Pages From Ceefax

ceafax is better then having a test card for an hour and listening to a continuos beeeeeep sound.

There are (at least) four other channels you can watch. Why should BBC2 be on air "just because everyone else is"?

nice closedown yesterday. the annoucer even said she would be back for the learnoing zone @ 2.00!

Isn't The Hoobs on Channel 4 anyway, not five ?
But there could be a school of thinking here to try and get the youngsters who must have their daily dose of C-Beebies at 6.00am to re-tune to Digital. As we get nearer and nearer to the analogue switch off I wonder how many other services will only be available on Digital.

That's a good point. If both the CBBC Channel and CBeebies run from 6.00-19.00 every day and a good part of them is all ready shown on terrestial then they won't see the need of having digital. By losing the 06.00-07.00 Cbeebies they now have there amount of time cut down to just 1 and a half hours a day thus moving them to digital. To be honest I could see CBBC starting at 16.00 in the evenings soon, again to push children to digital.
Out of interest, are there any audience figures for Ceefax in the mornings?

If they are beginning kids programming later in the morning, why can't BBC2 put The Learning Zone on an hour later so it finishes at 7am, then take advantage of the late-night slot for films etc.

Saying that though, they seem to be giving up with late night BBC2 as well, sometimes switching to News 24 from around 12.30am.

I think you answered your own question there BB. We are not likely to see more programming into the early hours on BBC-2 even with the likelihood of less LZ programming next year. So expect more News 24 into the early hours then Ceefax until 7am.

The only regret about the reduction of early morning CBBC/CBeebies means viewers have less opportunity to see the programmes without DOGs. These channels are already part of the furniture for younger viewers, and I fear that before long many children will grow up not knowing what it's like to watch television programmes without screen junk.

I've noticed that about the simulcast of News 24 on BBC2 most nights at 12.30am. They have 90 minutes to fill there until The Learning Zone starts at 2am. They could easilly make the effort there and show an old film to fill the gap, just the same as they could possibly do between 6am till 7am.

That would cost more Steve.

In that case why not drop The Witness, 48 Preludes or whatever else is used to fill the shorter gaps pre-Learning Zone

I can only imagine that those filler programmes are cheaper to show than showing a film.
At the end of the day I wonder if it is simply down to whoever is doing the scheduling at the time as to whether they decide to use programming and fillers, or finish early and go to Ceefax.