Continuity (broadcasting)

'Continuity' or 'presentation' is a term used in broadcasting, especially in the United Kingdom (see Continuity announcers in the United Kingdom), to refer to announcements, messages and graphics played by the broadcaster between specific programmes. It typically includes programme schedules, announcement of the programme immediately following and trailers or descriptions of forthcoming programmes. Continuity can be spoken by an announcer or displayed in text over graphics. On television continuity generally coincides with a display of the broadcaster's logo or ident. Advertisements are generally not considered part of continuity. In the United States, the term station break is used instead.

A continuity announcer is a broadcaster whose voice (and, in some cases, face) appears between radio or television programmes to give programme information. Continuity announcers tell viewers and listeners which channel they are watching or listening to at the moment (or which station they are tuned to), what they are about to see (or hear), and what they could be watching (or listening to) if you changed to a different channel operated by the broadcaster. At the end of programmes, they may read out information about the previous programme, for example who presented and produced it, relay information or merchandise relating to the show, or to provide details of organisations who may offer support in relation to a storyline or issue raised in the programme. Continuity announcers may also play music during intervals and give details of programmes later in the day. If there is a breakdown, they make any necessary announcements and often play music for its duration.

Usage

Television

Television continuity announcements typically take one of two forms:

• Out-of-vision, where only the announcer's voice is heard, either over the end sequence of a programme or on-screen graphics. With appropriate training in sound and vision mixing, this can be achieved with a single person acting as both voice and controller.
• In-vision, where the announcer is seen delivering the announcement on-screen. This typically requires a number of people in a small studio, including sound engineers, vision mixers, and occasionally camera operators. Modern installations with motorised cameras can reduce this to two — the presenter, and a technical assistant to perform the "backstage" functions such as adjusting the camera and mixing. Typically, in-vision announcers are utilised today in smaller television markets, usually where private commercial channels were introduced late.

Currently, the following European television channels use in-vision announcers:

• Belgium: één,^[1][2] Ketnet, VT4 and VIJFtv^[3][4]
• Finland: YLE TV1 and YLE TV2
• Iceland: Sjónvarpið
• Ireland: TG4^[5]
• Italy: Rai 1, Rai 2 and Rai 3
• Norway: NRK1^[6]
• Poland: TVP1
• Slovakia: Jednotka, Dvojka
• Sweden: SVT1^[7][8] and TV4^[9][10]
• Switzerland: TSR 1 and TSR 2^[11]
• United Kingdom: The CBBC Channel,^[12][13] CBeebies, BBC Alba, BBC Switch and UTV^[14][15]

Radio

With most radio stations now broadcasting only music, few networks retain continuity announcers. Exceptions include talk stations such as National Public Radio in the United States, BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service in the UK and Swedish SR P1 : in the case of Radio 4 they have the extra tasks of reading the Shipping Forecasts and gale warnings. Many double up as newsreaders.

In different countries

Canada

In Canada, CBC Television used in-vision announcers to 'host' primetime programming from 2001 to 2006. As the credits rolled, the announcer would describe upcoming episodes of the series, then introduce the next program at the top of the hour. The evening's host changed daily. Usually, the host was appearing in a major upcoming program the same week, giving the appearance that the host is promoting not only the next program in the evening but his or her own upcoming show. Sometimes CBC Radio newcasters or program hosts would appear as the evening TV hosts. The initiative, sometimes known as "Hosted Prime", only covered the CBC's core evening block (8:00 to 10:00 p.m. local) as opposed to programs in the 7:00 hour, and would not normally appear during the summer.

CBC Radio One has used continuity announcers in recent years. Originally, a number of staff announcers shared the duties, however, in 2004, the service began employing actress Shauna MacDonald as its primary continuity announcer. Her identity remained a secret for more than a year, leading her to be dubbed "Promo Girl". MacDonald has since been replaced by Jeremy Harris,^[16] serving in a similar capacity for both Radio One and Radio 2.

Omni Television in Toronto has used in-vision continuity announcers for the past 10 years or so. These "interstitial" segments fill in the time left in programming due to the different break structure of American TV programming, that cannot be filled by commercials in Canada due to Canadian broadcast regulations regarding the number of minutes of commercials allowable per hour. The segments range from 30 seconds to 2 minutes, and in addition to announcing the station and the programs coming up, the announcers will talk about other programming, station contests, quirky news or celebrity gossip.

Continuity announcements on Citytv have been voiced by actor Dan Aykroyd and journalist Mark Dailey.

Other Canadian stations will fill this time in by a news update or a teaser about news stories.

Flanders, Belgium

één, VRT's main television station in the Flanders region of Belgium uses a team of five staff announcers, who perform in-vision and out-of-vision continuity links. They are Andrea Croonenberghs (senior announcer), Eva Daeleman, Evy Gruyaert, Geena Lisa Peeters, and Saartje Vandendriessche. VRT's children's station, Ketnet, also utilises in-vision continuity with announcing staff known on-air as Ketnetwrappers. Ketnet's announcers are Peter Pype, Karolien Debecker, Melvin Klooster, Kobe Van Herwegen and Kristien Maes. As opposed to één and Ketnet, the highbrow station Canvas uses live out-of-vision announcers.

vtm, the main commercial television channel in Flanders, uses live out-of-vision announcers. The station utilised in-vision continuity until January 2008. vtm's sister station, 2BE, only utilises pre-recorded voiceovers.

Both of SBS Belgium's television stations, VT4 and VIJFtv use in-vision continuity announcers. VT4's station announcers are Hanne Troonbeeckx, Véronique De Kock and Ann Van Elsen whilst VIJFtv's continuity team are Gene Thomas, Sophie Dewaele and Els Tibau. Prior to an on-air relaunch on August 27, 2007, VIJFtv continuity was provided by pre-recorded voiceovers.

China, Peoples Republic of

CCTV had offered in-vision continuity. However, this kind of segment has been withdrawn in recent years.

China, Republic of (Taiwan)

Pre-recorded continuity announcements are offered on the TV channels in Taiwan.

Ireland

All domestic terrestrial channels in Ireland make use of continuity announcers, mainly to introduce programmes, promote forthcoming programmes, provide information relating to the programme just broadcast and, in the case of stations with sister channels, cross-promote programmes on the other channel (such as linking between RTÉ One and Two, or TV3 and 3e).

RTÉ One used in-vision continuity announcers until at least 2000.^[17] and in-vision continuity was briefly reprised in the late 1990s for overnight programmes.^[18]

RTÉ Two used in-vision continuity announcers from its launch in November 1978 to at least 1986.^[19][20] In-vision continuity links were reprised on the channel, then known as Network 2, during the evening schedule, from 1997 to 2001.^[21]

From January 2008, the daytime schedule on TV3 launched with two new in-vision continuity annnouncers, Conor Clear and Andrea Hayes.^[22]

TG4 makes regular use of in-vision continuity during its evening schedule.^[23] Currently, TG4 employ six continuity announcers:

Mairéad Ní Chuaig Fedelma Ní Ráighne

Cormac Ó Loideáin Dáithí Ó Sé

Sinéad Ní Loideáin Aoife Ní Thuairisg[24]

The station's announcers also present weather forecasts in-vision, and often mention forthcoming programmes during the weather bulletins.^[25]

Italy

Continuity announcers still appear in-vision on the three main RAI channels, where female continuity announcers are known as signorine buonasera (or 'good evening ladies'), although their role is much more marginal than it used to be. Past continuity announcers such as Nicoletta Orsomando or Rosanna Vaudetti are regarded today as cultural icons of the 1960s, particularly because of their impeccable elegance and perfect pronunciation of Italian. Since 2003, all in-vision links on Rai Uno, Rai Due and Rai Tre have been pre-recorded.

Other Italian channels such as Retequattro,^[26][27] Canale 5^[28][29] and Italia 1^[30][31] also used their own team of signorine buonasera in the 1980s and 1990s.

Japan

In Japan, NHK offers in-vision continuity segments on their TV services.

North Korea

Korean Central Television still offers in-vision continuity.

Sweden

In Sweden, a continuity announcer (or programme presenter) is informally known as a hallåa, which roughly means "helloer". This comes from the early days of radio when the station in Stockholm contacted the rest of the station around the country by shouting "hallå, hallå". Continuity announcers have been present on Swedish public television since November 1957. Initially, Sveriges Radio employed a team of both male and female announcers, but in the 1960s, the announcers became almost solely female.^[32] Male announcers returned in the 1970s.

Both Kanal 1 and TV2, as well as the educational television service UR, continued to use in-vision announcers from the 1970s through to the 1990s, except for a few years in the early nineties when Kanal 1 (now SVT1) switched to out-of-vision continuity. In a cost-cutting exercise, SVT decided to drop live in-vision announcing from SVT2 in January 2005 and introduced pre-recorded voice-overs by SVT's announcing staff. The educational broadcaster UR dropped in-vision announcers by the end of 2006. Since then, SVT1 is the only public channel that uses in-vision continuity, while SVT2, SVT24, Kunskapskanalen and UR use out-of-vision announcers.

The largest commercial channel, TV4 has utilised in-vision announcers since it began broadcasting in 1990. Most other commercial channels broadcast from London and use out-of-vision announcers. Private channels with out-of-vision announcers include TV3, Kanal 5, TV6, Kanal 9 and TV4 Plus.

Indochina (Southeast Asia)

Today, in-vision announcers are used in Southeast Asia, especially in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

This list is Southeast Asian channels still using in-vision announcers:

• Cambodia: National Television of Kampuchea and regional broadcasters: TV Battambang, TTV3
• Indonesia: TVRI, SCTV and Trans 7
• Laos: Lao National Television (not used as usual)
• Malaysia: Radio Televisyen Malaysia (program menu also used), TV3 (two times a day), ntv7
• Singapore: TV3
• Thailand: TV3 (program menu also used), TV5 (military announcer)
• Vietnam: Binh Thuan Television

United Kingdom

Main article: Continuity announcers in the United Kingdom

See also

See bumper music for a similarly functioning idea used in talk radio in the United States.

References

1. ^ [1] één in-vision continuity (You Tube), accessed 25 February 2008
2. ^ [2] één in-vision continuity (You Tube), accessed 25 February 2008
3. ^ [3] VIJFtv in-vision continuity (YouTube), accessed 25 February 2008
4. ^ [4] VIJFtv in-vision continuity (YouTube), accessed 25 February 2008
5. ^ [5] The TV Room: TG4 Christmas Presentation 2007, accessed 25 February 2008
6. ^ [6] TV Ark: NRK1 presentation, accessed 26 February 2008
7. ^ [7] SVT1 in-vision continuity, 2004 (YouTube), accessed 26 February 2008
8. ^ [8] SVT1 in-vision continuity, 2005 (YouTube), accessed 26 February 2008
9. ^ [9] TV4 in-vision continuity, 2004 (YouTube), accessed 26 February 2008
10. ^ [10] TV4 in-vision continuity (YouTube), accessed 26 February 2008
11. ^ Les speakerines - tsr.ch
12. ^ [11] CBBC in-vision continuity (YouTube), accessed 25 February 2008
13. ^ [12] CBBC in-vision continuity (YouTube), accessed 25 February 2008
14. ^ [13] UTV in-vision continuity (YouTube), accessed 25 February 2008
15. ^ [14] UTV in-vision continuity (YouTube), accessed 25 February 2008
16. ^ [15] Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, accessed 10 July 2009
17. ^ The TV Room: RTÉ One Presentation 1993-1995; accessed 26 February 2008
18. ^ The TV Room: RTÉ One Presentation 1998-2000; accessed 26 February 2008
19. ^ The TV Room: RTÉ Two Presentation 1978-1984; accessed 26 February 2008
20. ^ The TV Room: RTÉ Two Presentation 1984-1987; accessed 26 February 2008
21. ^ The TV Room: Network 2 In-Vision Continuity 1997-2002; accessed 26 February 2008
22. ^ TV3 Ireland, Media Room: "TV3 follows strong 2007 with more Irish programming than ever in 2008"; accessed 28 June 2008
23. ^ [16] The TV Room: TG4 Christmas Presentation 2007]; accessed 25 February 2008
24. ^ TG4.ie: Sa Stiúideo - Aimsir
25. ^ TG4.ie: An Aimsir Láithreach; accessed 28 June 2008
26. ^ [17] Rete 4 in-vision continuity, 1985 (YouTube), accessed 26 February 2008
27. ^ [18] Rete 4 in-vision continuity, 1990 (YouTube), accessed 26 February 2008
28. ^ [19] Canale 5 in-vision continuity, 1985 (YouTube), accessed 26 February 2008
29. ^ [20] Canale 5 in-vision continuity, 1993 (YouTube), accessed 26 February 2008
30. ^ [21] Italia 1 in-vision continuity, 1990 (YouTube), accessed 26 February 2008
31. ^ [22] Italia 1 in-vision continuity, 1990 (YouTube), accessed 26 February 2008
32. ^ Hvar fjortonde dag - Hallåor, SVT, 1969-11-28, http://svt.se/svt/play/video.jsp?a=707705