Operation London Bridge: the death of the Queen

There were also no ads on Sky One on the morning the news broke (and possibly UK Gold and other multichannels as well?).

Quite a few channels, even the ones that will do little else than have a look over the schedules to make sure they're not showing anything wildly inappropriate, still have that as part of the plans for the first couple of hours after the announcement.

All News Corp owned or part-owned channels (all the Sky and Granada branded ones, Fox Kids, Disney, Nickelodeon) had a card on screen where ads should've been, mentioning the news and pointing viewers to Sky News, IIRC. Programming was normal though, except for Granada Talk TV, which simulcast Sky News and thus effectively closed down a day early.

How long was qvc off air for?

Most of the morning if I remember rightly.

UK Gold broadcast a caption directing people to tune to BBC One.

Several channels did.




Shameless plug for TV Live's coverage of the death of Diana.

Sky2's original iteration wasn't really successful by any means, but it ended up in the multichannel graveyard like Talk TV when coverage for the death of Diana was being broadcast.

Sky1 carried on as normal for programmes but all ad breaks were removed and advised to turn to Sky News. I also remember Granada Plus switching to Sky News for a couple of hours in the afternoon, not too sure as to why or what it replaced.

Talk TV was a write off and was a straightforward simulcast of Sky News all day with the exception of a G TALK DOG on the top right of the screen. From memory no fanfare was made at closure.

I remember when Diana died Sky 1 showed back to back Star Trek: DS9 with no ads and mournful music in-between episodes.

Yep, the channels pointed people to their respective news channels. UK Gold and Living who were linked to the BBC captioned to tune to the BBC. Cartoon Network presumably did the same for CNN and the rest of the Sky Multi-Channels captioned to turn to Sky News.

In today's world you can have the best laid plans but when the Queen does pass, if it is during ill health or through the night, one suspects things will leak and rumours flying around online before officially announced. That said, the Royals are good at keeping a tight leash around information so you never know.

Everyone's, giddily, acting as if it's imminent too. There's every chance it could be the best part of decade away yet.