Is "LIVE" TV facing extinction

And I'm not talking about Topless Darts!

It's a real shame, but live television events are getting fewer and fewer in case something happens which might just offend a couple of viewers.

The Brits, The BAFTAs and the National Television Awards all used to go out live - but now are delayed up to 24 hours and as you know the winners, they are not the event they were.

Even the Soap Awards, probably the least likely to cause offense, don't air till days after they take place.

This doesn't even happen with the moral-minded US networks. Yes, they broadcast events on a time-delay - but usually it's as little as 7 seconds.

Today the BBC has got into trouble for Live Aid, which broadcast music full of swearing at 6.30pm in the evening - and failed to apologise for it.

They rightly rejected a time delay as this was a major live television event - and in this case the swearing did go too far for the time of evening and the BBC should have issued an on-air apology. I think this is more what OFCOM is telling off the BBC for, not the actual swearing.


Apart from daytime chat shows and the news (though they've been criticised for screening events uncensored!), virtually the only other thing that will go out live without time delay is sport.



The magic of live TV is that anything can happen - and with time delays and censorship meaning the unpredictable can be edited out, these big events are just becoming boring!

I don't agree with the BBC being punished over Live 8, it should have been the singers who uttered the profanity who got punished. After all it was them who said it, and I don't think the BBC encouraged them to swear.

I agree it's a shame that a lot of previously live events are now being pre-recorded, however I don't believe the reason is broadcasters' fear of something offensive happening. If this was the case, they'd simply broadcast with a delay.

In most cases I'm sure it's more to do with wanting to be able to edit a programme to a known time so that schedules don't run late - something increasingly important in a multi-channel world where if people don't find the programme advertised on a particular channel are likely to switch to something else.

There are also advantages to showing 'live' events pre-recorded. The last British Comedy Awards (shown live) was over-running badly, and the result was that the last half hour was incredibly rushed, and Victoria Wood's acceptance speech for her Lifetime Achievement Award was cut off at the end - something which wouldn't have happened if it had been recorded.

There are also the issues of technical problems which can be edited out if the programme's pre-recorded. The Brit Awards haven't in fact been shown live for many years because, and whilst it may be fun for us, programme makers don't like making Fox/Fleetwood style 'car crash telly'.

Didn't that Victoria Wood / Julie Walters speech get simulcast on ITV 2?

It must be a pain when ITV 2 run an 'extras' prog after a live event on ITV 1 & hoping ITV 1 run to time !

The Brits only went out live once.... and look what happened with that!
It was a brilliantly bad piece of telly, fun for us viewers but I can't see the organisers wanting it to happen again.

I do agree that it is a shame that live is less common, but recording a long event such as the Brits and then tightening it up can make for a better programme; there can be more complex set changes and other time-consuming features. Despite the fact that some of the best bits of The Comedy Awards wouldn't have happened if it had been recorded, they would probably be better produced shows - they need a lot of tightening at the top and a lot of loosening at the bottom!

live tv can give us some memorable and unexpected moments, like cilla back saying she was quitting blind date live on air, wish there had been a camera filming in the director's box when she said that.

some of the baftas looked very pre recorded last night, especially stephen fry's intros to his trips to see the five best films at the cinema.

i was surprised to see him standing up all evening, if carol vordaman can have a chair to sit on when she's out of shot on count down i'm sure stephen fry can have one for the baftas

The last time when the BRits was broadcasted live was when Chumbawumba (i honestly don't know and don't care if its the correct spelling of the group!) chucked a bucket of water over John Prescot's head.

With live events being more and more recorded there is going to be ever little chance of seeing antics like this on British Television in the future. Its a real shame as it was the controversey on the live broadcasts that actually made the Brits worthwhile to watch.

Nowadays I just watch the late news and GMTV next morning to find out who won the big awards. The show itself, when broadcasted, is actually quite boring!

The Comedy Awards always had one classic moment, Julian Clary's (SP) Norman Lamontt moment still makes me chuckle now

That wasn't seen on TV though (at least not by the official cameras, I think it was on amateur video), The same with the Jarvis Cocker/Michael Jackson incident, IIRC the incident was only seen later either after the camera shot was magnified or the recording of an alternative camera angle was released.

I'm pretty sure that the only live Brit Awards ceremony (not counting the BPI awards) was the Sam Fox/Mick Fleetwood 1989 car-crash

Certainly Wikipedia backs this up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brit_Awards

OK so we're overlooking Children In Need, Comic / Sport Relief, the Sports Review Of The Year, children's morning TV programs like The Saturday Show and MoM, Trooping the Colour, the Cenotaph, Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, the FA Cup Final and other sports events......

Just cos a couple of boring awards ceremonies aren't broadcast live doesn't mean all live TV is under threat...

And if anyone should be censured as a result of Live 8 it's Madonna and the other idiotic ego-tripping "stars" who were on stage that day....there were kids (and Daily Mail readers) in the Hyde Park audience too, not just at home...

At least you're not as insane as one DS poster who declared that due to the 2-second delay caused by encoding and decoding digital TV live TV wasn't as live as it used to be...

...as live as it used to be.

this morning is still live so can sometimes have toe curling moments with the phone ins, i remember one with dr chris on drug addiction and a drug user was put through only to start hurling verbal expletives at everybody who was trying to get him to give up.

sometimes the live part adds to the show, you alway knew when the big breakfast for example was a pre record because it was less chaotic, same with this morning when they had a pre recorded summer run of highlights a few years ago.