TV scheduling systems

ifconfig

Is there anyone on this board/forum who has an insight into how adjustments to TV schedules are planned and actioned. I am thinking about recorded programmes. Eg, if Eastenders or Weakest Link are the next programme up and there is some scheduling impact how early (or late) before the actual start time of the programme is finalised ?

In other words, apart from some unforseen production error, is the countdown clock to the programme on a unstoppable course say 1 min before the programme goes out to air ?

Are advert break durations mandated well in advance ?

-ifc

Switcharoo

Schedules (i.e. Playlists) are made the day before TX (transmission), by the channel schedulers. The durations & schedules are accurate to the frame, including commercials. Live programmes/feeds are manually inserted though, and are the only things that usually affect the timing, and push things forward if they run over. When the planned schedule is then resumed by the automation system, it's off by x-amount of time until close of day.
TV3 are the worst for this, as they run so much over that their SKY EPG is usually out by 5 or 6 minutes, and it affects all SKY+ recordings, usually cutting off the end.

Eoin

I had the same problem with The Apprentice - it stopped just at the boardroom scene on one episode!

The good news is that I think Sky+ can be configured to add an extra few minutes to the end of the programme just in case, but I've never tried that.

ifconfig

Thanks for the info Switcharoo.

Are commercials ever shortened or expanded on account of over-running or under-running of live content or are they always, as you suggest, on a very strict frame correct time unalterable time schedule ?
Can the production folks substitute links such as adverts at short notice just to help recover lost time ?

-ifc





QUOTE=Switcharoo;58310953]Schedules (i.e. Playlists) are made the day before TX (transmission), by the channel schedulers. The durations & schedules are accurate to the frame, including commercials. Live programmes/feeds are manually inserted though, and are the only things that usually affect the timing, and push things forward if they run over. When the planned schedule is then resumed by the automation system, it's off by x-amount of time until close of day.
TV3 are the worst for this, as they run so much over that their SKY EPG is usually out by 5 or 6 minutes, and it affects all SKY+ recordings, usually cutting off the end.[/QUOTE]

Switcharoo

ifconfig wrote: »

Thanks for the info Switcharoo.

Are commercials ever shortened or expanded on account of over-running or under-running of live content or are they always, as you suggest, on a very strict frame correct time unalterable time schedule ?
Can the production folks substitute links such as adverts at short notice just to help recover lost time ?

-ifc

Commercials are never shortened. If there is an overrun, they will usually cut out promos & station idents to try & get it back in sync as close as possible, and if there is an underrun they will usually add some promos, etc, to pad it out.
Commercials cannot be added, as you're only allowed 9 mins average per hour, according to Ofcom regs. e.g. you can have 11 mins of commercials in peak hours (i.e. prime time), and 7 mins off-peak, etc (these are known as your "break patterns"), as long as the daily average doesn't exceed 9 mins per hour. Only a fool would cut out commercials as that's your bread & butter, so that rarely happens - unless all promos & idents have been removed & you're still left with a big overrun coming up to live feed that can't be moved - but usually deleting promos will suffice, as you can gain 4 or 5 mins per hour by removing these - do this over 3 hours and you'll gain back 15 mins, which is plenty of leeway.

The good news is that I think Sky+ can be configured to add an extra few minutes to the end of the programme just in case, but I've never tried that.

Yeah - when my wife records TV3, she either sets a manual recording and adds 15 mins to the scheduled end time, or just records the programme after it too. TV3 are feckers for overruns.

Eoin

Channel 6 (I think) can be desperate too. I was recording The US Office, and it managed to record half of the program before, and only the first half of the one I actually wanted to watch!

Ludo

I pad all my Sky+ recordings with 5 mins at the beginning and end. It's in the setup options somewhere. Still miss bits of tvs shows sometimes...idiots.

Robbo

Switcharoo wrote: »

Yeah - when my wife records TV3, she either sets a manual recording and adds 15 mins to the scheduled end time, or just records the programme after it too. TV3 are feckers for overruns.

In fairness, all the regional ITV franchises are terrible for running over.

ifconfig

Is the cutting/padding of promos and station idents handles automatically
by the automated system so as to minimise the impact of previous overruns or underrruns. Or are these decisions manual ones made by humans ?

I am just wondering if the automated system when resuming programme scheduling after a live overrun/unerrrun can record with certainty the ETA of the next programme once the interval leading up to the impacted programme is about to be aired ?

I'd imagine that the net value (after correction by pulling or adding promos,etc) of the schedule lead/lag time would be a key parameter value that would be known and auditable at all times to the production system and personnel.

Do some broadcasters send those adjustments to the Sky EPG once they are known ?
I remember the analog system had something called PDC which informed VCRs,etc that a programme had started. Are some of the broadcasters (TV3, ITV regional excepted) making realtime updates to EPG schedules even in the case of minor changes caused by impacts from news/sports/live programming ?

-ifc

Switcharoo wrote: »

Commercials are never shortened. If there is an overrun, they will usually cut out promos & station idents to try & get it back in sync as close as possible, and if there is an underrun they will usually add some promos, etc, to pad it out.
Commercials cannot be added, as you're only allowed 9 mins average per hour, according to Ofcom regs. e.g. you can have 11 mins of commercials in peak hours (i.e. prime time), and 7 mins off-peak, etc (these are known as your "break patterns"), as long as the daily average doesn't exceed 9 mins per hour. Only a fool would cut out commercials as that's your bread & butter, so that rarely happens - unless all promos & idents have been removed & you're still left with a big overrun coming up to live feed that can't be moved - but usually deleting promos will suffice, as you can gain 4 or 5 mins per hour by removing these - do this over 3 hours and you'll gain back 15 mins, which is plenty of leeway.

Switcharoo

The automation playout system will just play the clips out in the order the playlist specifies - all adjustments are made manually by humans. If you are running 3 mins 43 secs behind schedule, your automation software will tell you exactly how far ahead/behind you are. As you manually delete promos & idents from the remaining day's events, it will adjust the figure. A few seconds off is acceptable, but when it gets into minutes is when people start missing the end of programmes!
Also, channels that don't have any live/web feeds, usually run the whole day without being even 1 frame out of sync., since it's all predetermined programming.

EPGs are rarely updated to reflect overruns, etc. SKY don't like too many updates, as sometimes it knocks programmes of people's personal planners.
In fact, RTÉ use some lame 3rd party for their EPGs, which is why all their EPGs are one-liner generics - Prime Time, Late Late Show, etc - they're never episode specific, which is very poor.

ifconfig

Hi Switcharoo.

Sorry that I'm being such an "anorak" on this but here's another question
I have :

Would it be fair to say that the manual tweaking you describe may actually
occur in some instances while the automation system is advancing with
playing the commercials in preparation for the next programme or would
those "tweaks" need to be committed into the system some time slightly
earlier than the commercials were aired ? i.e how much of this manual
tweaking is undertaken "on the fly" while the advert sequence has already
commenced ?

For example, if the news bulletin overran by 2mins could the commercials start
running while the operator is concurrently and busily making final tweaks to see
whether he/she can swap in/out promo/station id slots to narrow the skew from
the original schedule ? Or, would the operator have had to finalise that decision
as to the overall length of the interval between programmes before the adverts
immediately following the news bulletin begun airing ?

-ifc

Switcharoo wrote: »

The automation playout system will just play the clips out in the order the playlist specifies - all adjustments are made manually by humans. If you are running 3 mins 43 secs behind schedule, your automation software will tell you exactly how far ahead/behind you are. As you manually delete promos & idents from the remaining day's events, it will adjust the figure. A few seconds off is acceptable, but when it gets into minutes is when people start missing the end of programmes!
Also, channels that don't have any live/web feeds, usually run the whole day without being even 1 frame out of sync., since it's all predetermined programming.

EPGs are rarely updated to reflect overruns, etc. SKY don't like too many updates, as sometimes it knocks programmes of people's personal planners.
In fact, RTÉ use some lame 3rd party for their EPGs, which is why all their EPGs are one-liner generics - Prime Time, Late Late Show, etc - they're never episode specific, which is very poor.

Switcharoo

You can manually delete anything that hasn't aired yet. Most automation systems (Pharos, Harris, etc) have safety parameters though (which can be adjusted, depending on a channel's procedure/policy) - most a few minutes ahead - so you usually can't manually delete something that's airing within 1 minute, etc. if you delete somethighn 5 secs before it airs, some systems may crash, or cause a glitch - it depends on the system, and how far you push it.

Elmo

Switcharoo wrote: »

Commercials cannot be added, as you're only allowed 9 mins average per hour, according to Ofcom regs. e.g. you can have 11 mins of commercials in peak hours (i.e. prime time), and 7 mins off-peak, etc (these are known as your "break patterns"), as long as the daily average doesn't exceed 9 mins per hour. Only a fool would cut out commercials as that's your bread & butter, so that rarely happens - unless all promos & idents have been removed & you're still left with a big overrun coming up to live feed that can't be moved - but usually deleting promos will suffice, as you can gain 4 or 5 mins per hour by removing these - do this over 3 hours and you'll gain back 15 mins, which is plenty of leeway.

OfCom do not regulate TV3, RTE, TG4, Setanta or City.

The BCI set the limits. AFAIK they are different for each, PBS channels are only allowed on average 6 mins, but a max of 9 in any one hour. While Commerical broadcasters are allowed 9mins on average and a max of 12 in anyone hour. Community channels differ again.

Channel promos and Ads provide for free to charities are not counted as ads.