S7
Be careful with those acronyms for Doctor Who...
DW is a TV channel, and I'm pretty sure it's always been good.
- http://www.dw.com/en/deutsche-welle-marks-65th-anniversary/a-43591961
DW was already in decline come '89 - as, indeed, was TOTP.
Be careful with those acronyms for Doctor Who...
DW is a TV channel, and I'm pretty sure it's always been good.
- http://www.dw.com/en/deutsche-welle-marks-65th-anniversary/a-43591961
CU
So I decided to make a list of some of the channels that are in this forum
This list has been made from some of the suggestions so if you disagree with one or more of them please say so and I will remove a channel if 3 people disagree
Sky Two
DMAX
MTV Music
GOD Channel
QVC
Real Lives
Motorsport TV
5select
W
ITV3
Home
ITV Be
CITV
ITV
CBeebies
BBC 1
BBC 2
Challenge
GOLD
This list has been made from some of the suggestions so if you disagree with one or more of them please say so and I will remove a channel if 3 people disagree
Sky Two
DMAX
MTV Music
GOD Channel
QVC
Real Lives
Motorsport TV
5select
W
ITV3
Home
ITV Be
CITV
ITV
CBeebies
BBC 1
BBC 2
Challenge
GOLD
JA
The Bill? No reason for that to be on W when it's on Drama.
Nope, W is aiming to be more youthful, Drama is for old women.
I wouldn't say specifically women, but it is aimed at an older audience. But the difference between W and Drama is supposed to be that W is premium and Drama is free to air (and thus largely repeats, though I think some of the imports might be new). Not age demographics.
W is dreadful, as has been said it doesn't knows what it wants to be. 5 hours of Tipping Point a day (8 hours solid on a Saturday) mixed in with some property shows, Catherine Tate and The Bill. A very odd mix.
The Bill? No reason for that to be on W when it's on Drama.
Nope, W is aiming to be more youthful, Drama is for old women.
SP
W and Drama are both showing The Bill from different eras, so having that differentiation makes some form of sense.
Last edited by Steve in Pudsey on 16 June 2018 10:04am
DB
The Bill? No reason for that to be on W when it's on Drama.
Nope, W is aiming to be more youthful, Drama is for old women.
I wouldn't say specifically women, but it is aimed at an older audience. But the difference between W and Drama is supposed to be that W is premium and Drama is free to air (and thus largely repeats, though I think some of the imports might be new). Not age demographics.
Trust me, the demo is older women for Drama. That's who is watching Drama and that's what the promos are aimed at.
The Bill? No reason for that to be on W when it's on Drama.
Nope, W is aiming to be more youthful, Drama is for old women.
Trust me, the demo is older women for Drama. That's who is watching Drama and that's what the promos are aimed at.
:-(
A former member
The member requested removal of this post
WO
Currently enjoying the late night re-runs of the magnificent Juliet Bravo on Drama.
BBC4 showed the first one as a one off episode a year or two back at 8pm one night. They missed a trick by not doing the whole series.
Back in the UK Gold era, they used to show JB on there.
W and
Drama are bothing showing The Bill
from different eras, so having that differentiation makes some form of sense.
Currently enjoying the late night re-runs of the magnificent Juliet Bravo on Drama.
BBC4 showed the first one as a one off episode a year or two back at 8pm one night. They missed a trick by not doing the whole series.
Back in the UK Gold era, they used to show JB on there.
IN
Challenge went badly downhill during the late Virgin years, then after Sky took over it improved massively with a decent invenstment in content, both original and buying various old shows, then since around 2015 they seem to have got bored of it again and as you say, it's mostly Pointless (and The Chase) now with the very occassional gem if you look hard. Even some of the older shows they show seem to be the same few series on loop (like Family Fortunes which just seem to be the 1987-90 Les Dennis ones) when there's many more series out there.
I think it's a very diffferent situation to be honest. Flextech/VMTV had clearly given up on the channel completely. There were no acquisitions *at all* for the last year, and in the 6 months before that the only one was Winning Lines (and I think that was delayed because the editing took longer than expected or something). All they were doing was using up whatever they had rights to.
From the get go, Sky gave Challenge a reasonable budget to create programming with. They've tried getting rights to older stuff which hasn't been seen for ages, some of which worked reasonably well (Blockbusters, Gladiators, etc), some of which didn't (earlier series of Family Fortunes, Countdown). They tried creating their own content - which has all without exception been terrible.
They've also tried getting newer content - and while their first attempt (Deal or No Deal) failed, they have clearly hit a ratings banker with The Chase and Pointless. Don't make the mistake of thinking this content is cheap though - newer, high profile content comes with a price tag - what Challenge are paying for an hour of The Chase is likely to be much higher than they pay for an hour of 3-2-1. I believe they're buying more editions all the time as well - every time I catch an edition it seems they are closer and closer to the most recent series.
It might be lazy, but it clearly works for them. And in fairness there is still plenty of decent older content on there - I particularly enjoyed the start-to-finish run of Gladiators last year, which was given a decent slot and clearly did well enough to perpetuate itself (they only acquired the first couple of series initially).
As for only showing the Les Dennis editions of Family Fortunes - well they tried the earlier stuff and it simply didn't do as well. I watched a few of them for intrigues sake but they are not the programmes I remember fondly, I'm sure it's the same for many others too.
UK Gold was a product of a very different era. I have very fond memories of it too, but a lot of its schedule back in the 90s was the result of compromise - both with unions determining what could and could not be shown, and also with the lack of bandwidth on the analogue platforms it launched on combined with the relatively small audiences and relatively high cost of running such a channel back then. It was toe in the water stuff, and it worked for a bit.
To be honest, a good portion of my fond memories are from watching Doctor Who omnibuses, and it doesn't seem that any conventional broadcaster can make that work now - the Horror Channel gave it a very strong push a few years ago but it didn't last long. As with a lot of these things, most of the hardcore audience will now have the DVDs and whatnot. The casuals that might see 'Doctor Who' on the EPG are probably going to be disappointed.
Challenge is now pointless.
Challenge went badly downhill during the late Virgin years, then after Sky took over it improved massively with a decent invenstment in content, both original and buying various old shows, then since around 2015 they seem to have got bored of it again and as you say, it's mostly Pointless (and The Chase) now with the very occassional gem if you look hard. Even some of the older shows they show seem to be the same few series on loop (like Family Fortunes which just seem to be the 1987-90 Les Dennis ones) when there's many more series out there.
I think it's a very diffferent situation to be honest. Flextech/VMTV had clearly given up on the channel completely. There were no acquisitions *at all* for the last year, and in the 6 months before that the only one was Winning Lines (and I think that was delayed because the editing took longer than expected or something). All they were doing was using up whatever they had rights to.
From the get go, Sky gave Challenge a reasonable budget to create programming with. They've tried getting rights to older stuff which hasn't been seen for ages, some of which worked reasonably well (Blockbusters, Gladiators, etc), some of which didn't (earlier series of Family Fortunes, Countdown). They tried creating their own content - which has all without exception been terrible.
They've also tried getting newer content - and while their first attempt (Deal or No Deal) failed, they have clearly hit a ratings banker with The Chase and Pointless. Don't make the mistake of thinking this content is cheap though - newer, high profile content comes with a price tag - what Challenge are paying for an hour of The Chase is likely to be much higher than they pay for an hour of 3-2-1. I believe they're buying more editions all the time as well - every time I catch an edition it seems they are closer and closer to the most recent series.
It might be lazy, but it clearly works for them. And in fairness there is still plenty of decent older content on there - I particularly enjoyed the start-to-finish run of Gladiators last year, which was given a decent slot and clearly did well enough to perpetuate itself (they only acquired the first couple of series initially).
As for only showing the Les Dennis editions of Family Fortunes - well they tried the earlier stuff and it simply didn't do as well. I watched a few of them for intrigues sake but they are not the programmes I remember fondly, I'm sure it's the same for many others too.
Might cause a stir but GOLD has had better times. I have fond memories of UK GOLD and miss the variety. GOLD is a good station but UK GOLD was better.
UK Gold was a product of a very different era. I have very fond memories of it too, but a lot of its schedule back in the 90s was the result of compromise - both with unions determining what could and could not be shown, and also with the lack of bandwidth on the analogue platforms it launched on combined with the relatively small audiences and relatively high cost of running such a channel back then. It was toe in the water stuff, and it worked for a bit.
To be honest, a good portion of my fond memories are from watching Doctor Who omnibuses, and it doesn't seem that any conventional broadcaster can make that work now - the Horror Channel gave it a very strong push a few years ago but it didn't last long. As with a lot of these things, most of the hardcore audience will now have the DVDs and whatnot. The casuals that might see 'Doctor Who' on the EPG are probably going to be disappointed.