DOGs on BBC Four

But they're not the same feeds though - compare the night time schedules for BBC2 & BBC Prime, and they're showing different programmes. And they have different idents and branding - on BBC2 it's BBC Learning Zone, while on BBC Prime it's just BBC Learning.

From the point of the viewer - which ultimately is all that should matter - there is no justification for DOGs whatsoever.

There is a branding argument for the BBC TWO dog on The Learning Zone only.

The Learning Zone is branded as a separate service to BBC TWO (stemming partially from the days of the encrypted overnight BBC SELECT service I suspect) The programmes that make up the Learning Zone are broadcast on BBC Two, but the presentation on-screen is entirely BBC Two free.

Adding the BBC Two dog identifies the channel - rather than the service I suppose - ensuring that people know they are watching BBC Two, not a service called the Learning Zone... Useful for people tuning their TVs and videos in the small hours...

[quote] RW on 2:31 pm on Feb. 2, 2002
But they're not the same feeds though - compare the night time schedules for BBC2 & BBC Prime, and they're showing different programmes [quote]

Quite right... BBC Prime and BBC2 no longer share the same LZ output. That stopped 2 or 3 years ago. BBC Prime now carries a branded block of LZ programmes - which allows it to sell them to other broadcasters. For instance - in South Africa BBC Prime is carried on MNET - but MNET do not have the LZ deal, so for 6 hours overnight MNET otps away from the LZ output. Meanwhile at that point another SA broadcaster opts in to carry it instead.