It was an unscheduled break. There was no intention to show adverts at that point.
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ITV sport......SHIT!!!
- Thread starter Eastleigh Northstander
- Start date
It was an unscheduled break. There was no intention to show adverts at that point.
Tooting Gull
Well-known member
- Jul 5, 2003
- 11,033
I think a lot of people are missing that point. The pictures went down, and they 'filled' with adverts. Even ITV aren't that stupid.
Hannibal smith
New member
The amazon comparison is valid. Amazon don't have to use Royal Mail. They can use DHL, UPS etc etc. And if that does not turn up - I complain to Amazon not the Royal Mail. Just like ITV can use another provider for the delivery of pictures to your living room (unless only one company does it which only has by the looks of things one bloke on £5 an hour who nips out for a fag break at the appropriate moment). If that goes wrong, I blame ITV.
I regularly sit down in front of a customer and explain why things were late. Invariably, its because of a third party company letting me down. If I explain this to the customer, they always point out that its my responsibility to manage them. ITV shouldn't be any different in this regard.
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True in a sense, but television transmission is a hugely complex business that requires a very expensive infrastructure. You can't just open the Yellow Pages and pick out another provider.
I believe (maybe Clapham Gull said it earlier) that the same company is used by the BBC for transmission too, so this could just as easily have happened to one of their programmes.
I realise what you say about a guy taking a fag break was tongue in cheek but, actually, if there were more humans involved in the process, it's the type of thing that would be less likely. The level of automation is the problem.. great while it's working, but a nightmare when things go wrong.
For instance, when that semi-final in the Euros was blacked out THREE times, the power cut lasted just a fraction of a second. But that crashed all the systems which then take ages to reboot. The third blackout was actually deliberate.. to get the operation on to local power from a generator, so that the rest of the game would be uninterrupted. Before so much was computerised, there'd probably just have been one relatively short blackout. Of course, if you're unlucky enough that it happens just as someone scores, there's still hell to pay...
ITV have done the right thing, by apologising and promising to work to ensure the problem does not happen again.
From their chairman, Michael Grade:
"Most importantly I'd like to apologise to all our viewers who were affected by last night's unprecedented technical error.
"As a football fan myself I was glued to the match and was as disappointed as anyone to miss the goal.
"We have years of experience in dealing with the changes in ad break patterns when games go into extra time and sometimes penalties - this we have done faultlessly through the Champions League, World Cup and European Championships.
"Last night's glitch was inexcusable and we are awaiting the results of our technical inquiry so we can put in place stringent and immediate procedures to address this."
Exactly the response I would have hoped for
From their chairman, Michael Grade:
"Most importantly I'd like to apologise to all our viewers who were affected by last night's unprecedented technical error.
"As a football fan myself I was glued to the match and was as disappointed as anyone to miss the goal.
"We have years of experience in dealing with the changes in ad break patterns when games go into extra time and sometimes penalties - this we have done faultlessly through the Champions League, World Cup and European Championships.
"Last night's glitch was inexcusable and we are awaiting the results of our technical inquiry so we can put in place stringent and immediate procedures to address this."
Exactly the response I would have hoped for
Mendoza
NSC's Most Stalked
I expect the Daily Mail will get a nationwide campaign to get Michael Grade OUSTED from his position as Chairman of ITV
clapham_gull
Legacy Fan
- Aug 20, 2003
- 25,877
The amazon comparison isn't valid in my opinion.
Amazon are the distributor of items produced by something else.
Thinking ITV were wholly responsible for the problem is like something not turning up through the post...
.. and you blaming the record company.
Tooting Gull
Well-known member
- Jul 5, 2003
- 11,033
They now seem to be saying that the automatic default to adverts at that time normally in operation in midweek was allowed to happen, completely in error. If that is true, isn't that worse for ITV? They haven't even got anyone else to blame later on.
And I'd have to correct my earlier post. Maybe they ARE that stupid.
And I'd have to correct my earlier post. Maybe they ARE that stupid.
I totally agree, ITV is shockingly bad. Last night was just amateurish, I mean an ad break 90 seconds before the end of the game, by accident or otherwise, is mickey mouse TV.
Also without question the David Pleat/Clive Tyldesdley commentry team is by far the worst on TV (I know as a double act they weren't on last night).
Pleat's insight is utterly irrelevant and pointless (which he has been giving for possibly 20 years, come on ITV get rid of this old fart) it is punctuated by continued mis pronounciations of players names and as for Tyldesley, he is so biased towards English sides in CL games it is cringe worthingly embarassing, also I am sure he has to be on some bung to mention the Man Utd-Bayern Munich final every time he commentates on any CL Game.
Hannibal smith
New member
ITV are wholly responsible though. They might not distribute the picture to my tellybox but I bet they pay someone that does and they therefore manage them to do so. Unless they can't change supplier (say like Amazon from Royal Mail to another courier), I can't see how its not thier fault.
If I buy something from Amazon and it doesn't turn up - I complain to Amazon.
If I buy an LG TV from Currys and there is a problem with it, I take it back to Curry's.
If I buy a bottle of corked wine, I take it back to the shop I bought it in, not the person who made the wine.
If ITV show an ad break when a goal is scored, I blame ITV.
No,, it's not worse for ITV because as Clapham Gull pointed out several times, they do not directly control the transmission of their own programmes. The problem with the automated adverts was almost certainly the fault of the company which handles that.
What they will do, of course, is find out why, kick some arses and overhaul the procedures to make sure it doesn't happen again.
clapham_gull
Legacy Fan
- Aug 20, 2003
- 25,877
All handled by the playout provider - looks like someone forgot to override the playlist.
Everything is so automated these days it's often not a case of forgetting to turn something on, more like like a case of forgetting to turn something off.
You can see the presence of human intervention in something autromated, in that the Northern transmission was able to manually override the problem quicker than the London ones.
Hannibal smith
New member
I listen to Pleat and I honestly think a random member of football watching public could do a better job. At the very least the production team could have a word and ask him to make sure he gets the names right.
Golden Oldie
New member
- Feb 10, 2004
- 94
Whilst the whole thing was obviously a cock up by some one, was it really the end of the world? So we saw the goal scored 30 seconds later than we should have done - big deal. They always replay every goal 20 times anyway, until you are sick of watching it.
It's sort of happened before. In the mid sixties England were playing Austria in a mid week evening friendly (both playing in black and white of course), and match highlights were shown later. Unfortunately the third, and winning, Austrian goal got left on the cutting room floor, so they couldn't even show it afterwards, assuming they'd realised what they'd done in time.
It's sort of happened before. In the mid sixties England were playing Austria in a mid week evening friendly (both playing in black and white of course), and match highlights were shown later. Unfortunately the third, and winning, Austrian goal got left on the cutting room floor, so they couldn't even show it afterwards, assuming they'd realised what they'd done in time.
clapham_gull
Legacy Fan
- Aug 20, 2003
- 25,877
The word "Supplier" doesn't really explain what the transmission end does these days, they aren't simply taking a feed and re-routing it.
It probably best to imagine ITV is this instance as a supplier of parts and the playout centre the actual factory which assembles them and distributes them.
I'm not sure why everyone has got their Knickers in a twist over this, it was hardly the Albion
I think we can all agree that the complexity of a problem is due the way modern business is handled and we've all bought into it.
The Television industry over the last 20 years has become fractured into a very complex supply chain.
The only analogy I can think of is the railway industry - where someone is responsible for the track, other firms for the ticket machines and a simple journey from A to B taking maybe 2 or 3 train companies.
Where the TV industry (unlike say Virgin Trains) is different is that firms like ITV do take the blame and have taken the blame this time.
All I was trying to do was open people eyes to the fact, that what you are dealing with here is something very much like the railway industry where there are a number of big companies in the chain. Most the times it runs absolutely fine, but f*cuk ups when they happen tend to very very apparent and can be a catalogue of errors at different companies rather than one.
I agree, in some cases it's far more obvious where the problem is. For example if you are watching ITV on SKY and the satellite signal drops out, you don't necessarily think that it's ITVs fault.
In answer to "well, in my line of business I'd change supplier..." etc, well if you know someone who can launch a satellite quickly or build a very complex bank of state of the art servers over a couple of weeks then go ahead.
What's invisible is the fact that ITVs content is actually assembled by someone else before it even gets to Sky. A problem there is no more under control of ITV than it is when a satellite falls out the sky.
However just as they always do, ITV have taken responsibilty (as they should)
All I was doing was trying to explain where the problem actually took place.
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Oh well CG, you're flogging a dead horse.
I guess now you know what it feels like to be Micky Adams... taking flak from people who don't have the faintest idea of what a job really entails, and aren't interested in hearing the facts.
Personally, I give up. ITV will take the rap, whether they deserve it or not.
I guess now you know what it feels like to be Micky Adams... taking flak from people who don't have the faintest idea of what a job really entails, and aren't interested in hearing the facts.
Personally, I give up. ITV will take the rap, whether they deserve it or not.
Hatterlovesbrighton
something clever
I think this is a difference between fault and responsobility. It wasn't ITV's fault that they went to a break, but they are responsible.
Tooting Gull
Well-known member
- Jul 5, 2003
- 11,033
Well, I for one have appreciated your professional input on the thread CG and feel I know a bit more about it than I did before.
If we're doing analogies, the one I might use is the thread we had some time ago about sub editors and reporters. In-house, everyone might know exactly whose fault it was if a sub-editor f**ks up, but to the wider world it's the journalist's picture in the paper with 'his' words underneath.
And I don't agree with those people who say it isn't a big deal, of course it was. It's only dramatic because you've sat there for 120 minutes, that's why companies pay millions for the rights, to get that sort of drama. Or in this case, not get it.
If we're doing analogies, the one I might use is the thread we had some time ago about sub editors and reporters. In-house, everyone might know exactly whose fault it was if a sub-editor f**ks up, but to the wider world it's the journalist's picture in the paper with 'his' words underneath.
And I don't agree with those people who say it isn't a big deal, of course it was. It's only dramatic because you've sat there for 120 minutes, that's why companies pay millions for the rights, to get that sort of drama. Or in this case, not get it.
seagullsovergrimsby
#cpfctinpotclub
I watched the last bit of this match on ITV1 Yorkshire and didn't miss the goal. However a few minutes before there was an interruption to the coverage , no video , ITV1 ident caption on screen for half a second , no video and then back to the game. Someone must have intervened and manually overridden the ad break as the game was overrunning. ITV have regional adverts for all their regions similar to C4 and five. There is too much reliance on automation which is noticeable if you watch the free music channels on Sky when the screen will go blank (the DOG is still there) until someone presses a button to restore it. ITV F1 coverage got screwed up with an ad break at a crucial moment as well , shit happens.