[robertclark125]

With the 35th anniversary of ITV Schools on 4 launching, which happened on 14th September 1987, there was a development of this, in 1989. Channel 4 launched breakfast time programming, with The Channel 4 Daily. This programme ended at 09:24, and there was then a trailer for a show on 4, before at about 09:25 there was an interval, with originally a still image of the ITV Schools on 4 clock, then from 1992 the rotomotion device (link below), with the caption "Schools programmes follow shortly".

This was during the period when the regional ITV companies sold the C4 airtime, and the C4 daily ended at 09:24 to allow TV-am to be switched out the C4 circuit and the ITV companies switched in, like what happened on ITV. It begs this question, when it came to 09:25, why did they need an interval, why couldn't the regional ITV companies try to sell the airtime before 09:28? Were they allowed to?

ITV Schools on Channel Four / Timelines - 1992 - YouTube

[WillPS]

I don't know the answer but I imagine given there would have been a full minute from the end of the previous programme, and the next programme was for schools, perhaps there simply wasn't thought to be much demand for an isolated morning break?

Did any ITV companies open up with a break after TV-am? I'm racking my brains but every cap I can remember seeing goes straight from the eggcup card to a trail or an ident.

[Clean Feed]

This was during the period when the regional ITV companies sold the C4 airtime, and the C4 daily ended at 09:24 to allow TV-am to be switched out the C4 circuit and the ITV companies switched in, like what happened on ITV. It begs this question, when it came to 09:25, why did they need an interval, why couldn't the regional ITV companies try to sell the airtime before 09:28? Were they allowed to?

ITV Schools on Channel Four / Timelines - 1992 - YouTube

Any TV-am involvement in Channel 4 breakfast transmission is a new one on me.  Is that documented somewhere (other than in the comments on that YT clip)?

I see the YT comments also suggest switching going on during that unusually lengthy period of black after the first ITV Schools filler piece. The slight picture roll as the animation is fading out (i.e., before it even gets to full black) looks like a videotape issue. If you look carefully, the vision is glitching very slightly in the lead-up to that.

[James2001]

Most of the comments on that video are by a certain Christopher Williams, so I wouldn't listen to anything he says on there.

[Neil Jones]

Most of the comments on that video are by a certain Christopher Williams, so I wouldn't listen to anything he says on there anywhere.

Fixed that for you

[robertclark125]

Most of the comments on that video are by a certain Christopher Williams, so I wouldn't listen to anything he says on there anywhere.

Fixed that for you

How have you done it?!

[robertclark125]

This shows how S4C done things, assuming this is the ITV Schools on S4C opening. I suspect it is, given the Fremantle endcap, and the S4C concert trailer. What we see here is S4C didn't use an interval, but instead the 2 minute startup was extended to cover, what would be the interval on C4.

www.youtube.com 

[Steve in Pudsey]

Any TV-am involvement in Channel 4 breakfast transmission is a new one on me.  Is that documented somewhere (other than in the comments on that YT clip)?

In the same way that the regional ITV companies sold the C4 adverts for their patch, and the C4 feed went via the regions who inserted those ads, the assumption is that TV-am did the same.

They certainly sold the ads:

twitter.com 

[Clean Feed]

They certainly sold the ads:

twitter.com 

Interesting. Had no idea TV-am had involvement in C4 breakfast.

If they were also involved in the playout of the ads, there must've been an obvious switching-related picture roll somewhere. The 9.25am switch on ITV at the time was, as you know, very noticeable during that period. That YT example from earlier in this thread does not have the appearance of a switching glitch. And then we had that other video clip of the same supposed transition point, with absolutely no sign of any switching.

Really curious about his now. Going to do a bit of digging.

[James2001]

I know it was Channel 4 selling its own advertising that led to the end of the interval, so from January 1993 onwards you had an advert break before schools programmes started, and you only got 40 seconds of a clock.

I imagine the switching between TV-am and the ITV companies made it too complicated to try and insert an ad break in there, which is why you got a long interval instead.

I'm not sure the claim in the comments that TV-am played out the ITV Schools interval is true though.