Eurovision 2014 - 06/08/10 May 2014

I've read anecdotes suggesting Pres B being used for Murray's commentary. Not quite studio 1 at Northam!

Ha, no, I thought it odd you'd use a studio floor, although I seem to recall Mark and Lard's Radio 1 show came from one of Oxford Road's TV studio floors, for a couple weeks !

I do remember Murray turning up late. He was only coming from his home 20 mins away in the New Forest,
but got lost in Southampton trying to find the studios ! He eventually turned up, walked straight in, grabbed a mic and talked non stop for two hours. A total pro.

I think the Mark and Lard thing was down to politics and Producer Choice - the TV studio was controlled by the same department as the radio studio so they could use it for free while the radio studio was being refurbed. If they found another radio studio it would belong to another department and need to be paid for.

Apparently in the 1960s there was a suite at TVC called the International Commentary Area which was set up with facilities for off-tube commentators for events that the BBC was host broadcaster for, so it does seem strange that they would use one of the pres studios

The point is though that it is not the responsibility of the receiver of a text to ensure it is delivered - just as the receiver of a letter never received shouldn't be responsible. TV should have stood up for itself and actually made a point of saying it's the mobile companies at fault here and therefore if any refunds are to be issued it should be from them, not the broadcaster. It is then up to the individual to decide whether their network is likely to deliver a text in timely fashion and whether they opt to risk the money spent actually not contributing to the outcome - and if it doesn't whether they want to follow it up with the service provider.

It wasn't the mobile companies though, it was the channelling of the votes into the accounting system that was found at fault, this in turn led to queues into the phone company networks. It's the provision of the service to the Television company as that was inadequate that was the problem, hence the refunds from the programme and not the mobile firms. Multiple voting not helping in this exercise.

Ofcom / ITV / BBC decided that at the time this couldn't be resolved and the blanket ban was imposed. It's not been tested since.

In the case of Eurovision the problem could be exacerbated in that the delivery of the SMSs isn't national. All of these votes are sent internationally to DIGAME who do the accounting on behalf of the EBU, mainly for security.

Still consider it's too risky especially as the number of votes from a specific number is critical. There being a limit (25 votes per mobile) that needs to be monitored.

Radio Two to offer a FOUR DAY pop up Radio Station on DAB, Online and on the BBC Radio Player App,

BBC Radio 2 Eurovision from midday on the Thursday of the Eurovision week.


more details ……..

BLOGS on BBC.CO.UK
29-Mar-2014 @ 10:59

and also

here ……..

TWITTER.COM
29-Mar-2014 @ 11:07

I think that if a TV company is aware of the issue, and decides to continue using the system, then they are at fault. The cause of the issue may or may not be in their systems, but at the end of the day, they are organising the voting, and if they select a voting mechanism that they know is flawed, that is wrong. It's like saying - we want you to send your votes on a postcard, but they have to reach us by 9am tomorrow (when they know that this is impossible to do)

I don't think you can expect a viewer to know the ins and outs of the delivery model that their chosen mobile telephony provider uses for shorcode text collation. If a broadcaster prompts a call to action and is providing the

For big events the BBC were host broadcasting they would sometimes create off-tube commentary booths on the studio floor in one of the studios at TVC.

I think LWT did just that for Euro 96 ? (BBC and ITV were joint host broadcasters) would that have been owing to limited space at some football grounds ?

Great news about the DAB station. It really does feel like the BBC have put some genuine effort into Eurovision this year than the "oh s**t, gotta stick this out for 3 hours in primetime Saturday night, we'd really rather not bother" attitude that usually comes across.

Armenia currently bookies' favourite at the moment. Can't see why. It's an OK song but nothing massively memorable.

It's in a contemporary style, the singing is good, lacks cheese and is sung in English. I think it's pretty deserving of being the favourite.