Channel 4 pre-1993 regional opt outs

There’s a seventh advertising region for Ireland now, has been for the past five years (before which the Northern Ireland adverts would have been shown).

No, I think C4 took over from the first break after midnight, until closedown at 03:15 (see up thread).
As at that point C4 was still wired up via BT's analogue network, via the ITV companies, the ads must have been national. Between 03:15 and C4 returning at 06:00, BT and NTL probably re configured the feeds to the new 34 Mb/s dist, that had six streams coming out of Charlotte St, so the first break after 06:00 was probaly regional

So national adds that ran via the ITV companies to the transmitters?

For three hours, yes. I'm sure there was an appropriate piece of legal paperwork generated !

Cheers for that. I've always wondered what the arrangement was that night.

Funny to think that LNN and HTV would've been switched in to the old system for just three hours on behalf of Carlton and Westcountry respectively.

Well, it's based on visible evidence, and the very slight involvement I had with the LMS system C4 installed

I suspect all the ITV companies just kept the C4 tx chains 'active' until the next day (or more likely until the following working week).
In the TVS region, TVS always added a C4 break bumper (which was their own brewed up DME '4 logo) at the start of each break, that vanished after midnight. I don't recall any switching splats at midnight on the VHS recording I made of C4. I was too busy watching TVS change into Meridian on one telly, and Thames into Carlton on another.
What a deeply sad NYE I had eh !

And I was oblivious to the changes, being a kid in the Granada region.

Never knew about TVS putting in a break bumper. Presumably they were the only ITV company to do this. I don't think Granada did, though it's a long time ago now for me to remember.

Yes, I'm not aware of any other company doing it ? They always had their own one too for ITV (as did Southern, and Meridian) Old habits and all that...

Yeah, Granada didn't at the time, so almost certainly wouldn't have bothered having one for Channel Four. It wasn't till well into the nineties they started using one (1996, I think) and I assumed at the time it was a very modern fad, unaware that some parts of the country had had them since pretty much the beginning of independent television.

Well if it was the case with LNN then it was no different technically to the preceeding weekend. In the South West there's no reason why the existing routing via TSW couldn't have been left in place for 3 hours, it's not as if they had to be there for it. I doubt they would have set up a route via Cardiff for just a few hours


The same with Thames, but we were watching C4 in London that night and there were a few switching glitches, both at midnight and a few minutes after when Teletext went to air for the first time so Channel 4 might well have gone via the South Bank for that period, but as I say that was no different to how it had been every weekend


Incidently a while back there was video shared on here filmed by Mark Lipscombe in the Thames TX suite at midnight on 31/12/92 and you can see what looks like a very empty IDENT display on the monitor stack - no more breaks to go

I’m turning back the clock 25 years exactly tonight as we said goodbye to the great Thames Television as London’s Weekday ITV. Thought I’d share for the first time a couple of the videos I shot that night at the Euston Road HQ as Thames finally went off air. Happy New Year Mark pic.twitter.com/O8BV8jfIRN

— Mark Lipscomb (@marklipscomb) December 31, 2017

And here’s the second of my videos as we mark 25 years since we said goodbye to Thames. Enjoy Mark pic.twitter.com/dOrhbhXuoK

— Mark Lipscomb (@marklipscomb) December 31, 2017

Southern
https://youtu.be/jQKr3raQ5xk?t=42

TVS 1991
https://youtu.be/RaKzrjIG064?t=5

TVS 1986
https://youtu.be/WbTTkhmrsYM

Meridian
https://youtu.be/SM5YU3HEH2g?t=675

Rather more difficult to find is an example of a TVS region C4 break bumper