Thames Handover to LWT - Jan 1982

The first 5:15 handover between Thames and LWT in 1982

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Thames
• LWT
• ITV

[TheWillsy]

Mr. Elsmore is the daddy of continuity announcing.

[EuroAlien]

You're not kidding!! Talk about right-in-your-face from the boys at the South Bank!

[AmsterdamnedMovie]

ok... its friday, its five fifteen... is it crackerjack time? is it fuck, this is itv, we're getting drunk all weekend, see you monday morning monkeyspanks :)... actually, monday lunchtime, as there is no early morning tv yet, and from nine am we hand our shit over to the schools networks lol

[northernanorak]

@cwilliams1976 sync pulses had nothing to do with this one, ITN would have adjusted their SPG to match C4 pres in the same way that any incoming source to the BBC did. It was only ITV that needed to resync before each network prog, having so many disparate playout centres. The time changed purely because the IBA decided that as of the 1982 franchise round the weekend franchise should start a bit earlier to balance the revenue opportunities for the weekday and weekend companies a bit better.

[tomservo56954]

Speaking as a Yank, I have never been able to understand how one broadcasting entity could program a channel from Monday to Friday afternoon, then the channel would be operated by a different broadcaster for the weekend. It would be like having CBS from Monday to Thursday, then the same spot on the dial airing NBC Friday to Sunday.

[robinlee1972]

I used to get very excited about the handover it marked the weekend (i was 10) !

[cwilliams1976]

@LuthansaTerminal Channel 4 was a national, not regional service. Every technical issue, resource and factors would have to be taken into consideration. When deciding things everything has to be taken into consideration.

[LuthansaTerminal]

@cwilliams1976 What does that have to do with anything? You think they'd schedule the whole week's worth of programmes around a minor jump in the picture in one region once a week?

As I say below, unless you've got proper evidence for your claims.... this is moving onto a private message

[LuthansaTerminal]

@cwilliams1976 Again... evidence please. As I've explained there would have been no issue with it happening before the news.

Anyway stop clogging up the comments, unless you've got hard evidence for any of your claims. Lets take this to a PM

[cwilliams1976]

@LuthansaTerminal Channel 4 News was fixed at 7pm when the schedules were looked at in around 1981, and so well after the IBA franchise round of 1980 it was then decided on that basis that the IBA grant LWT an extension to begin at 5.15pm and so this would mean that the advertisements would show on Channel 4 undisturbed.

[cwilliams1976]

@LuthansaTerminal Here is something to put to you then - looking back at Channel 4's schedules then, Countdown was only scheduled Mondays-Thursdays at 4.45pm and The Munsters was shown at 4.45pm on Fridays because Thames was on the air and therefore could very easily sell advertising time on Channel 4 without the duration time interfering, and also The Tube was shown on Channel 4 which meant that LWT could very easily attract advertising to a young audience at that time on a Friday evening.

[LuthansaTerminal]

@cwilliams1976 Your channel 4 theory doesn't work - the decision would have been made at least 2 years before Ch4 came on air, long before scheduling would have been decided. The changeover didn't affect their operation at all except in the London area. Even there it was just a case of scheduling breaks in the correct places and putting up with a slight picture glitch once a week. It's network output wouldn't have been affected at all no matter what time it happened