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Channel 4 playout crashes delaying afternoon Countdown

Posted on 27th October 2021 by The Clean Feed Team
Last updated on 30th December 2022 Filed under News

Channel 4’s playout woes continue with today’s edition of Steph’s Packed Lunch falling off air.

The broadcaster’s playout operation remains based at its disaster recovery facility following the incident at its main playout centre in the Red Bee Media building on 25th September.

In the month since being displaced from the Red Bee Media site, Channel 4’s TV services have suffered a number of technical issues.

At 2.06pm, minutes before Steph’s Packed Lunch was due to end, the picture froze – and this image remained on screen for a couple of minutes, before a block of ads appeared.

About a minute-and-a-half later, the frozen image reappeared and remained for almost a further eight minutes before being replaced by a ‘Programmes Continue Shortly’ caption.

VIDEO: an edited version of what happened from moments before the start of the breakdown until the appearance of the ‘Programmes Continue Shortly’ graphic. TX DATE: 27th October 2021. COPYRIGHT: Channel 4 Television Corporation.

At 2.23pm, the planned edition of Countdown got under way.

VIDEO: the afternoon edition of Countdown gets under way, fifteen minutes late, due to a technical fault. TX DATE: 27th October 2021. COPYRIGHT: Channel 4 Television Corporation.

There was no on air apology. But Channel 4 did issue a statement on social media at 2.35pm:

We’re sorry about our tech hiccup this afternoon and hope you can now view as normal. Further updates will be posted here.

Channel 4 (Twitter)

Just over a week ago, Channel 4 said it was building a new playout facility, which it hopes to bring online by mid-November.

And more bad news for Channel 4 followed later in the day, when Ofcom issued a further statement regarding the broadcaster’s technical back-up arrangements:

After a long outage, subtitles have now been restored on many Channel 4 programmes. However, signing and audio description are still not available on the broadcaster’s channels.

We remain deeply concerned about the scale of the technical failures experienced by Channel 4 and the length of time taken to fix them. These problems have caused deep upset and frustration among people who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or partially sighted.

Channel 4 did not have strong backup measures in place, and it should not have taken several weeks to provide a clear, public plan and timeline for fixing the problem.

We expect Channel 4 to meet – or exceed – the timings it has set for restoring all its subtitling and other access services.

When this is done, Ofcom will review the equipment and facilities that Channel 4 had – and now has – in place, so that lessons can be learned.

We will consider what action might be required to make sure broadcasters do not find themselves in this situation again, and that subtitles, signing and audio description remain reliable even when problems occur with the infrastructure used to provide them.

Ofcom

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Tags: Channel 4, Channel 4 Television Corporation, Countdown, Playout, Red Bee Media, Red Bee Media Incident (Sep 2021), Steph's Packed Lunch

Dates for the Diary

6th/7th February: BBC One West Midlands HD, BBC One East Yorkshire/Lincolnshire HD and BBC Alba HD launch on satellite. BBC One/Two Wales SD services close on satellite.

13th/14th February: BBC One West HD, BBC One South West HD, BBC One Channel Islands HD, BBC One London HD and BBC RB1 HD launch on satellite.

20th/21st February: BBC One North East and Cumbria HD, BBC One North West HD, BBC One Yorkshire HD and BBC Parliament HD launch on satellite. BBC One Scotland SD and BBC Scotland SD services close on satellite.

22nd/23rd February: BBC One South East HD launches on satellite.

February 2023: new set for BBC Midlands Today goes live.

13th February 2023: Sky Kids launches.

Q1 2023: BBC Chameleon branding introduced on air for BBC Weather, CBBC and CBeebies.

April 2023: BBC News Channel and BBC World News merge.

November/December 2023: World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC-23).

Q1 2024: SD versions of BBC channels close on satellite.

2024: BBC Four and CBBC go online-only.

2024: BBC Radio 4 Extra goes online-only.

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