Re: BBC programme start times (again!) - discuss

m wrote:
Some of you (who have strange viewing habits) may watch 'The One Show' and be constantly annoyed that it ALWAYS starts at 18:58 - despite being billed as a 19:00 start.

It is even worse if you (really?) want to record it as DTT doesn't have PDC and Dsat relys on the bloke in Sky getting around to send the now/next flag to start timers via the EPG. (There another rant over)

The subject was aparantly raised last week on 'Points of View' where the explanation given was something like "Timings are always a bit loose but we try to aim for 19:00"

There is a viewer's letter in Radio Times this week where the BBC answer is:-

".... we checked and it doesn't always start at 6:58p.m. although this often happens. Says a BBC spokesman (shouldn't that be spokesperson in this PC age? - my comment) The One Show has a start time that varies very (SIC) slightly from day to day in order to accomodate the changing running time of the live news bulletin that precedes it. It is also to ensure that there is room for the eight o'clock news update later in the evening"

The cynic in me suspects that the early start is to keep viewers after the 6 and to start the show before Emmerdale/Channel 4 news etc etc.
The 6 has to be accurately timed because it ends with regional opt-outs and surely the show could run at 58mins to accomodate the eight summary?

If newsreaders etc can time themselves to meet opt-out timings, surely One Show presenters (if they are any good) should be able to do the same thing to make the show the right length?

Isn't that why one used to have a director/PA who knew how to time things and a floor manager (Joan?) who could pass on timings. The presenters even have deaf aids so can be told when to 'shut up'

No it all comes down to amateurishness nowadays!

Mike

Hi Mike!

They also said people don't want to know about 1858, for example, but rather think of 1900 as the start of a programme.

No problems with PVR starting, in theory.

Both DTT & DSAT N & N triggers are derived from SID - the playout computer, so should be ultra accurate.

What is happening with the trigger for programme start (Running Status Flag - RSF)I suspect, from conversations with those in the know, is that the regionality of BBC1 and itv1 is upsetting the stream sync.

In the case of the Humax DTT PVR (which I've been chasing) it relies on the RSF being toggled to start and stop the recording. This should happen some seconds before the programme actually does start. And with plenty of time, taking account of the refresh rate of the appropriate tables in the Service Information (SI) stream.

The BBC state this would be at the start of the ad before the actual programme, itv1 say the start of their ad break.

But because both BBC1 and itv1 transmit different streams according to the region there seems to be a problem with the clock synchronising the SI stream.

itv hoped it would come right when they move to centralised coding & mux, as do the BBC.

I'm thinking of doing a FoI to find out just what's going on!

Regards,
Richard
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