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  • Question about television for our UK friends...

    Ok, I have a question for you all about television schedules.

    Here in the U.S., television shows usually start at the top/bottom of the hour. Although that occasionally changes slightly. And every now and then a program will overrun its allotted time slot (usually a sporting event).

    For example, a television program might start at 7:30 PM, and another may start at 8PM.

    However, I've been watching Doctor Who for the past few days, and with the added commercials in the programs, it's making them all start at odd times. I don't know if they're adding extra scenes to Doctor Who (here in the states) or adding additional commercials, or what.

    I assume that television programs in the UK have this top of the hour/bottom of the hour schedule as well, but I could be wrong.

    So does the UK have a similar television schedule? I'm assuming it does.
    Skilled programmers aren't cheap. Cheap programmers aren't skilled.

  • #2
    Tom Scott did a video on British television, including an explanation of the advertising regulations and the resulting placement of ads: https://youtu.be/m__OZ3ZsO4Y
    There's no such thing as a stupid question... just stupid people.

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    • #3
      In the UK, Doctor Who airs (1st run) on BBC1 which, like all BBC TV and Radio stations, is commercial free.

      Shows like Doctor Who which are regularly re-sold to other countries and to other UK stations (mostly satellite ones) which Do have commercials, are usually made to run at around 45 minutes, so that, when commercials are added, they round out to an hour.

      The reverse is also true - a 1 hour US TV drama, if shown on a BBC station, will have all the commercial breaks removed and will therefore run for around 45 minutes.
      Last edited by systemcv; 12-27-2020, 10:54 PM.

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      • #4
        Ok but do the shows start at the top of the hour/on the half hour?

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        • #5
          How commercials are down between Britain and the US lead to a interesting situation a few years ago.

          From my understanding, with sports events in Britain, they will run commercials in the nature breaks in the event (IE: Halftime, end of a quarter/period,before and after the event). The US doesn't do that, which leads to the issue of commercials while the action for the event is still going on.

          4ish years ago, ESPN took over the US Formula 1 Racing coverage from NBCSN. F1 produces, in house, the world feed for each event. So each network broadcasting will have the option of using their own commentators, commentating to the world feed. ESPN decided to just rebroadcast Britain's Sky Sports production, including announcers, etc. Because of that, the very first race that ESPN broadcasted became bit of a mess. Skysports never ran commercials while the race was going on, but ESPN still inserted them. Whoever decided when to a break for commercial at ESPN apparently wasn't paying attention to the event, because the race went to commercials at the most random times, sometimes right in the middle of something going on. You were watching the race, and literately, go to commercial while the commentator was in mid- word, and come back from commercial in mid-word or sentience. It was very disjointed and hard to watch. After receiving a number of complaints from viewers after the first race, by the next race, they ran the live coverage without any commercials.
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          • #6
            As a rule, on weekdays, programmes are likely to start at 00, 15, 30 or 45 past the hour depending on whether a block contains 30, 45 or 60 minute shows.

            SO a show may run fro 2:00 to 2:45, then another from 2:45 to 3:45, 3:45 to 4:15, 4:15 to 5:00 and 5:00 to 6:00

            The anchor points are the three main News Bulletins which normally air at 6am, 1pm and 6pm, so the schedule is designed to hit those times.

            Weekendsare a lot looser due to the larger numbers of Movies and Sporting Events which are shown. So programs (including news) may start at any 5 minute point within an hour (they pad to the next 5 minute point with trailers if necessary).

            Commercial stations tend to stick to 1 hhr or 30 minute shows (with ad breaks) so are more likely to start on the hour or half-hour on weekdays.

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            • #7
              Quoth drunkenwildmage View Post
              From my understanding, with sports events in Britain, they will run commercials in the nature breaks in the event (IE: Halftime, end of a quarter/period,before and after the event). The US doesn't do that, which leads to the issue of commercials while the action for the event is still going on.
              This is not quite right, at least in my experience. In the U.S., they do actually run ads during the "natural" breaks in the event. Except it's more of them, I think. A couple of examples:

              In Major League Baseball, commercials are generally aired between half innings, and during pitching changes.

              In American Football, there are oftentimes commercial breaks between quarters, at the half, during timeouts, (sometimes) after a score, and at a change of possession.

              However, because of the "Heidi Game", the networks carrying NFL games (as with other major sports) are obligated to carry the games to their conclusion.

              Although I'm not a "soccer" fan, I have watched a couple of World Cups (both men's and women's). They didn't break for commercials in the middle of the match.

              As far as auto racing, they've gotten better. I don't know exactly when they started doing this, but now they do a kind of "picture in picture" thing, where the race is in the "big" picture, and the commercials are in the smaller one.
              Skilled programmers aren't cheap. Cheap programmers aren't skilled.

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              • #8
                Just as a footnote, the new episode of Doctor Who airing today (1/1/21) on BBC1 is 1 hour 15 minutes long, running from 6:45pm to 8:00 pm

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                • #9
                  And for our American friends the date should be of course 1/1/21
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                  • #10
                    Quoth systemcv View Post
                    Just as a footnote, the new episode of Doctor Who airing today (1/1/21) on BBC1 is 1 hour 15 minutes long, running from 6:45pm to 8:00 pm
                    Here in the states, where we watched it, it started at 7PM Central time, and ended at something like 8:48PM, so it was an hour and 48 minutes, meaning that, if nothing was cut, it had about 33 minutes worth of ads in it.

                    Quoth Kit-Ginevra View Post
                    And for our American friends the date should be of course 1/1/21
                    I see what you did there...
                    Skilled programmers aren't cheap. Cheap programmers aren't skilled.

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                    • #11
                      I sometimes write dates as something like 4 July 2021 just for the heck of it, as I know that the overwhelming majority of my fellow USians would just get confused if I wrote something like 4/7/2021 to mean that same date.
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                      • #12
                        Quoth EricKei View Post
                        I sometimes write dates as something like 4 July 2021 just for the heck of it, as I know that the overwhelming majority of my fellow USians would just get confused if I wrote something like 4/7/2021 to mean that same date.
                        I do something similar sometimes.

                        Like sometimes if I'm saving a "version" of file on a certain date, or noting something on a certain date, I might make it something like 02-JAN-2021.

                        Sometimes I'll format dates in databases, or format dates on a spreadsheet like that.
                        Skilled programmers aren't cheap. Cheap programmers aren't skilled.

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                        • #13
                          Quoth drunkenwildmage View Post
                          From my understanding, with sports events in Britain, they will run commercials in the nature breaks in the event (IE: Halftime, end of a quarter/period,before and after the event).
                          The majority of major sporting events here are on additional paid channels, so the problem doesn't come up. No popular sport has quarters or periods of less than a halfway point, except cricket and you could drop a commercial into a game of cricket almost anywhere without disruption. The few sporting events broadcast on national commercial television tend to get fewer ad breaks to avoid missing anything important, after a few infamous occasions where they tried inserting ads at various intervals and ended up with situations where match-winning scoring actions were missed.
                          Quoth mjr View Post
                          Here in the states, where we watched it, it started at 7PM Central time, and ended at something like 8:48PM, so it was an hour and 48 minutes, meaning that, if nothing was cut, it had about 33 minutes worth of ads in it.
                          Sounds about right; a "30 minute" show might have 19-23 minutes of actual show, and the rest commercials. Let's split the difference and call it 21/9. 9 minutes in a half-hour show, 18 in an hour, 36 in two - so 33 for a 1h48 show fits well.

                          Oh, we'd also be having less frequent but longer breaks here too, on most channels anyway. I remember when I first watched a half-hour show in the US, and was amazed at them squeezing in three breaks during the show; we'd just have one at about halfway, and one between shows which seemed to be less common over there.
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                          • #14
                            Quoth mjr View Post
                            This is not quite right, at least in my experience. In the U.S., they do actually run ads during the "natural" breaks in the event. Except it's more of them, I think. A couple of examples:

                            In Major League Baseball, commercials are generally aired between half innings, and during pitching changes.

                            In American Football, there are oftentimes commercial breaks between quarters, at the half, during timeouts, (sometimes) after a score, and at a change of possession.

                            However, because of the "Heidi Game", the networks carrying NFL games (as with other major sports) are obligated to carry the games to their conclusion.

                            Although I'm not a "soccer" fan, I have watched a couple of World Cups (both men's and women's). They didn't break for commercials in the middle of the match.

                            As far as auto racing, they've gotten better. I don't know exactly when they started doing this, but now they do a kind of "picture in picture" thing, where the race is in the "big" picture, and the commercials are in the smaller one.

                            Rereading my post, I realized how vague I was on the term 'natural breaks'. For the most part you are correct, and in the cases of American Football, and Baseball that is true. Basketball and Hockey have added 'Media team outs' at certain points of the game that happen at around set time points at the came, when the course of play causes a clock stoppage.

                            Auto racing, and Golf seems to be the biggest user of the picture in picture concept, but, with the exception of ESPN's Live Formula One races, they still will run some full ad breaks while the event is going on. Now, some forms of auto racing will slow the on track action down with caution flags(AKA Safety car period) for crashes, track clean up etc, so broadcasters will try to run breaks then. The problem with that is other then exceptions for 'stage breaks and/or competition cautions' in NASCAR, most caution flags tend to be completely random on if and when they will happen.
                            Just sliding down the razor blade of life.

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