Sloppy editing at the BBC? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: eti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2020, 03:50:04 am
content: I find it exceptionally sloppy & lazy of the BBC to have some episodes of programmes on iPlayer, where the continuity announcer from the live broadcast of the programme you're watching (the voiceover person who tells you "... and in ten mins on BBC2, is Newsnight" etc, etc...) is left on the soundtrack, either just before the opening titles or just after the end credits.It's not on ALL programmes, and even then, not on ALL episodes; it's seemingly random.Imagine it to be the difference between buying a DVD of a series or recording it off the TV with a VCR; had you bought the DVD, you'd have no continuity announcer blabbering all over the soundtrack telling you the news is beginning on BBC2 in ten mins! It's not like they can't fix this - prerecorded programmes come on separate disks/tapes and are "clean" (only contain the soundtrack for that programme).Imagine buying a pack of postcards that had already been written, stamped/franked and posted...Lazy! Lazy!!... or is there A GOOD reason?

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 29, 2020, 05:32:50 am
content: Hi ETI, welcome to the forum. I notice you just recently joined us. We try to keep non-EE/tech related talk to a minimum. Happy to let this one go, but just something to keep in mind, otherwise people just fill the forum up with all kinds of off-topic stuff.Also, maybe the BBC are getting their episodes from torrent sites? ;-)

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 29, 2020, 06:40:16 am
content: iplayer is literally a non stop "recorder" of the various channels automatically cut. It's not a presentation service, it is literally a "this is what you missed" service, it's not meant to be amazon prime or netflix. The now separate sounds site because "radio" is too old a word to use is the same, program episodes end and then there is quite some length of another following program or the intro to the program was cut. Yes it's sloppy but it not and online record and DVD store, it's literally "here's what we made earlier" probably cut on the fly by a minimum crew that have to do the editing as the stuff goes out and be ready for the next program.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2020, 07:10:23 am
content: I've wondered for a long time why the continuity announcers are live (you can hear them occasionally muck up) rather than pre-recording all program announcements the previous day.

author: steve30
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2020, 07:13:31 am
content: I haven't used iPlayer in years, but when I used to use it, I noticed some programmes didn't have continuity announcements, and some did. I guess it could be that the programmes that went out live had the announcements on, and other programmes didn't.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 29, 2020, 12:24:19 pm
content: I have not forgotten when the BBC broadcast some old episodes of journey into space I had never heard. They got to the last episode and cocked it up sending out the previous one instead. Did they fix it on iplayer/sounds? nope!

author: eti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 01, 2020, 10:35:29 pm
content: Quote from: Simon on June 29, 2020, 06:40:16 amI doubt this is the case, very much indeed.Since the BBCare the source- the broadcaster - I would assume they have all theoriginalprogrammes SANS continuity,v/o etc, on drives/tapes/whatever, and I'd think they have the iPlayer media files for the days programmes, already encoded and uploaded to a private area of their media servers, and once the programme end time is reached, a script ("cron" job?) would automatically edit the iPlayer page/apps/etc and make the programme immediately available.I feel you may be looking at this from a different perspective; why would THE SOURCE need to "record" anything at all?

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 02, 2020, 07:21:56 am
content: I know it sounds silly but that is how the radio version, sorry "sounds" version sounds. Even decades old programs from the archives like the navy lark are differently edited and presented at each episode as though live caught today. I doubt it's being done on actual audio but it feels like there is a non stop stream of media lined up in one 24 hour track that someone takes snippet copies of, bit before the start and bit after the end and sometimes half of another program is on the end (yes literally up to 10 minutes) and often the title of the program being anounce is mangled as they start it a bit too late.I know, totally unnecessary, I have no idea why they do that, maybe it's some legal thing about being playback and not original material or it's just a silly way of working that is so procedural no one has bothered to change it. Like i said it's so bad that when they transmitted the wrong episode they also put that episode on catchup.

author: eti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2020, 10:49:37 pm
content: Quote from: Simon on July 02, 2020, 07:21:56 amMy assumptions may well be wrong then

author: bw2341
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 05, 2020, 06:47:27 pm
content: Maybe there are music licensing agreements involved? They may have only paid for rights to replay music that is part of the live radio broadcast. If the clean audio program counts as an on-demand web broadcast, the music licensing companies may demand additional royalties.In Canada, the CBC got in trouble with music publishers by liberally interpreting their music license for broadcasting and offering a multitude of new themed music streams online for free.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 05, 2020, 07:05:56 pm
content: I don't think that is the problem. They have specific licence agreements about availability. For example one program I heared this discussed about was specifically licensed for 3 broadcasts, the maiden one on Radio four, the repeat on Radio four and the repeat of the repeat on Radio four extra. I can't remember more details but i would expect that availability online for a certain number of days, 30 in the case of the BBC for most programs but some last longer so clearly different agreements got made.