From: ijp@oak9.doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv.uk
Subject: Re: More dosh wasted.... (re: Eldorado)
Date: 21 Jul 92 11:05:43 GMT
Distribution: uk
Organization: Department of Computing, Imperial College, University of London, UK.
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

imc@prg.ox.ac.uk (Ian Collier) writes:
: In article <1992Jul13.181644.2366@cs.nott.ac.uk>, psyhtjs@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (T.Sneath) wrote:
: 
: >Is there room for *another* soap? According to Radio 1, the first episode
: >only had 6 million viewers - not so good for prime time BBC1...
: 
: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
: 
: I'm just dying to see the show flop, so I eagerly await the BARB TV charts
: for last week.  It's just a shame that so much cash has been wasted on it.
: 

So am I. But I think that you'll have to take the very first episodes
viewing figures with a pinch of salt. Remember it was (on this one
occasion) up against 'The Street'.

[ stuff deleted ]
: 
: I seem to remember that not so long ago programmes on the BBC would follow
: each other, with maybe a 30 second trailer, or a 60 second round up of
: today's (or, if it is late, tomorrow's) TV, and perhaps the continuity
: announcer taking 15 seconds to say the title of the programme that's on the
: other channel just now and the programme that follows this one.
: 
: Now, it's routine to expect a trailer, and possibly an in-depth discussion
: about the Radio Times, then an announcement about what is on BBC2, then
: another trailer, then an announcement about what comes afterwards on BBC1,
: before the program arrives.  That still happens even when the next programme
: is already several minutes late.  Advertisements for BBC Enterprises
: publications abound.  A relatively recent feature is the minute-long trailer
: for a program that is on in 25 minutes.  I don't need that.  I can stay on
: and watch it if I particularly want to (which I usually don't).

Ah! But in the past the BBC made most of their own programmes, and
they made them for a British audience. Thus programmes were (give or
take) made to fit half hour slices. Now most of the BBC's output is
either imported stuff, or it has been made with the idea of selling it
to other countries so they try to make them in 25 min. slices so other
companies can fit adverts in. Thus the BBC, to maintain programmes
stating on the hour or half hour need to pad the remaining 5 minutes
with endless pap, adverts (although they got into trouble for too many
of these) for BBC enterprise items, the Radio Times, what's on in 58
hours time, waffle, etc.

As a matter of interest has anyone worked out what the heck the new
trailers for the Olympics are about. The ones where you'll see some
athlete, or whatever, from (I assume) some past Olympics - and then
they'll anounce something about "Olympics '92 on the BBC", but at the
top of the picture will be the name of the program you've just
watched. What have the two got in common, are they all the programs
the BBC will take off, reshedule, muck about with, scrap, etc. just so
they can get their 84 hours of sport in per week, per channel. :-)

: 
: There. I feel much better now. :-)
: 
: Ian Collier
: Ian.Collier@prg.ox.ac.uk | imc@ecs.ox.ac.uk

Ian

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