Timeline: 2023 Week 9

A round-up of the week’s stories and observations.

• MON 27TH FEB (9PM)
  BBC One balloon will take to the air again this year
• TUE 28TH FEB (9.10PM)
  Dermot Murnaghan signs off on Sky News for the final time
• WED 1ST MAR (7.10PM)
  BBC One balloon turns up in Bristol garage
• WED 1ST MAR (7.45PM)
  A sign of things to come on the BBC’s TV news channel?
• THU 2ND MAR (12.55PM)
  Channel 4 DOG downsized on HD channel
• FRI 3RD MAR (6.30PM)
  Final BBC News Channel-specific live news programme airs
• FRI 3RD MAR (8.15PM)
  Lights go out on Peter Levy on BBC Look North
• SAT 4TH MAR (XPM)
  Channel 4 technical problems during F1 highlights
• SUN 5TH MAR (5.15PM)
  Technical problems keep 5pm BBC News off air

Monday 27th February

9pm BBC One balloon will take to the air again this year

As reported on the Pres Café forum, the Bristol Balloon Club has announced that after years in storage, the BBC One balloon (a Sphere-105 built by Cameron Balloons in 1997) will take to the air again later this year, on a date to be confirmed.

“Super excited to announce the loan of a classic British special shape! We’re pleased to finally announce after the hard work from Mark Lockwood that we can now inflate it for everyone to enjoy after years in storage. We’d also like to thank the BBC for letting us bring it back out to see the light of day again.

“The BBC Globe is a Sphere-105 built by Cameron Balloons in 1997 here in Bristol.”

Bristol Balloon Club

Tuesday 28th February

9.10pm Dermot Murnaghan signs off on Sky News for the final time

Dermot Murnaghan signed off as a presenter on Sky News for the final time this evening, after almost 16 years with the company.

His final words: “You stay classy, planet earth. Goodbye.”

Wednesday 1st March

7.10pm BBC One balloon turns up in Bristol garage

After a lot of interest on social media yesterday, following the news that the Bristol Balloon Club was in possession of the BBC One balloon and was planning on getting it airborne again in the near future, BBC Points West ran a segment on the branding icon this evening.

Reporter Jules Hyam visited the garage where the balloon is currently stored, and viewers could get a sense of the condition of the balloon, in its deflated state.

At first appearance, the balloon appears to be in reasonable condition. However, a test flight this weekend will help reveal any potential serious defects.

7.45pm A sign of things to come on the BBC’s TV news channel?

Not sure if this is an indication of how breaking UK news will be covered for a domestic audience on the BBC News Channel when it merges with BBC World?

For some time now, from 7pm each weekday evening, there’s no dedicated UK-focussed news service on the BBC News Channel.

But shortly before 7pm today, there was a breaking UK news story: remains were found in the search for the missing baby in Sussex.

UK viewers saw the channel crash out of a weather forecast at 6.57pm, to cross live to a press conference. Shortly after the press conference ended, the channel crashed back into scheduled international news programming: Outside Source.

Whilst abruptly interrupting output to bring breaking news is not that unusual, the channel’s inability to discuss this story at any length for a UK audience is relatively new. And the less than slick crashing back into scheduled programming is also new.

Is this how we can expect breaking UK stories to be covered on the channel in the short to medium term? Watch this space.

Thursday 2nd March

12.55pm Channel 4 DOG downsized on HD channel

The large DOG on Channel 4 HD – introduced shortly after regional versions of the HD channel went live last September – was reduced in size early this morning.

The addition of regional versions of the HD channel (for advertising purposes) meant the HD channel could now become the default version of the channel on all platforms. Well, in theory – Freesat implementation is delayed.

The large “HD” text in the DOG was presumably a means of making viewers more aware of the change and that they no longer needed to travel up the EPG for the high-definition version of the channel.

At 6.05am today, the DOG appeared minus the “HD” text.

Friday 3rd March

6.30pm Final BBC News Channel-specific live news programme airs

The final UK-specific live news programme produced by the BBC News Channel in its current form aired at 5pm.

There was no mention of the all-day combined UK/international news service that launches quietly on Monday.

The formal relaunch of the TV news channel takes place on 3rd April. At that point, an updated presentation package will also launch.

8.15pm Lights go out on Peter Levy on BBC Look North

The studio lighting failed briefly during this evening’s edition of BBC Look North (East Yorkshire/Lincolnshire), just as presenter Peter Levy was about to read out comments from viewers.

The programme is currently operating from a temporary set, whilst construction/testing of a new set continues in the main studio.

Saturday 4th March

8.45pm Channel 4 technical problems during F1 highlights

Some of the commercial breaks failed to appear during this evening’s Formula 1 highlights programme on Channel 4.

During the breakdowns – of which there were two – the announcer referenced “problems with our connection”. However, the programme itself appeared unaffected by any technical problems.

Sunday 5th March

5.15pm Technical problems keep 5pm BBC News off air

Playout issues disrupted output on the BBC News Channel for about 45 minutes this afternoon.

The problems began shortly after 4.40pm, when an edition of Click began experiencing intermittent vision/audio glitches.

The fault persisted for almost 15 minutes before the channel switched to a recording of the previous hour’s output.

Scheduled programming resumed at 5.25pm.

The problems also disrupted output on the international channel, BBC World News.

RELATED ARTICLE: Timeline: 2023 Week 8.

RELATED ARTICLE: Timeline: 2023 Week 10.

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