Unusual bank holiday scheduling

[tellyblues]

There was more effort made in the past with bank holidays but broadcasters could afford to do it because, as GraphicsMan says, there was little else to do but watch TV. Old films being shown wasn't so bad because viewers didn't have such easy access to them. No doubt people complained, although I think the notion of a repeat has changed and one has to justify its place more nowadays given the options available elsewhere.

Anyway, what can the BBC do to be seen as making an effort? Even if they could have film premieres like back in the day and still have enough in the can for Christmas, viewers would be disappointed by decent but not what you would class as box office films.

Sadly, like TV, Hollywood isn't what it used to be. Most films now are made for under a million or over £100m, the latter of which the BBC couldn't afford the rights to without making sacrifices so you are looking at pretty obscure stuff. In the end, it's probably not worth ditching the routine schedule for.

[VMPhil]

Bit sad that Wallace and Gromit wasn't on, it always feels more like a bank holiday when BBC One show Wallace and Gromit

[James Martin]

But that's just it, right now there's precious little you can do other than watch TV or freeze your bits off at an outdoor attraction. Yes you had Sully in the evening, but during the day no family films. We're not talking blockbuster network premieres, but films for the family.

[James Martin]

Very little special tomorrow - Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave is on as is Fawlty Towers. No films though, no provision for kids programmes and even The One Show is on.

Just seems a shame really, although at least the weather's better so we have more to do!

[Brekkie]

Worth noting radio still quite willing to change things up for the bank holiday with Big Weekend on Radio 1 and All Day Popmaster on Radio 2.

[Neil Jones]

Very little special tomorrow - Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave is on as is Fawlty Towers. No films though, no provision for kids programmes and even The One Show is on.

Just seems a shame really, although at least the weather's better so we have more to do!

Fawlty Towers has been on on Monday for the last ten weeks or so. Its not a new addition for the Bank Holiday.
It used to be that Pointless moved slots on bank holidays, typically to 5:45, but that hasn't happened, seems the only change from normal is the addition of Wallace & Gromit.

The only change on ITV is the addition of a film in place of the normal 2pm show that then ends up pushing back the normal 3pm shows by 35 minutes, and a slightly longer edition of Loose Women.

Interestingly though Challenge haven't dumped back to day Chase on Bank Holidays which is their normal tendency. They have instead used back to back Bullseye in the afternoon, which is marked as Series 10.

[James Martin]

ITV's the same. There's nothing for the kids, nothing for the family. Is children's television just not a thing anymore?

[JAS84]

It's definitely not as popular as it used to be, considering that Disney decided to close their channels and go all in on streaming...

[James Martin]

It's definitely not as popular as it used to be, considering that Disney decided to close their channels and go all in on streaming...

I'm struggling to get the obsession with streaming. Call me a dinosaur but I like a curated linear television schedule. I don't watch anywhere near as much stuff as I did 20-25 years ago, because I don't have to make time for it anymore. Then when I'm bored enough to want to watch something I don't like trying to wade through thousands of titles to find something I might actually like but have no clue whether I'll like it or not as I've never seen trailers or even any blurb for it teasing me in. Netflix I find isn't great value, there's very little on there I like (I actually don't think I've used it since watching the Eurovision movie on the day it dropped) and I haven't bothered with Disney+ as I'm not a big Disney sort of guy and don't have kids. Prime Video I only have as part of my wider Prime membership, but I did watch High Castle on there and of course I like Grand Tour (and the CHM flavour of Top Gear before it) but again I've watched barely anything on there save for the Massive Hunt special and Borat 2. When a nation isn't sitting down to watch these shows, you don't get much buzz about them online. Compare that to major event television like the Brits or Eurovision that you DO have to watch linearly, and it's all over social feeds.

TL;DR I miss linear television. If I could get an algorithm to create a fake linear channel for me that had stuff I liked on and stuck it in appropriate timeslots I'd probably make use of it!

[Inspector Sands]

ITV's the same. There's nothing for the kids, nothing for the family. Is children's television just not a thing anymore?

Of course it is still a thing. In fact there's a lot more childrens TV than there was when we were children. With a basic free-to-air TV there's at minimum 3 whole channels of kids TV, plus the 3 hours a day on Channel 5. What is missing on bank holidays (although not over Christmas) is family programmes on the main channels, not kids.

Although this bank holiday I imagine TV will be less important than any other.... not only is the weather nice but we've all a lot of catching up to do in terms of going out and meeting up with people

[Steve in Pudsey]

Looking back, I still can't believe Disney Time was a thing on the BBC every Bank Holiday. I'm sure Editorial Policy would have something to say these days!

[sjhoward]

...it felt like it...until somebody decided in the 19th century...

Gosh, you're older than I've always assumed

[Torpido1]

Itv 2 has a long list of films today but not whilst itv has its however

[Neil Jones]

It's definitely not as popular as it used to be, considering that Disney decided to close their channels and go all in on streaming...

I'm struggling to get the obsession with streaming. Call me a dinosaur but...

*snip story about not being able to stuff he likes on streaming*

TL;DR I miss linear television. If I could get an algorithm to create a fake linear channel for me that had stuff I liked on and stuck it in appropriate timeslots I'd probably make use of it!

Anything else you're not happy with about streamers? Would you like a server moved to a bit to the left or...?

Since you want a fake linear channel, this might be of interest to you, if you can force your connection through France:
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2020/11/09/...ie-channel