Transmission break
In radio and television broadcasting pause is a short period of time between two broadcasts during which the program is interrupted.
General
Intermission breaks are rarely planned in today's programs around the world; rather, it is difficult for the broadcasters not to exceed the planned slots . In the past, breaks in transmission were quite common and were bridged with pause signals.
Technical breaks in broadcast
For technical reasons, a distinction is made between planned and unexpected transmission breaks.
Scheduled breaks in broadcast
In Germany's public television, it was often necessary to switch from one broadcaster to another at the start of a new program, especially on ARD (notice boards “we are switching”). A switchover could take up to 15 minutes, during which the audience was put off with a pause picture and music. The switching pauses disrupted the program flow and thus also the reception considerably. In May 1954, these pauses between switching over, which arose when the directional radio links of the Bundespost were "re-ignited" for television when the radio direction changed, were shortened from 15 to 5 minutes. “It was not until 1956/57 that the radio link could be operated on multiple tracks, so that, thanks to the 'lightning switchovers' that were now possible, the switching pauses were no longer necessary.” A distinction is made between this scheduled pause in transmission and the unexpected pause in transmission that results from technical breakdowns.
Broadcast breaks due to the Geneva wave plan
Due to the Geneva Wave Plan, some transmission systems in the long and medium wave range may not be operated during the night, as they would otherwise interfere with other transmitters with the same frequency due to overreach . Until 1989, Deutschlandfunk was only allowed to transmit during the daytime hours on the long-wave frequency of 207 kHz, as a directional antenna was required for night-time use of this frequency, which did not exist with the Erching transmitter , which was used until 1989 (the system in Aholming used since 1989 has such a directional antenna ).
The Schleswig-Holstein youth transmitter operated by Power 612 , which was operated on the medium wave frequency 612 kHz until 2004, always had to be switched off during the night; this happened every evening at 7:00 p.m.
Unexpected pauses in transmission
Technical breakdowns of any kind can disrupt the program flow and lead to a forced broadcast break. Even today this cannot be ruled out worldwide. Live broadcasts of all kinds are most at risk , but failures of technical devices or transmitter failures can also occur unexpectedly. Today there are occasional unexpected breaks in broadcast due to technical breakdowns. Test images for visually bridging an interruption are only used today when a live transmission breaks down. In today's restless radio and television, breaks have become a rarity and there is a risk that viewers will migrate to other channels through zapping .
history
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Telesaar , the first commercial radio station in Europe, had initially planned a two-hour break from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in its program in 1953. A Faroese radio station was forced to take breaks in February 1957 because it had too few employees. Between 1978 and 2001, the NDR broadcast a break film with the famous walrus "Antje" , who died on July 17, 2003. In the ARD there were obviously scheduled breaks in the program up to February 1986, which mostly took place in the afternoon (between 1:10 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.). The broadcast break should be understood as a "break from the program". "The short or longer waiting time should be made easier for the viewer, but there should be a break that does not force him to watch." Today, gaps in the program are either advertised ( radio adverts / television adverts ) or, since 1968, on German television with trailers (short program information between individual broadcasts).
In the USA, there are legal requirements to broadcast the reference to the transmitter station (“station identification”) according to a certain rhythm (2 minutes per hour) without disrupting the continuity of the program sequence. During these so-called “station breaks”, the broadcasters have to display their channel number and their abbreviation, which can be used for television advertising.
Others
Commercial breaks are not considered broadcast breaks because they are taken into account in the previous program planning. The usual broadcast deadline in the past was also not a broadcast break because it was not a short period of time and the program was also ended. Time signal transmitters insert technical breaks between their broadcasts.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Knut Hickethier : Dispositiv television, program and program structures in the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Hickethier, Knut (Ed.): History of television in the Federal Republic of Germany, Vol. 1. Institution, technology and program: Framework aspects of the history of television programs , 1993, p. 193 f.
- ↑ Ten minutes' break for NDR radio programs. In: Hamburger Abendblatt , February 9, 2013
- ↑ Longing for the break in broadcast. In: Spiegel online , October 9, 2008
- ^ The beginnings of commercial broadcasting in Saarland , p. 14
- ↑ Radio history 1956–1964. In: Oldtimeradio
- ↑ On the history of the NDR. NDR
- ↑ Klaus Hohmann: We're switching. V / 3, quoted from: Navigationen, 4th Jhg. 2004, issue 1/2, pp. 187-198
- ↑ The Code of Federal Regulations of the United States of America of October 1, 1972, § 73.1201 d)
- ^ Norman AP Govoni: Dictionary of Marketing Communications. 2004, p. 208