[Neil Jones]

Yeah I remember the Big Breakfast wiped thing, as as a bit of a surprise, considering Planet 24 ultimately ended up in the hands of ITV. I know it was a show that was pretty much never going to be repeated but it seems strange when you consider TV-am had a full archive (or I presume near enough full) that they were able to sell as part of the winding down of the company... Yes even the days of the famous five when nobody was watching the damn thing.

But yes this is the problem with online communications and "lost" media, it only needs somebody to start a rumour and that's it, it becomes fact 20 minutes later and remains so for the rest of time.

[James2001]

At one time Moving Image, who handle the TV-am archive, actually had a searchable database of their holdings- which was VERY detailed with what they had, and there were a lot of video clips- not just of the programmes, but also things like some ad breaks and even one of the IBA startup captions as well. There was some stuff missing... or at least not listed, but yes, the vast, vast majority of their output was on there. Sadly it vanished when Moving Image got AP to handle the sales.

Yes, with The Big Breakfast, I remember it being explained that they had the tapes, but they needed to be gone through and catalogued to work out what was where (which, for a show which went out 5 times a week for nearly 10 years is of course a big and time consuming job and likely not the highest priority) before they could properly licence clips. Somehow someone interpreted it as the episodes actually being wiped, and then it got taken as gospel. The increasing amount of material appearing on Screenocean suggests that cataloguing is slowly taking place.

[agemame]

I once heard there's literally no release forms/paperwork for any of the OBs or any feature that didn't involved a booked guest, because it was all done in such a scramble. They might have got away with it in a live context, but there's a potential horrorshow if anyone rebroadcast a full show without some careful editing in terms of some of the items they ran. Mike Smith certainly had words about his appearance, and it sets a precedent that might make the process that bit harder.

[lookoutwales]

Somewhat belatedly, there was a tribute link to Tony Green going into tonight's Bullseye repeats.

[IronRoad]

Does anyone else think that Challenge is now the white elephant with regards to branding? All other Sky channels are now Sky branded. Do we think there will be a rebrand in due course? I believe the brand name Sky Challenge is reserved by Sky?

[Larry the Loafer]

Does anyone else think that Challenge is now the white elephant with regards to branding? All other Sky channels are now Sky branded. Do we think there will be a rebrand in due course? I believe the brand name Sky Challenge is reserved by Sky?

I have a feeling it'd be sold/closed before it adopted Sky branding. I don't think endless Chase repeats and old episodes of Bullseye is something they'd want the Sky brand attached to.

[JAS84]

Does anyone else think that Challenge is now the white elephant with regards to branding? All other Sky channels are now Sky branded. Do we think there will be a rebrand in due course? I believe the brand name Sky Challenge is reserved by Sky?

Well, put it this way - the current look is the longest serving one Challenge has ever had. It's long out of date too, each of the three idents represents three shows, but of the nine, only Bullseye, Wheel of Fortune, and The Chase still air. The physical ident (Ninja Warrior, Robot Wars, Total Wipeout) is utterly redundant and the other two are no longer representative of the channel. The modern ident is Deal or No Deal, The Chase, Pointless, and the classic one is Wheel of Fortune, Bullseye, Countdown.

[rick]

I don't think endless Chase repeats and old episodes of Bullseye is something they'd want the Sky brand attached to.

But they are happy with the majority of the filler crap on Pick now associated with "Sky Mix"?

[ACTV]

I associate Sky these days heavily with the constant showings of the Stargate franchise (SG1/Atlantis), Caught on Dashcam, (the BBC's) Merlin and especially Nothing to Declare.

They seem to be showing at least one of them at any given time on one of their channels, and none are particularly sought after material. If anything, I'd argue even repeats of The Chase are more attractive.

[Neil Jones]

Lovely quality control from Challenge again, today's 4:30 Blockbusters going out in stretchyvision...