Last night just before 9pm Claire Balding signed off, saying coverage from Turin would continue in "about twenty minutes". The programme closed, a couple of trails were shown (nothing anyone who spends more than 30 minutes a week watching the BBC won't have seen before) and then a BBC 2 ident, and back into the Olympics again (not before a 30 second title sequence). Clare Balding reappeared commenting that was a short 20 mins.
What on earth was all that about then ? Were Red Bee suffering withdrawal symptoms from not being able to blast the viewer with one of their highly polished 'junctions' for a couple of hours ?
It's been happening throughout the coverage and I can't for the life of me work out why. Every day, it happens at least once. The programme closes, they show some trails and then it's back as if the programme hasn't been on yet.
The twenty minute thing was just an error on Clare's part. I'm sure she meant twenty seconds.
The Winter Olympics was on BBC2 continuously last night yet in 3 separate installments 17:15, 18:50, 20:45 each covering different events.
Maybe it's to help people with electronic programme guides setting their devices to record a particular event, rather than the whole 5 hour broadcast ?
Well I thought that, but the EPG 'event rollover' was at 20:45. In any case events within a normal Grandstand programme are split up on the EPG, yet the programme itself is not. It was as if they were transferring between BBC 1 and 2, but of course they wern't.
This issue has already been discussed on the BBC Sport thread.
The programmes have been split up to allow more of a focus on a particular event. You would have noticed that the three different programmes last night, each was based around a specific event.
For example,
5.15pm - 7.00pm Men's Slalom and Four-Man Bobsleigh
7.00pm - 9.00pm Short-Track Speed Skating
9.00pm - 10.00pm Ice Hockey
The 20-minute thing was a slip of the tongue on Clare's part; on the other side of the break, she said "Well, that was a quick 20 minutes, sorry about that!"
Presumably 'Red Bee' just do what they're told - and its down to those in charge of BBC2.
I think the problem is not so much going for a trail or two, but that, for some time now, the BBC policy has been to produce a minimal amount of trails that are shown ad nauseum, so anyone watching for more than 24 or even 12 hours has already seen them all.
I say again that I'd like to see trails for the show I don't know about and which are likely to be hidden in the schedule rather than ones which are just designed to increase ratings.
Some of the best events have been live OBs with minimal continuity - 2000 Today, the Golden Jubilee etc. (you may remember how they went into and out of Eastenders via the screen in The Mall) - where, from a viewer's perspective, the whole thing is being driven away from TV centre.
The Olympic breaks do allow you to go and make a cup of tea though.
This issue has already been discussed on the BBC Sport thread.
The programmes have been split up to allow more of a focus on a particular event. You would have noticed that the three different programmes last night, each was based around a specific event.
For example,
5.15pm - 7.00pm Men's Slalom and Four-Man Bobsleigh
7.00pm - 9.00pm Short-Track Speed Skating
9.00pm - 10.00pm Ice Hockey
Well neither the RT nor the Freeview EPG reflected that info. As I say 20:45 was the 'roll over' time.
It just seems to me nothing more than a excuse for the 'branding freaks' to insert clutter at every conceivable point. There is no reason why any programme, regardless of discrete segments, cannot be one continuous event. It's worse than ad breaks during commercial TV programmes (they have no other option of course)
One possible use for the junctions mid-programme (although I can't confirm that they been used in this way) would be to allow for a quick change over in gallery staff.
One possible use for the junctions mid-programme (although I can't confirm that they been used in this way) would be to allow for a quick change over in gallery staff.
Unlikely, they could just change over during a long live sequence from the host broadcaster