SP
Wasn't there a situation where Scotland had to opt out for a different Party Political Broadcast? Any idea how that was done?
TT
ttt
I only discovered relatively recently that some ITV stations did their own announcements on C4. Was the intention to promote local ITV programming that a national announcement by C4 obviously couldn’t cover?
Yes -- I was able to flip between YTV (who were doing their own thing) and TT (who weren't) on a couple of occasions. YTV seemed to be doing a live "over on ITV/here on 4" with their on-duty announcer (and some slightly wonky-looking slides) whereas on the main feed they only advertised the programme on 4 (this was before a non-networked programme on ITV).
I guess it was all about cross promotion quotas which the bigger companies wanted to make sure were met on C4 but the smaller ones didn't consider it worth the effort.
TT
ttt
Wasn't there a situation where Scotland had to opt out for a different Party Political Broadcast? Any idea how that was done?
It's an interesting one, as I'd imagine STV (and certainly Grampian and Border who would also be expected to show the PPB) would be examples of smaller companies that might be expected not to bother generally. I wonder if all 15 companies actually had the ability to insert opt-outs onto C4 (just in case they were needed) and they just elected not to use them?
I guess all you'd really need would be a pair of slide scanners, a basic mixing desk and the ability to patch in the announcers mic (or a cart machine for recorded stuff).
IS
Yes, the local continuity slots were ‘approved’ and scheduled. It would be unthinkable to opt out of C4’s own continuity willy nilly.
Yep regardless of approval they'd need to be co-ordinated with C4, not only for timings but also so the message broadcast in the regional opt-out wasn't a duplicate, or worse still a contradiction to that broadcast by Channel 4
Yes, the local continuity slots were ‘approved’ and scheduled. It would be unthinkable to opt out of C4’s own continuity willy nilly.
Yep regardless of approval they'd need to be co-ordinated with C4, not only for timings but also so the message broadcast in the regional opt-out wasn't a duplicate, or worse still a contradiction to that broadcast by Channel 4
SP
I was thinking more about whether STV played it out for Grampian (and Border?) Or if they had their own copies and did it locally
I presume really no different to how they played in the ads.
I was thinking more about whether STV played it out for Grampian (and Border?) Or if they had their own copies and did it locally
IS
It's an interesting one, as I'd imagine STV (and certainly Grampian and Border who would also be expected to show the PPB) would be examples of smaller companies that might be expected not to bother generally. I wonder if all 15 companies actually had the ability to insert opt-outs onto C4 (just in case they were needed) and they just elected not to use them?
I guess all you'd really need would be a pair of slide scanners, a basic mixing desk and the ability to patch in the announcers mic (or a cart machine for recorded stuff).
Why would they need all that? All it would have needed is a VT machine to play the PPB. Any announcement and slide would just be on the tape too... all pre-built and ready to go
Wasn't there a situation where Scotland had to opt out for a different Party Political Broadcast? Any idea how that was done?
It's an interesting one, as I'd imagine STV (and certainly Grampian and Border who would also be expected to show the PPB) would be examples of smaller companies that might be expected not to bother generally. I wonder if all 15 companies actually had the ability to insert opt-outs onto C4 (just in case they were needed) and they just elected not to use them?
I guess all you'd really need would be a pair of slide scanners, a basic mixing desk and the ability to patch in the announcers mic (or a cart machine for recorded stuff).
Why would they need all that? All it would have needed is a VT machine to play the PPB. Any announcement and slide would just be on the tape too... all pre-built and ready to go
MA
It's an interesting one, as I'd imagine STV (and certainly Grampian and Border who would also be expected to show the PPB) would be examples of smaller companies that might be expected not to bother generally. I wonder if all 15 companies actually had the ability to insert opt-outs onto C4 (just in case they were needed) and they just elected not to use them?
I guess all you'd really need would be a pair of slide scanners, a basic mixing desk and the ability to patch in the announcers mic (or a cart machine for recorded stuff).
Why would they need all that? All it would have needed is a VT machine to play the PPB. Any announcement and slide would just be on the tape too... all pre-built and ready to go
Indeed. What also springs to mind are schools progs, where the Scottish companies and/or UTV may well have opted out. Again nothing more than a VTR required
Wasn't there a situation where Scotland had to opt out for a different Party Political Broadcast? Any idea how that was done?
It's an interesting one, as I'd imagine STV (and certainly Grampian and Border who would also be expected to show the PPB) would be examples of smaller companies that might be expected not to bother generally. I wonder if all 15 companies actually had the ability to insert opt-outs onto C4 (just in case they were needed) and they just elected not to use them?
I guess all you'd really need would be a pair of slide scanners, a basic mixing desk and the ability to patch in the announcers mic (or a cart machine for recorded stuff).
Why would they need all that? All it would have needed is a VT machine to play the PPB. Any announcement and slide would just be on the tape too... all pre-built and ready to go
Indeed. What also springs to mind are schools progs, where the Scottish companies and/or UTV may well have opted out. Again nothing more than a VTR required
TT
ttt
Wasn't there a situation where Scotland had to opt out for a different Party Political Broadcast? Any idea how that was done?
It's an interesting one, as I'd imagine STV (and certainly Grampian and Border who would also be expected to show the PPB) would be examples of smaller companies that might be expected not to bother generally. I wonder if all 15 companies actually had the ability to insert opt-outs onto C4 (just in case they were needed) and they just elected not to use them?
I guess all you'd really need would be a pair of slide scanners, a basic mixing desk and the ability to patch in the announcers mic (or a cart machine for recorded stuff).
Why would they need all that? All it would have needed is a VT machine to play the PPB. Any announcement and slide would just be on the tape too... all pre-built and ready to go
I was referring to what would be needed for the announcements more than the PPB but yeah if it's only an occasional PPB that needs to be done then the "continuity" could be pre-edited onto the tape.
Indeed some of the smaller ITV companies used to do that when promoting leaflets etc at the end of programmes etc when sending to the network. The big companies did it live, the smaller ones (who had to do that sort of things much less often and may not have had the facilities to send anything other than the tape source down the line) edited what was needed to the end of the tape being used for broadcast.
MA
Yes, (you missed my example of Thames News up thread). When I did see them they were normally associated with regional programmes
. Note they referred to 'On ITV.....' and not 'On Thames.... or On LWT....'
Was the intention to promote local ITV programming that a national announcement by C4 obviously couldn’t cover?
Yes, (you missed my example of Thames News up thread). When I did see them they were normally associated with regional programmes
. Note they referred to 'On ITV.....' and not 'On Thames.... or On LWT....'
SC
It's an interesting one, as I'd imagine STV (and certainly Grampian and Border who would also be expected to show the PPB) would be examples of smaller companies that might be expected not to bother generally. I wonder if all 15 companies actually had the ability to insert opt-outs onto C4 (just in case they were needed) and they just elected not to use them?
I guess all you'd really need would be a pair of slide scanners, a basic mixing desk and the ability to patch in the announcers mic (or a cart machine for recorded stuff).
Why would they need all that? All it would have needed is a VT machine to play the PPB. Any announcement and slide would just be on the tape too... all pre-built and ready to go
Indeed. What also springs to mind are schools progs, where the Scottish companies and/or UTV may well have opted out. Again nothing more than a VTR required
Although with schools programmes, more surrounding presentation would have to be transmitted. I wonder if a copy of the roto and clock (with the correct “coming next” programme title burnt on) was included on the VT and this was backtimed appropriately?
I’ve never seen an example of Scotland or Northern Ireland opting out of ITV Schools on 4. I’m told this might actually have been done from a different site than one of the regional companies, though it would make sense for UTV or STV to just opt out of their Channel 4 feed - but the C4 STV feed would then need to be routed to Grampian and Border (and this wasn’t a normal procedure on C4) which may be why it was done differently.
The only talk I’ve heard of how this looked on air was a “glitch” a few seconds after the preceding roto had faded in - so evidently that was the opt point. When the nations were due to opt, C4 did delay fading up the “next programme follows shortly” text, presumably to give them a chance to opt out without broadcasting the incorrect text. I would like to hear from anyone in Scotland or Northern Ireland who witnessed this, or may even know more about it.
I remember hearing that in the early days of C4, an additional programme occasionally appeared on Scotland transmitters after closedown (political coverage relevant only to Scotland, I think). They weren’t allowed to opt out of any C4 programming so this was the only way to show this additional programme (except perhaps in the afternoon before startup).
It's an interesting one, as I'd imagine STV (and certainly Grampian and Border who would also be expected to show the PPB) would be examples of smaller companies that might be expected not to bother generally. I wonder if all 15 companies actually had the ability to insert opt-outs onto C4 (just in case they were needed) and they just elected not to use them?
I guess all you'd really need would be a pair of slide scanners, a basic mixing desk and the ability to patch in the announcers mic (or a cart machine for recorded stuff).
Why would they need all that? All it would have needed is a VT machine to play the PPB. Any announcement and slide would just be on the tape too... all pre-built and ready to go
Indeed. What also springs to mind are schools progs, where the Scottish companies and/or UTV may well have opted out. Again nothing more than a VTR required
Although with schools programmes, more surrounding presentation would have to be transmitted. I wonder if a copy of the roto and clock (with the correct “coming next” programme title burnt on) was included on the VT and this was backtimed appropriately?
I’ve never seen an example of Scotland or Northern Ireland opting out of ITV Schools on 4. I’m told this might actually have been done from a different site than one of the regional companies, though it would make sense for UTV or STV to just opt out of their Channel 4 feed - but the C4 STV feed would then need to be routed to Grampian and Border (and this wasn’t a normal procedure on C4) which may be why it was done differently.
The only talk I’ve heard of how this looked on air was a “glitch” a few seconds after the preceding roto had faded in - so evidently that was the opt point. When the nations were due to opt, C4 did delay fading up the “next programme follows shortly” text, presumably to give them a chance to opt out without broadcasting the incorrect text. I would like to hear from anyone in Scotland or Northern Ireland who witnessed this, or may even know more about it.
I remember hearing that in the early days of C4, an additional programme occasionally appeared on Scotland transmitters after closedown (political coverage relevant only to Scotland, I think). They weren’t allowed to opt out of any C4 programming so this was the only way to show this additional programme (except perhaps in the afternoon before startup).