4 ms·

It strikes me that the BBC is hilariously bad at archival. They scrapped dozens of Doctor Who episodes in the name of saving space (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

by MrDOS 13y ago

It strikes me that the BBC is hilariously bad at archival. They scrapped dozens of Doctor Who episodes in the name of saving space (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_missing_episodes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_missing_episodes).

objclxt 13y ago
The BBC is, today, very good at archiving programming material. All output is kept for at least five years, and the overwhelming majority is kept permanently (exceptions are things like long-running quiz shows, where samples of material are kept post five years, although any disposed material is offered to the BFI and other third parties before being junked). Doctor Who wasn't scrapped in the name of saving space, it was scrapped because nobody thought it was worth keeping. The shows couldn't be repeated (because at the time, Equity had negotiated limits on repeat rights), and quad tape was very expensive and easily re-used. More importantly, nobody really thought that Quad was an appropriate archiving format. Programs would be tele-recorded onto 16mm for overseas sale and archive. This is not, in of itself, a crazy idea - try finding a quad tape player today vs a 16mm projector. The problem at the time was there was no mandate for archival, so the engineering department were junking the tapes, and the commercial department (who were selling Doctor Who on to other broadcasters) weren't retaining the 16mm reels. Even in the 1970s, many people were still not convinced of the value of archiving TV output. It's not totally dissimilar to the early days of the web - it was seen as ephemeral. This was happening at pretty much every broadcaster around the world - Wikipedia has a pretty big list of lost TV programs, most of which were wiped for space.
KaiserPro 13y ago
In the name of saving cost. Tapes were (and still are) really expensive. at the time the BBC were really strapped for cash (as ITV were not long after.)
leejoramo 13y ago
Not just the BBC. Everyone did that. Read about how Groucho Marx's grandson saved "You Bet Your Life" from NBC's trashing. Even into the 1980's Ted Turner made a large part of his fortune by buying the back catalog of movie studios who saw almost no value in their archives. Turner saw the value of playing these old films on cable and video tape sales. EDIT: forgot this link http://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/the-day-my-grandfather-groucho.html http://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/the-day-my-grandfather-grou...
pessimizer 13y ago
That was common. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuMont_Television_Network#DuMont_programming_library https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuMont_Television_Network#DuMo... "By the early 1970s, their vast library of 35mm and 16mm kinescopes eventually wound up in the hands of ABC, who reportedly disposed of all of them in New York's East River to make room for more recent-vintage videotapes in a warehouse."

by MrDOS 13y ago

objclxt 13y ago

The BBC is, today, very good at archiving programming material. All output is kept for at least five years, and the overwhelming majority is kept permanently (exceptions are things like long-running quiz shows, where samples of material are kept post five years, although any disposed material is offered to the BFI and other third parties before being junked). Doctor Who wasn't scrapped in the name of saving space, it was scrapped because nobody thought it was worth keeping. The shows couldn't be repeated (because at the time, Equity had negotiated limits on repeat rights), and quad tape was very expensive and easily re-used. More importantly, nobody really thought that Quad was an appropriate archiving format. Programs would be tele-recorded onto 16mm for overseas sale and archive. This is not, in of itself, a crazy idea - try finding a quad tape player today vs a 16mm projector. The problem at the time was there was no mandate for archival, so the engineering department were junking the tapes, and the commercial department (who were selling Doctor Who on to other broadcasters) weren't retaining the 16mm reels. Even in the 1970s, many people were still not convinced of the value of archiving TV output. It's not totally dissimilar to the early days of the web - it was seen as ephemeral. This was happening at pretty much every broadcaster around the world - Wikipedia has a pretty big list of lost TV programs, most of which were wiped for space.

KaiserPro 13y ago

In the name of saving cost. Tapes were (and still are) really expensive. at the time the BBC were really strapped for cash (as ITV were not long after.)

leejoramo 13y ago

Not just the BBC. Everyone did that. Read about how Groucho Marx's grandson saved "You Bet Your Life" from NBC's trashing. Even into the 1980's Ted Turner made a large part of his fortune by buying the back catalog of movie studios who saw almost no value in their archives. Turner saw the value of playing these old films on cable and video tape sales. EDIT: forgot this link http://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/the-day-my-grandfather-groucho.html http://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/the-day-my-grandfather-grou...

pessimizer 13y ago

That was common. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuMont_Television_Network#DuMont_programming_library https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuMont_Television_Network#DuMo... "By the early 1970s, their vast library of 35mm and 16mm kinescopes eventually wound up in the hands of ABC, who reportedly disposed of all of them in New York's East River to make room for more recent-vintage videotapes in a warehouse."