Too much information
Does anyone else get frustrated by the amount of information superimposed on TV screens especially during important events. The BBC is the worst offender I think.
During the many Covid briefings from Downing Street there have been at least three different strap-lines, one at the top telling us that the picture is' Live from Downing Street' (but not, of course, if you have recorded it)Towards the bottom of the screen is 'BBC News' frequently telling us that Boris or others will be leading the briefing that is already on and that we are trying to watch and then a second ticker-tape line at the bottom of the screen of 'Breaking News' some of which we have just heard Boris etc telling us and some completely irrelevant to the matter in hand. These two lower lines in particular block out a good proportion of the screen, often making important information shown at the bottom of the graphs completely invisible. The lower part of a person's head is also frequently obliterated.
The same thing happened yesterday during the 41 gun salute for Prince Philip. Many of the guns couldn't actually be seen for the same reason as above, particularly Cardiff Castle. Why broadcast something that can't be seen. I may as well listen to the radio.
Do the producers of these programmes never actually look at what they are broadcasting or do the copy writers just believe in their own self importance and believe that their wordage is more important than the picture that they are covering up?
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The BBC are facing lots of complaints about what they did in terms of broadcasting generally the evening of Prince Philip’s death. I do think they occasionally lose the plot around certain issues, and they lost huge swathes of watchers on the Friday evening. They even closed down BBC4 for the whole evening.
Most of the channels use those strap lines at the bottom of the screen for rolling news programmes. At least they help those hard of hearing.....0 -
Channels like BBC News always have rolling news at the bottom as do most news channels including Sky. I think what happens is that for the things you mention they use the BBC News Channel format rather than say the usual BBC News at 6.00pm. Apparently the BBC News Channel is available across the world so that could be an explanation as to why?It gets worse if you are unfortunate enough to require the subtitles on! The BBC have come in for a lot of criticism for the blanket coverage of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. The same output was broadcast simultaneously on BBC1,BBC2 and BBC News. They even took BBC Four off air!!! Now I appreciate that at times like this the BBC has a duty, as national broadcaster, to broadcast extensive coverage of these sorts of events. They are probably dammed if they do and dammed if they don't?
David
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The BBC website has an online complaints form available and I understand it has been extremely well used in the last few days.
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It’s the sort of decision that might have had HRH muttering something like “bloody ridiculous” to be honest. We had Channel4 news on (incidentally had highest viewing figures that night) just to catch up with odds and ends, then had a browse at Beeb4, only to find it wasn’t there! At first I thought it might be because it’s going to become an “archives only” channel, but then it was mentioned in news next day.
I have no doubt much of what the Beeb were broadcasting on all its channels was of interest to many, but likewise there’s only so much of one topic you can absorb, and personally I’m not a huge fan of the way every ounce of a tenuous link is repeated over and over again. It’s not something I’d complain about as we don’t watch what it might have replaced anyway, but just thought it a slightly odd decision.
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Just before the gun salutes yesterday the BBC produced the most pompous whatsitted cleric of no known origin (to me) who proceeded to say the queen would die and would be preparing for that already...
I immediately switched to ITV, opened a window too and heard the solemn and perfect tolling of the muffled bell from our church tower.
I don't think the coverage is more than needed as we won't see many more like Prince Philip in our life time, someone who has spanned the generations. So I won't be adding to the complaints list. But some of the comments have been dire.
I'm old enough to remember a blank TV screen when a major event happened.
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The same thing happened yesterday during the 41 gun salute for Prince Philip. Many of the guns couldn't actually be seen for the same reason as above, particularly Cardiff Castle. Why broadcast something that can't be seen.
I also found it most annoying. I was watching on the BBC news channel which always has them, so switched to BBC 1, but it was the same on there.😡
I found much of the output on Friday interesting, however it did seem a bit odd it being on 1, 2 and the News. 1 and the News makes sense, as the News channel isn’t available all over the UK. Why they also had to tie up channel 2 is a mystery.
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I can’t agree with you about the amount of coverage, Brue. Of course there should have been airtime devoted to it but not to the point of saturation which has alienated a lot of people and, by association, done the Royal Family no favours in terms of popularity. It's perfectly possible and right to pay respect and honour the deceased in a sensible and balanced manner.
I, too, am old enough to remember the old days but that was then and this is now - a whole different world and a very different mood in the population.
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It doesnt concern me too much TW, I'm not that much of a TV watcher but I did miss Gardener's World (twice.
)Oops I read posts in the wrong order and hadn't realised the OP is writing about a lot of other things concerned with broadcasts in general.
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I think that probably the BBC has got the message? The odd thing is that they prepared for such events years in advance and yet the duplication of broadcasts and closing of BBC4 seemed to be done in a panic. Being the DG of the BBC must be an awful job, enemies to the right and enemies to the left if you get my drift plus a growing number of people who don't want to pay the licence fee but rarely come up with a workable solution to how public broadcasting should be financed and its independence guaranteed.
David
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I thought the OP was about how much information was displayed on a particular screen, not about the blanket covering of HRH's death, which yes was probably too much, but the Beeb did broadcast some very good historical archives and some very interesting history, all those complaining had best leave the country when Her Majesty kicks her clogs
or run the risk of having a coronaryanything beats Master Chef, but no doubt they will re schedule that
P.S some great music being played on BBC Radio 2 today as a tribute to HRH
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I've always got the radio on R4 and was happy to listen and learned a lot, but it when I thought I'd heard enough and I fancied a changed I found even R4extra was same coverage and similarly on Saturday same play which was gloomy too.
Having heard commentary for several hours on Friday we found TV was repeating the same commentary in the evening we resorted to recorded programmes. Checked out our unwatched recordings Saturday, and thought lovely, walks, railway journeys and have i got news for you. Took a few minutes before I fell in that it wasn't the few minutes pre start but continued coverage!
I won't be complaining. But dont thinking helped our, the nations, mental health on top of the lockdown. Especially those living alone as mentioned. And plans for what to do and broadcast when it happens have been in place for years and years!
I find that the BBC still move programmes, as they did when not everyone had BBC2, from BBC 1 as they do for the Downing Street briefings, which is very annoying.
ITV was covering in the same way.
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"And plans for what to do and broadcast when it happens have been in place for years and years!"
Yes it was called "Operation Forth Bridge" and the slow wheels were set in motion when HRH returned to Windsor from hospital, when it was announced the bridge had collapsed on Friday everything swung into action, most of what the Beeb broadcast on Friday night had been pre-recorded and was interspersed by some live interviews
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I must admit to feeling a bit piqued. I've not thad the chance to get annoyed about this blanket coverage as I hardly watch television and find my news, when i want it, online. After the first few Covid broadcasts with Pinnochio in charge we tended to stick to local Welsh ones, once a week.
As we don't carry a TV in the caravan we couldn't watch the coverage of HRH even if we wanted to but I do know MiL, at home, was livid with it so I did get to hear about it, quite a few times actually.
With regard to the OP, I must admit on the few times I do have the news on in the morning then I do find the number os "straps" very annoying so I agree with him.
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I'm very happy for you, Husky, and my TV too has an off switch which was deployed.
If you put aside the wisecracks, you might see how, in the view of many, the powers that be and/or broadcasters grossly misjudged their role.
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Not everyone thinks the same, I've caught up on some history lessons. The Royal family made a terrible mistake with the Romanovs which is why it wasn't repeated with Prince Philip's broken family. I'd rather hear a bit of history than a Miss Marple repeat.
That's not a wisecrack by the way. I'm lucky enough to have seen TV production live.
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I really don’t need you to be happy for me
, I don’t think the broadcasters got it wrong , if a person of his standing doesn’t deserve a few hours of TV about his life then we have got to a sad state of affairs , P.S , I’m not for or against the royals
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I know not everyone thinks that, Brue, which was why I said "in the view of many".
I'm not sure how relevant seeing live TV production is. 🤷🏻♂️
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I quite agree that The Duke of Edinburgh deserved a few hours of TV coverage and I made that clear earlier.
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Most of us pay a licence fee but-to have almost every channel with hours & hours of the same coverage was too much. Today ain’t that much different. He HRH did good I agree but I don’t want it force feeding with it.
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I put all of em in the text box at the end. I also asked for an explanation👍🏻
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