A detailed treatment of a subject.
Category: Features
The history of Pages from Ceefax
First published in 2008. Last updated: 17th March 2020. The world’s first teletext service, BBC Ceefax (“See Facts”), was launched on 23rd September 1974. The technology was developed out of a desire to create a …
ATV brand needlessly consigned to history?
Today station rebrands are ten a penny but the most radical rebrand of all came at the instigation of the regulator. Central was not a brand new company when it took to the air in …
Mid-80s BBC One: the benefits of one big relaunch over piecemeal changes
18th February 1985 was a red letter day for BBC One. A “new look” to the channel was heavily promoted. Leading the troops into action, Terry Wogan with his new chat show. The following night …
Engineering information for the TV and radio trade
Last updated: 30th December 2019. Other than TV and radio tradesmen and engineers – and presentation enthusiasts – few members of the public will have known about, or paid much attention to, a short unbilled …
Pres implications for ITV Daytime in the new year?
ITV’s new morning schedule starts on 6th January 2020 but will it mean changes to on-screen presentation? The main change concerns the scheduling of Lorraine and This Morning. Lorraine will run from 9am to 10am, …
General election treats for pres fans
General elections are big events for broadcasters. Huge efforts go into mounting the overnight programmes – reporters and crews need to be on hand at as many counts as possible and be placed close to …
Archive footage provides evidence of early use of STV branding
A great little find from the archives was recently shared on Twitter by STV Footage Sales. Better Viewing was made by STV in 1957 to help their viewers understand how to get the most from …
The BBC test card and in-vision teletext
TV Presentation has a cousin – trade test transmissions and in-vision teletext pages.
BBC Two clock goes electronic
Updated: 7th September 2019. The project to replace the Noddy-based clock caption device (where a camera was placed in front of a mechanical clock and colour added by a colour synthesiser) was initiated in 1979 …
ITV: uniting the network (Part 2)
A few weeks ago I took a look at the ultimate failure of the first attempt to create a unitary image for ITV. So how did a single image for most of ITV come into …