's analogue distribution network, and started using a new 34 Mb/s digital system (that gave distribution of all six macro regions from Charlotte St) I suspect that 3 hour gap was used by BT and NTL (aka Arqiva today) to reconfigure the network (and take the ITV stations out of the loop)
Presumably between midnight and closedown that night, C4 just carried single national ad breaks)
There was a video on YouTube of the Big Breakfast special that was carried over midnight itself, they made light of the fact it was going to be Channel 4's first ever own sold ad break, then proceeded to show a spoof break made up of cheap & nasty 70s cinema adverts, cut to Chris & Gaby looking worried about Channel 4's future.
Thinking about it, it's interesting that Channel 4 didn't bring in a new look at the start of ’93 to signify the new era, given the existing look was already ten years old at that point. It took them another three years to have a major rebrand.
Thinking about it, it's interesting that Channel 4 didn't bring in a new look at the start of ’93 to signify the new era, given the existing look was already ten years old at that point. It took them another three years to have a major rebrand.
Channel 4 was not changing much in 1993. It was moving from being part of ITV to being their own independent company. Which was a good thing in my opinion. It was not like changing franchises. It was just a change in the operating structure and management of the channel.
Thinking about it, it's interesting that Channel 4 didn't bring in a new look at the start of ’93 to signify the new era, given the existing look was already ten years old at that point. It took them another three years to have a major rebrand.
They probably didn’t change to ensure that they were looking as normal as possible considering a lot of viewers had seen their ITV region change hands and some took the opportunity to rebrand also.
Saying that the new score (ie not the David Dundas one) and new programme slides were introduced in November 1992.
Amazing to see how advanced they were with their technology back in 1982. As far as I know most other broadcasters, including the BBC, didn't have that sort of automation for at least a decade.
Also worth noting that fully automatic playout and recorded announcements are not a new thing
Amazing to see how advanced they were with their technology back in 1982. As far as I know most other broadcasters, including the BBC, didn't have that sort of automation for at least a decade.
Also worth noting that fully automatic playout and recorded announcements are not a new thing
It certainly shows though. Compare C4's early presentation with the BBC, or just about any of the ITV companies, and the difference looking back is like night and day.
Some of the smaller ITV regions still hadn't really caught up in the early 1990s.
Amazing to see how advanced they were with their technology back in 1982. As far as I know most other broadcasters, including the BBC, didn't have that sort of automation for at least a decade.
Also worth noting that fully automatic playout and recorded announcements are not a new thing
I remember visiting them in 1986, and they had just had an application to play out their animated ident from BetaCam/BetaCart (rather than lacing up a 1inch VT each time) rejected by the IBA, looks like they possibly had success a yaer later !
Amazing to see how advanced they were with their technology back in 1982. As far as I know most other broadcasters, including the BBC, didn't have that sort of automation for at least a decade.
Also worth noting that fully automatic playout and recorded announcements are not a new thing
I remember visiting them in 1986, and they had just had an application to play out their animated ident from BetaCam/BetaCart (rather than lacing up a 1inch VT each time) rejected by the IBA, looks like they possibly had success a yaer later !
Hmmm. That's interesting -- I was told that the main reason TT did not generally use animated idents in the late 80s/early 90s was because of this very reason (the need to use up a VT or cine), and as a result only used them at specific points in the day (startup, before news and the like). I wonder if they even had the conversation with the IBA?
A number of ITV companies used the ACR machines (tailing the ident after the break and promos) didn't they? YTV certainly seemed to do this for many years; quite a lot of their breaks around 1991-2 were just a single chain (promo, recorded "next" trail, ads, promo, ident into programme) direct from cart, often resulting in a pregnant pause before the next programme started.
Why would they need to apply to them for permission to to that? I wouldn't have thought they'd be interested as long as it was a broadcast quality format. Did they have to use 1" for their trails too?
TT
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I didn't think Betacam was considered good enough for anything other than ENG?