The End Of The BBC2 Closedown?

BBC2 used to have pages from Ceefax on a Saturday and Sunday morning but they now seem to be showing programmes during the night e.g the Rugby and Monk. I know it's reported that the BBC2 closedown is going to be phased out but has it already happened?

05:35 am on Sunday morning

And after that, 5th April has one scheduled too, that's at 0455.

Careful, you'll upset Simon if he finds this out. Though having said that, he probably watches anyway.

What exactly is the point of overnight TV broadcasting?

I was told not so long ago that the viewing figures are, not surprisingly, very low; ITV regions generate very little ad revenue from it. Indeed, it's such a barren wasteground that ITV fills a large portion of it with 'Nightscreen'.

How much electricity is 'wasted' radiating overnight output from analogue and digital transmitter sites?

Any programmes that are broadcast during the wee small hours are nearly always repeats. In the age of the video recorder/hard disc drives, DVDs and the BBC iPlayer, why are we keeping transmitters switched on overnight to broadcast repeats?? Out of interest, how much does it cost the networks to repeat some of this stuff; for BBC Two in particular, I'd be very keen to learn how much it costs to repeat sports coverage?? For the BBC in particular - with all the talk of cutbacks - is this a logical way to spend money - increasing overnight broadcasting hours?!

Oh, come on! By your logic we might as well do away with daytime broadcasting as well, save a lot of wasted electricity that way. Also, do you really want Simon to slip into true mental instability by not airing PFC? Only link to the 70's he has yknow.

In addition to what Nini said about the idea being ridiculous, surely you can't just flick a switch at a transmitter site and be done with it? Are transmitters manned anyway? If not, you'd have to pay somebody to do it.

Your point about repeats is strange too. It's not really a 'repeat' for somebody who missed the first showing is it?

The BBC transmitters certainly can be shut down from London - in the absence of sync pulses the transmitters will look for an RBS source, and if they don't find that they shut down.

does analogue broadcasting use more power than digital broadcasting? if so why not start a nice wee experiment of turning the analogue off at night under the excuse of saving power whilst also driving freeview takeup for nighttime viewers

what does seem a waste is BBC2 broadcasting News 24 at night, surely it would save money to turn it off as its already on BBC1. That is, unless, it costs more to power BBC2 back up in the morning

I'm not sure why I like that comment so much, but I believe it's one of the best observations I've read on this forum for a long time.

BBC2 only shows it until BBC1 starts showing it which is usually after 4.00am most nights.

Aww.. bless! hove nice of them to schedule a Ceefax gap on my birthday!