Junctions from hell

And incidentally, what a "fun" junction that is for NC2.

You have to take BBC News Channel bang on 11:00am, and have to hit BBC World News bang on 11:30am - to the second. There's just a minute-long junction between the two, and you manually take out of BBC News Channel at 11:29 - its not automatic. And whilst BBC News Channel *usually* ends on Weather and gives you a clean opt out point at 11:29, if they're in rolling news this can (understandably) change with very little notice...

Sweaty fingers all round

Are the feeds from BBC World News and the BBC News Channel in sync when they arrive in NC2? If both take the same press conference (not simulcasting, they're just both taking the same outside source) and it's going to run across the 1130 junction can pres stay with it and do a simple cross fade from the NC to World or do you have to cut away? I imagine subtitles might be a complication doing it that way.

Yeah, this has happened before. If both World and Channel are taking the same conference, we do indeed tend to delete the junction and do a straight cut between the two. It takes a bit of negotiation between NC2, Studio C and Studio E - we want to make sure when we do the cut that there's minimal graphics on-screen so the cut is as seamless as possible, and that the presenters aren't about to start talking. (Obviously the lower third graphics will change - not much we can do about that.)

From NC2's point of view, subtitles are from the same source for both programmes, specifically labelled as BBC Two, so there's no problem there. (I actually don't know whether they do BBC Two's subs separately, or they pipe down News Channel's subs. I suspect the former. A lot safer, for exactly the reasons we're talking about.)

It all looks quite simple on air, but it can actually be one of the most complicated junctions you have to do in BBC pres. With most programmes going live-to-live, you can give the next programme a revised on air time during the junction. The fact you obviously can't do that with World News is the tricky bit. (Hence why there's a nice long symbol going into World News which you can - extremely quickly - adjust the duration of!)

I don't know how often that happens but won't it look odd when one set of presenters link into a press conference and then a few minutes later another set come out of it. Wouldn't it be best to just air an hour of BBC News Channel in that occasion?

There's really no one perfect way around it. Yes, it *is* a bit odd that the presenters suddenly change. On the other hand, if World News then leave the press conference and do other stuff, ideally BBC Two would rather be taking them rather than sticking with the Channel simulcast for the full hour, as World is something that isn't broadcast elsewhere in the UK.

From a pres point of view, you'd also rather be taking World at that point because you come out of them at :57 past the hour, and the schedule has a three minute junction at that point leading into Daily Politics. It's a pain for News Channel to have to give an extra opt out at that point. (Although they can do it, and have done in the past - there have been times when we've stuck with News Channel for the full hour too.)

In the end, this is what happens when BBC Two has to rely on Channel and World for the News Hour. Most of the time it'll work perfectly... just occasionally there will be a bit of weirdness. Nothing to be done, really.

There's lots of examples of junctions from hell over the years. BBC Two used to have a news/regional news/weather junction mid afternoon, which was often in the middle of live sport coverage. The timings would often be dependent on when the horse racing was in between races (or whatever.) You'd be keeping news, weather and all the regions and nations waiting until Sport deemed it the right time to take the news. Sometimes you'd play a trail after sport, giving you enough time to count news on air, then you'd standby the regions (often news was only a 2 minute summary), opt out regions, cut to South East regional ident with live anno, cut to Elstree, count everyone back, cue the weather, then count back to live sport. You'd only know when sport would be back on during the opt because the timings of the national news bulletin were always loose.

And this was often a shift (Middle 2) given to new network directors

Hah. When I read stuff like that, I realise that maybe I should stop whinging

Though sitting in NC1 on an hugely-overrunning Andy Murray match with the 8pm bulletin hanging off the back of it, with Studio A and all the nations/regions waiting on my every word, was also "fun". Especially as I had precisely zero to tell them for much of it.

Ah - the joys of daytime summaries and live cricket...

Apparently the junction from hell used to be the one between Blue Peter and the news, which was at 5.40 in those days. The junction contained a 50 second trail which the regions used to opt out of to trail the regional news, and which was difficult to drop without upsetting the regions.

Blue Peter used to routinely over run, which gave the network director a bit of a headache getting to the news on time, only really knowing when BP would finish when they played the theme music.

Yes that was another nasty one, particularly in Biddy Baxter's days I understand. I remember doing one for BBC World during the aftermath of 9/11 (I think). I had to take a live World News bulletin from N9, while BBC One were taking the national news. I then had to join BBC One for a Panorama, played out live from an edit suite at White City. N6 (national news) would be handing directly to the Panorama and the plan was for N9 to do the same, but I'd be making the actual cut. The national news used to finish whenever they liked. I had to listen to N6 talkback, relay their under/over timings to N9, while also listening to NC1 who were muttering that Panorama wasn't finished yet and they might have to fill...

I'm pretty sure that 'Hector's House/Capt Pugwash/Magic R-bout/etc' used to come in between the end of Blue Peter and the 17:40 news ? However, yes, I do remember some rather 'rushed' endings to Blue Peter, and the regional news trail not always appearing !

The genome for random dates in the early 80s shows the news scheduled straight after BP, but I think Magic Roundabout etc were shown in that slot at some time.