Friends starts, a minute in, up flashes a caption with "We can't show you the scheduled programme due to rights restrictions". This stays on screen for a minute or two, then the screen goes black. Then Friends comes back for a few seconds, but is promptly replaced by a close up of a girl's bikini-clad torso (I kid you not). This stays on screen for a cringing 20 seconds. The screen then goes black for a few minutes, after which Friends starts again from the beginning, dogless. Dog's still not there. Enjoy this dull breakdown on E4+1 in an hour or so.
By the sounds of what you're saying, it looks like it switched to the online feed at one point (the rights restrictions message appears on the online feed during imports on Channel 4).
Expect a few more problems - usually when the DOG is gone there is some sort of problem.
EDIT: Just as I posted that, Friends changed to 16:9 mode and cut to an advert during vocals.
That was the second part starting immediately after the first. Looks to me there's someone manually directing at the moment whilst fighting the automation.
Forget that. I don't think anyone's noticed. Aspect ratio's are switching at the right moments and the DOG's just reappeared at the right time. It's just this programme that's causing trouble. There's now a still of of Chandler looking unhappy.
Noticed last night the DOG was back to just appearing during programmes after a couple of weeks of being permanently on screen.
There was also a minor screw up though during last nights Hollyoaks, with the sponsor sting appearing, then a still of it before going to ads and having a fille E4 logo, the sponsor sting playing out and then a still of it appearing during the first few moments of part two.
They always seem to be having some sort of problems!
