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Digital TV
Mar. 20th, 2006 02:42 pmAccording to Digital Spy, FilmFour (which has long been the only channel which might have tempted me to shell out for a satellite dish) will launch on Freeview from July. The channel will also be free to satellite users. That’s good news, now the only channel I don’t get on which I regularly see something I wish I could watch will be available.
BBC4 is a gem, the only thing wrong with it is it doesn’t start broadcasting until 19:00! If it started broadcasting in mid-afternoon, perhaps showing stuff from the BBC’s archives (Horizon, Omnibus, Arena, plays, what have you), it would be even better. Last night, it was very pleasant to sit back and listen to La Mer from last year’s Proms in the early evening.
ITV4 is an interesting channel. In general, I don’t watch much ITV, only the occasional detective thing; ITV3 has some decent stuff from the archives, and I dip into that from time to time (I ended up watching Quantum Leap at lunchtime, mainly captivated by the 80s hair). ITV4 shows some cult TV stuff, some of which I watch, but... it is very irritating. It isn’t the continuity announcer (although having one who sounds clinically depressed is, surprisingly, even more irritating than the relentlessly chirpy ones on other channels), it’s the ad breaks. Clearly, these are inserted automatically with no human involvement, since they pay no regard to the programme. It is common for someone to be cut off in mid-sentence; it is particularly galling in programmes which have built-in fades to black for ad breaks. (I am also still pissed off with ITV4 for showing the last two episodes of Danger Man only: look, people who like these old programmes are not afraid of monochrome!)
What I didn’t expect from ITV4, based on its pedigree and what I heard about it before its launch, was that it would show some interesting, non-mainstream viewing. I am thinking of things like the documentary Outfoxed (which, even if you ignore everything the documentary makers and those they interview say and only watch the footage from Fox News itself, shows Fox News to be a shocking tool of misinformation), or Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media. (Yes, both films suffered from ad breaks jumping in in mid-sentence.) It would be better if stuff like that were available on ITV1 (there was a time when they would have been — but a lot of you weren’t born then), but two cheers at least for it being shown on any ITV channel.
WRT More4: if I ever get my hands on the numpty who thinks that the way to show a programme is to cut to adverts immediately after the programme’s opening titles...
BBC4 is a gem, the only thing wrong with it is it doesn’t start broadcasting until 19:00! If it started broadcasting in mid-afternoon, perhaps showing stuff from the BBC’s archives (Horizon, Omnibus, Arena, plays, what have you), it would be even better. Last night, it was very pleasant to sit back and listen to La Mer from last year’s Proms in the early evening.
ITV4 is an interesting channel. In general, I don’t watch much ITV, only the occasional detective thing; ITV3 has some decent stuff from the archives, and I dip into that from time to time (I ended up watching Quantum Leap at lunchtime, mainly captivated by the 80s hair). ITV4 shows some cult TV stuff, some of which I watch, but... it is very irritating. It isn’t the continuity announcer (although having one who sounds clinically depressed is, surprisingly, even more irritating than the relentlessly chirpy ones on other channels), it’s the ad breaks. Clearly, these are inserted automatically with no human involvement, since they pay no regard to the programme. It is common for someone to be cut off in mid-sentence; it is particularly galling in programmes which have built-in fades to black for ad breaks. (I am also still pissed off with ITV4 for showing the last two episodes of Danger Man only: look, people who like these old programmes are not afraid of monochrome!)
What I didn’t expect from ITV4, based on its pedigree and what I heard about it before its launch, was that it would show some interesting, non-mainstream viewing. I am thinking of things like the documentary Outfoxed (which, even if you ignore everything the documentary makers and those they interview say and only watch the footage from Fox News itself, shows Fox News to be a shocking tool of misinformation), or Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media. (Yes, both films suffered from ad breaks jumping in in mid-sentence.) It would be better if stuff like that were available on ITV1 (there was a time when they would have been — but a lot of you weren’t born then), but two cheers at least for it being shown on any ITV channel.
WRT More4: if I ever get my hands on the numpty who thinks that the way to show a programme is to cut to adverts immediately after the programme’s opening titles...
