Accelerated Flow in the UK (USA/AUS style)

[James Martin]

Something I've wondered about for years is why Accelerated Flow has never been A Thing here in the UK. I know the EU have or at least had restrictions on the number of internal breaks. (But based on the fact the Eurovision Song Contest runs an 8-minute ad break window for the interval, I'm guessing there's not restrictions on how long they are!)

The furthest we've ever gotten is the introduction of ECPs around the millennium, but, as an example, are there now any laws stopping ITV running the credits of Emmerdale with a teaser montage for the next episode whilst the credits roll and a VO going "Emmerdale continues tomorrow at 7 - now though, the Rovers counts the cost of closure in Coronation Street" and straight into Corrie. Seven Network in Australia do this, notably at the end of Home & Away.

Yes, it would mean moving to two internal breaks but it would be a good way of keeping the viewer hooked in.

Or, in the age of streaming, is this less of an issue than it was 15-20 years ago?

[Kunst]

No, just no.

But for why it can't be done especially on terrestrial stations, in the UK at least, is because breaks can only be 3.50 (3.30 of adverts) minutes on public stations, 3.50x3 internal ad breaks would still leave 1.30 minutes of adverts to show between shows, in some important slots (the maximum is 12 minutes).

Other non-terrestrial can do that, and in a certain way many channels already do.

They use the full 12 minutes minutage inside of the show, with leaving only promos and idents to be shown between each show (internal breaks are 4.30/5 mins long).
Which , with an 1 hour slot for a 41-2 mins long show, is pretty unbearable as it is .

Some EU commercial stations already do that, and it's not nice , especially with no ident at all

[Neil Jones]

I think the need for content separation puts paid to this, especially since the likes of Emmerdale and Corrie are often sponsored.
Its always been a thing in this country to have credits, a trailer or two, a few adverts, an ident and then the next programme. Its sort of how we're always done it.

Remember the trends we have now all date from the late 1950s to stop our TV going down the American route, and of course it's only been about 10 years or so since we allowed product placement. It's bad enough having sponsor bumpers for The Chase featuring, well, Chasers which I think may be about as far as we can get as things stand.

[Kunst]

As for the number of ad breaks, it really depends on the country.

Most countries in EU don't have rules on the frequency of ad breaks, just how many per hour can be shown (although recently the EU has dropped the 12 minutes per rules for a percentage, one for 6:00-18:00, another for 18:00-00:00).

However, France tends to be pretty restrictive in many ways.
Audiovisual productions (go look for that definition) can only have 2 internal ad breaks, regardless of the length of the show.
Moreover, there the rule thst there must be a difference of 20 minutes between two breaks still exist, too.

This explains the longer but much less frequent ad breaks on French TV

[Kunst]

I think the need for content separation puts paid to this, especially since the likes of Emmerdale and Corrie are often sponsored.
Its always been a thing in this country to have credits, a trailer or two, a few adverts, an ident and then the next programme. Its sort of how we're always done it.

Remember the trends we have now all date from the late 1950s to stop our TV going down the American route, and of course it's only been about 10 years or so since we allowed product placement. It's bad enough having sponsor bumpers for The Chase featuring, well, Chasers which I think may be about as far as we can get as things stand.

There are also rules in place not to make this happen, especially on terrestrial stations.

For instance , a 30 mins show can only have two ad breaks on non-public channels, on non-public it's two, on public channels one

[Brekkie]

Can't have a thread on this without mentioning ABC1, who I think did it superbly in a style suited to those used to British presentation.

Commercial channels do it occassionally, but usually can't resist at least squeezing a promo in if they go from one show to the next without ads, and even though outside of ITV, C4 and C5 you are permitted an extra ad break within 30 minute and 60 minute shows to either enable you to remove the breaks in between shows or trial shorter breaks, most choose not too. Even without the extra breaks though the limits on advertising would still allow for accelerated flow between most key junctions but with less flexibilty on where to place ads.

I wouldn't like to see us go from a programme ending straight into the next one like happens in America, but with an ident in between (or menu) I think that would be fine.

[AaronLancs]

Personally I like the CBS UK channels style of the following:

> Programme Ends (with v/o)
> Trail for orther CBS content
> Ident (with v/o)
> Waning (if needed for flashing images or whatnot)
> Programme start

For me I don't mind if the ad breaks in the programme are extended becuase the TOTH is "from one to the next" sort of approach.