Challenge have put their decorations up but the ad break stings with the Characters are soundless. The original sound effects such as the Family Fortunes UHH-UHH sound would work perfectly well.
The characters are pointless and do nothing for the channel. I think Challenge's look is the worst one it's ever had. They only ever seem to play the same one or two break bumpers and it's usually the Family Fortunes buzzer noise, so I'm glad to not be hearing it!
What's worse is the "retro" look they had before it was one of the best ones they've had in recent years.
I agree. Since they made an effort, they have made it worse! Less is more, it's a channel showing old repeats, not BBC ONE! The simplistic "retro" look it had before was really good. They could have expanded on it instead of creating the characters they have now which do nothing of interest, no variety in their looks/actions and are completely unmemorable and annoying. Bravo, Sky!
This is probably something I only care about, but for years I used to love watching VH1 for their mix of classic and contemporary music videos - and this was especially at Christmas where they had the right mix of familiar and new-to-me music, but not too old like VH1 Classic was. I think it's a shame that the channel has been left to rot, essentially, and there is no longer any promotion for the channel, but I will continue to watch if only to see that scratchy copy of 'Wonderful Christmastime' or the strangely charming muffled sound on the Band Aid and Wham videos.
The rest of the year, VH1 used to have great themed programming like Live Aid Night and 80s vs 90s, and at one point even showed classic episodes of Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Now it just seems to be slowly turning into a copy of MTV Hits. I was amazed they even bothered to bring the new branding over here, when the previous package had been in use so long that when they finally switched to widescreen, the graphics including the DOG were simply stretched from 4:3.
VIVA is 16:9 with their graphics stretched from 4:3. It's been a few years and they still haven't fixed it.
Tragically, Viva Germany rebranded itself in 2011 to a multi-triangular look, which appears far better than the current state Viva UK is in, which suggests Viacom don't really give a monkeys about the UK Viva.
I have only just realised that Viva is back to being 24 hours on Freeview again and is no longer 9-11am. Now it is on COM7 though, only those with Freeview HD equipment can receive it.
This is probably something I only care about, but for years I used to love watching VH1 for their mix of classic and contemporary music videos - and this was especially at Christmas where they had the right mix of familiar and new-to-me music, but not too old like VH1 Classic was. I think it's a shame that the channel has been left to rot, essentially, and there is no longer any promotion for the channel, but I will continue to watch if only to see that scratchy copy of 'Wonderful Christmastime' or the strangely charming muffled sound on the Band Aid and Wham videos.
The rest of the year, VH1 used to have great themed programming like Live Aid Night and 80s vs 90s, and at one point even showed classic episodes of Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Now it just seems to be slowly turning into a copy of MTV Hits. I was amazed they even bothered to bring the new branding over here, when the previous package had been in use so long that when they finally switched to widescreen, the graphics including the DOG were simply stretched from 4:3.
Were they one of the channels that showed the weird "live" video of Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody, from what appeared to be a European (Germany?) performance around the mid-late 1980s and almost completely mimed except for some mad out-of-time drumming at the end? A few years ago they'd sadly re-edited it and overdubbed the audio with the studio version.
Were they one of the channels that showed the weird "live" video of Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody, from what appeared to be a European (Germany?) performance around the mid-late 1980s and almost completely mimed except for some mad out-of-time drumming at the end? A few years ago they'd sadly re-edited it and overdubbed the audio with the studio version.
Yes - and I'm pretty sure when I've seen it this year, it hasn't been overdubbed. The weirdest thing to me about that video is it includes a scroll on the bottom about how many times the song re-entered the chart up until 1986.
:-(
A former member
Has anyone mentioned History channel and its Decembread idents and pres?
Were they one of the channels that showed the weird "live" video of Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody, from what appeared to be a European (Germany?) performance around the mid-late 1980s and almost completely mimed except for some mad out-of-time drumming at the end? A few years ago they'd sadly re-edited it and overdubbed the audio with the studio version.
Yes - and I'm pretty sure when I've seen it this year, it hasn't been overdubbed. The weirdest thing to me about that video is it includes a scroll on the bottom about how many times the song re-entered the chart up until 1986.
Merry Xmas Everybody doesn't have an official music video so when the music channels run it they have to pinch it from a live performance somewhere. Because of the scroll I suspect its actually part of another programme.
Slade were apparently on TOTP in 1983 and the video in question looks TOTPish but hey, it tops up Noddy Holder's pension fund every year so whether it matters what gets played video wise probably doesn't concern Holder.
That being said, the lack of an official music video for Slade's tune may have been a blessing in disguise when you look at how dated the Wizzard video has become...
Yes - and I'm pretty sure when I've seen it this year, it hasn't been overdubbed.
It's only overdubbed on the Bauer/4-music channels, MTV leave the original soundtrack on. The Bauer/4-music/Emap channels have also always cropped it to cut off the scrolling banner at the beginning (even back to the early 00s when they were still broadcasting in 4:3).