There was a minor playout error tonight on BBC Two, immediately after Newsnight.
As usual, we exited Newsnight and went straight to the Weather. However, one second into the weather bulletin, we moved on to the next event in the playout schedule: a slide for Newscast.
The announcer would normally have voiced the Newscast slide – but not here. A trail for Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday morning political programme then played out in full, before the pre-recorded Weather was recued and played out in full.
The subsequent network junction played out normally.
Playout operations in Northern Ireland and Wales would have had to make adjustments to their respective playout schedules as a result of the network error.
On BBC Two Wales, the playout director/announcer had already gone in circuit before the end of Newsnight and was utilising the clean feed of BBC Two.
The clean feed version of BBC One and BBC Two provides network programme content to the playout operations in Belfast, Glasgow and Cardiff – and excludes the bits between the programmes.
This allows the nations to join and exit networked programmes without catching bits of network junctions.
Between programmes, the clean feed displays a generic BBC-branded animation and soundtrack.
When network exited the Weather prematurely and moved on to junction content, the clean feed switched to the generic animation. And that’s what viewers in Wales saw.
The network director quickly repositioned the Weather bulletin in the playout schedule.
Programme content is available on the clean feed for approximately 5 seconds longer (at each end) than on the conventional network feed. That’s why Welsh viewers will have seen the second airing of the Weather bulletin held on its opening frame for 5 seconds, before playing.
The lack of live voiceover (by the Welsh announcer) on the Newscast slide following the Weather was presumably because the BBC Two Wales director/announcer was still adjusting the local playout schedule to compensate for the network error.
BBC Two Northern Ireland remained with the network feed after Newsnight and therefore relayed the network error in full, including the junction content prior to the replay of the Weather. The remainder of the junction was covered fully by the local playout director/announcer.
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