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Thames strike

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BL
bluecortina
Si-Co posted:
There wasn't a network feed as such back then - the network was reconfigured after every junction - everyone linked up to Granada for Corrie, then Thames for Benny Hill, then YTV for That's My Boy etc... that's what the Inspector is correctly implying.

The ITN News was fed to Thames or LWT and all stations linked to them at newstime rather than to ITN directly. With Thames off the air, the news was obviously routed via Central or another company. I take it your point is that it still appears to be coming from elsewhere due to the sync jump when Thames join ITN - quite possibly this was still the case.


Let us not forget that the majority of the routing you're referring to would have been via a major itv company to minimise circuit switching costs. In the example you've quoted almost certainly they would have been sitting on a feed from THS so no re-configuring required for the evening, just a bit of MCR lines switching at THS between GRA/themselves/YTV/ITN - apart of course during times of industrial unrest!
RO
robertclark125
In those clips, we hear the continuity announcer out of vision, handing over to the news, with someone else reading it. Why didn't the CA do the news bulletin as well as the announcements?
:-(
A former member
bluecortina posted:
Si-Co posted:
There wasn't a network feed as such back then - the network was reconfigured after every junction - everyone linked up to Granada for Corrie, then Thames for Benny Hill, then YTV for That's My Boy etc... that's what the Inspector is correctly implying.

The ITN News was fed to Thames or LWT and all stations linked to them at newstime rather than to ITN directly. With Thames off the air, the news was obviously routed via Central or another company. I take it your point is that it still appears to be coming from elsewhere due to the sync jump when Thames join ITN - quite possibly this was still the case.


Let us not forget that the majority of the routing you're referring to would have been via a major itv company to minimise circuit switching costs. In the example you've quoted almost certainly they would have been sitting on a feed from THS so no re-configuring required for the evening, just a bit of MCR lines switching at THS between GRA/themselves/YTV/ITN - apart of course during times of industrial unrest!


That's also part of the reason isn't it why certain programmes were partly network back in the day like the Ozzy soaps, blockbusters or even Emmerdale farm, plus it saved on tapes. How on earth TSW managed??
RO
robertclark125
One from LWT on the Thames strike. Go to 7:15 in the video to hear Peter Lewis.

BL
bluecortina
623058 posted:
bluecortina posted:
Si-Co posted:
There wasn't a network feed as such back then - the network was reconfigured after every junction - everyone linked up to Granada for Corrie, then Thames for Benny Hill, then YTV for That's My Boy etc... that's what the Inspector is correctly implying.

The ITN News was fed to Thames or LWT and all stations linked to them at newstime rather than to ITN directly. With Thames off the air, the news was obviously routed via Central or another company. I take it your point is that it still appears to be coming from elsewhere due to the sync jump when Thames join ITN - quite possibly this was still the case.


Let us not forget that the majority of the routing you're referring to would have been via a major itv company to minimise circuit switching costs. In the example you've quoted almost certainly they would have been sitting on a feed from THS so no re-configuring required for the evening, just a bit of MCR lines switching at THS between GRA/themselves/YTV/ITN - apart of course during times of industrial unrest!


That's also part of the reason isn't it why certain programmes were partly network back in the day like the Ozzy soaps, blockbusters or even Emmerdale farm, plus it saved on tapes. How on earth TSW managed??


I'm afraid I don't understand your question, so I can't comment.
:-(
A former member
bluecortina posted:
623058 posted:
bluecortina posted:

Let us not forget that the majority of the routing you're referring to would have been via a major itv company to minimise circuit switching costs. In the example you've quoted almost certainly they would have been sitting on a feed from THS so no re-configuring required for the evening, just a bit of MCR lines switching at THS between GRA/themselves/YTV/ITN - apart of course during times of industrial unrest!


That's also part of the reason isn't it why certain programmes were partly network back in the day like the Ozzy soaps, blockbusters or even Emmerdale farm, plus it saved on tapes. How on earth TSW managed??


I'm afraid I don't understand your question, so I can't comment.


AS someone else said ITV tried to minimise circuit switching costs. which meant companies did link up withs to have more or less a single feed for all programmes,

Ie at 17.15 back in 1984
Five companies had a feed from London, while 10 other companies had a feed from Central.
IS
Inspector Sands
robertclark125 posted:
In those clips, we hear the continuity announcer out of vision, handing over to the news, with someone else reading it. Why didn't the CA do the news bulletin as well as the announcements?

Possibly because the announcer was in a union (Equity? Phillip Ellesmore was an actor) and the manager wasn't. The NUJ weren't crossing the picket line so he'd be doing the job of someone from another union
SP
Steve in Pudsey
If it had been the standard practice for the announcer to read the news, as at LWT, STV and others, then I guess the unions wouldn't have been able to object to such an arrangement.
NW
nwtv2003
This Tweet maybe of interest. It's a Schools line up for shows that were lost (as such) during the dispute...



NL
Ne1L C
Was the myriad of switching one reason why ITV centralised its network control in the 1990's?
SC
Si-Co
nwtv2003 posted:
This Tweet maybe of interest. It's a Schools line up for shows that were lost (as such) during the dispute...





It seems that only eight of the series for schools that term were produced by Thames, which doesn't seem like many to fill five mornings until you consider that most were transmitted twice. Thames, Granada, YTV and Central produced most networked schools programmes, with the odd offering from smaller companies like Grampian, HTV West and Anglia (the latter two tending to repeat educational series like Manscape, Survival and Animals in Action which were not originally produced for schools). As stated in the text, the programmes from other companies Thames viewers missed out on were screened in London the following week.

Over the years, it seemed that Thames were affected by strike action somewhat more often than the other companies - watching in the North East, I remember several occasions in the early 80s when Rainbow and The Sullivans didn't appear at lunchtime "due to an industrial dispute". Of course there was significant strike action at several of the other companies too - perhaps the Thames disputes are more memorable as they were such a major provider of programmes to the network.

A question - I'm aware that if a networked programme did not appear due to industrial action, it was the responsibility of each regional station to plug the gap with something off their shelves. One company couldn't network a replacement show in that slot for the convenience of the others. What was the reason for this?
WH
Whataday Founding member
Markymark posted:
Inspector Sands posted:
London Lite posted:

Excusing your pedantry. What was it then?

A 'sustaining feed' would be something that can sustain the network as the name implies - i.e. it's a continuous supply of programmes etc that could be broadcast, something to fall back on


ITV never had such a thing, each station was it's own channel taking feeds of programmes from others when necessary. There was nothing for one of the stations to fall back on, unless one just rebroadcast the other (which was rare and not something they'd like to do for obvious reasons


I suppose the nearest thing to any sort of sustaining feed within ITV was the Westward/TSW/TVS/Meridain off air link to Channel TV, and even then the mainland company had to make their pres 'generic' when Channel were using it for junctions.


I wonder how HTV worked - ie did they have one 'feed' of ITV programmes then opt in with Wales or West programming, or did either region pull its own schedule together from the network.

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