[JexedBack]

Did Meridian, Westcountry, Carlton and GMTV do secret on-air testing of their transmission infrastructure before officially launching at midnight 1st 1993?
Or was it all expected to work?
I know they would have rehearsed, and in GMTV’s case they showed footage of their pilots, but when it came to the big switch how could they be certain?
Also, was there a standby should one of the new franchisees launch not gone according to plan?

Mod note: Split out from the 'Media Amnesty' thread.

[Milkshake]

Carlton and GMTV could be certain as it come from Kent house LWT operations where already in full swing. Meridian took over Southampton TVS offices so again they would be sure.

The one company which could appeal to this "Westcountry" as it was coming from outside the area.

[Mike]

That's an interesting one; I suspect that it was a simple case of switching the feeds at BT's end for the new franchises, so the outgoing feed from each new station was probably seen by BT (or whoever did switching for ITV) but not sent to transmitters until midnight on the 1st January, or 0600 in the case of GMTV.

I imagine everything after BT was the same as it was before, just going into BT was a different source rather than Thames/TVS/TSW/TV-am so a likelihood of technical failure was slim.

You can even see the physical change from sources on the Thames/Carlton handover that's on YouTube youtu.be 

Likewise I wonder how long Thames in this case, continued 'broadcasting' the ITN news before knocking it on the head.

[Neil Jones]

That's an interesting one; I suspect that it was a simple case of switching the feeds at BT's end for the new franchises, so the outgoing feed from each new station was probably seen by BT (or whoever did switching for ITV) but not sent to transmitters until midnight on the 1st January, or 0600 in the case of GMTV.

I imagine everything after BT was the same as it was before, just going into BT was a different source rather than Thames/TVS/TSW/TV-am so a likelihood of technical failure was slim.

You can even see the physical change from sources on the Thames/Carlton handover that's on YouTube youtu.be 

Likewise I wonder how long Thames in this case, continued 'broadcasting' the ITN news before knocking it on the head.

Bear in mind video recordings of these handovers are exaggerated - it wouldn't have been that obvious at the time on a TV set.

As to how long Thames kept "broadcasting" - probably no longer than they really had to, wouldn't be surprised if they ceased transmission at one minute past midnight.

There were a couple of videos posted on Twitter/X/whatever its called this week that was recorded on Thames's final night as viewed from the broadcast gallery, but as you can't do anything on X now without signing up, can't look to find them. I can't remember if the output screen was captured after midnight on those videos.

[Mike]

I did see the video, can't remember where - but I suspect they continued providing an outgoing source for a short time. It's unlikely all of the staff were suddenly unemployed from 0000 on the 1st January 1993, I'd imagine Thames had the foresight of employing those who were made redundant after the licence change for a couple of days or maybe a even a month after the final Tx.

Mark Lipscomb uploaded a video of it and the PST monitor shows black, so I assume they cut to black after the ITN news, weirdly they keep the Elizabeth Tower clockface on screen once Carlton take to air (and they begin booing)...

[nwtv2003]

x.com 

It’s hard to judge what Thames kept with, it seems that they kept ITN those few seconds past midnight before the single shot of the clock face. I don’t believe there are any clips online of ITN’s broadcast from those regions that didn’t change, but I highly doubt they would’ve kept their camera on the clock face.

[Stooky Bill]

I did see the video, can't remember where - but I suspect they continued providing an outgoing source for a short time. It's unlikely all of the staff were suddenly unemployed from 0000 on the 1st January 1993, I'd imagine Thames had the foresight of employing those who were made redundant after the licence change for a couple of days or maybe a even a month after the final Tx.

Mark Lipscomb uploaded a video of it and the PST monitor shows black, so I assume they cut to black after the ITN news, weirdly they keep the Elizabeth Tower clockface on screen once Carlton take to air (and they begin booing)...

The video only shows the first 10 seconds or so after midnight but why would they cut away from it straight away?

The last thing in their schedule was the news and then there's nothing next so they just cut that to air and then left it on their output. It would have been the same as they'd done every morning at 6am and Fridays at 5:15. Presumably on Fridays there was then some sort of routine where they'd clear up the desk, put stuff to a nominal state and then turn off monitors before going home. On the last day the probably pretty similar but with more people there.

Leaving ITN cut to their output would have been an extra fall back should the switch not have happened, but of course not for long - Thames wouldn't have had anything else to play

I think a lot of Thames staff were made redundant on new years day. Some will have been kept to wind down what was left of the company and decommission kit. Some stayed on, programme makers and crew at Teddington for example. The building stayed on air that night as UK Gold was coming from it at the time. Some staff stayed employed for that

[Milkshake]

I think ITN let all 12 chimes play out for the remaining 6 companies. Here is Meridian took over the chimes just keep on going until they out out to put thier first programme out: That would give everyone a buffer before film best Deference started.

tvark.org 

Meridian The First Ten Minutes | TVARK
Home Instagram Facebook X Forum Search TVARK Branding News Programmes Features T…
  Source: tvark.org

[Brekkie]

Did any regions do their own thing at New Year in other years. Of course back then London didn't really bother with anything at all beyond the chimes of Big Ben - it's only since the Millennium really they've put any effort in.

[IndigoTucker]

On one of the gallery screens on the clip, there is what looks like the BSB closedown message (ie transmissions from Marco Polo have ceased) - the screen previously had the Thames endcap on. I wonder why Euston are monitoring the output of Marco Polo at midnight?