By way of an illustration.

Amazing as it may sound, I went out for a few hours on Friday morning. In fact it was nearly 15.00 CET when I tuned into the channel.

You know the first thing that I saw on the tv screen ? Yes, you guessed it - a picture of another tv screen. And it struck me of what would the reaction of a casual viewer - and potential caller remember - tuning in to this by accident. After all it is quite regular to see a tv screen, and only a tv screen for well over a minute. I know what my reaction would be. "This is a load of (well you should know the next word by now) and that casual viewer - and potential caller remember - has been lost.

And think for just one minute for the girls in the studio. They are charged with keeping the caller on line for as long as possible. So they start a little action. Caller is getting turned on. What happens ? Woops. Cut away to that tv screen whether it just be showing a plea to send more VIPs or if a MUG has bit the carrot then you see that message.

But more than likely, you have just lost that caller because he could no longer see what he was paying for. If there was other 'action' going on and the director needed to show that or even briefly show the other girls who were ready to take calls then I could understand. But I will NEVER understand why there should be the need to cut away just to show a tv screen.

And you know the really sad thing. None of this is necessary.

So today, your unpaid media consultant comes back just to show you how it could be done. And more than that how it can be done.

To get the message across, I will illustrate this will some examples of actual tv output of the right way and the wrong way to do it.

1. There are enough tv screens, and they are big enough, for any message to be shown alongside a girl. Look at the last picture. A good example of how to do it.

2. The VIP messages are now shown in a different colour. But they are not on screen long enough. Give them the full 2 minutes. I am sure your system can be programmed for this. Then no need for unnecessary cut-aways. Look at the top 2 pics. The wrong way is at the right - the right way is at the left. You have also shown that you can recall the SMSs that disappear so why not recall them in the notification area ?

3. The middle two pictures are a further example of the above but without the input from the girl addressed to in the SMS. But again the vision was disrupted by the tv screen(on the right) so that caller was probably lost.

4. It is not necessary just to have a begging message on the tv screen to disrupt the viewing - and the caller. A few weeks ago I suggested that you adapt your graphics. This week you proved that you can easily adapt them with that promotion for the VIPs so, if you did not understand what I was suggesting then in the last 2 pics I have shown how it can be done for both VIPs and SVIPs. And you can see just how easy it really is.

And think of the potential benefits. Less visual disruption = more viewer/caller satisfaction = more or longer calls = more income.

[picture evidence follows]

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But for now I only speak about Astra. Do you really hate the viewers/callers from Hotbird to plaster the screen with graphics that for many minutes completely hide part of the viewing area ?. So do you think that caller who looks in on Hotbird is impressed by this or when he sees them cuts the call. You obviously do not need his money. These graphics are transparent on Astra. Who was the idiot who decided differently for Hotbird ?

Or as Stan used to say to Ollie "That's another fine mess you have got me into"
 

On HotBird the evening show (with SMS chat on screen and without horrific graphics) was the only watchable show. Now, the disaster is complete.

On Hotbird they wanted to introduce VIPs from Italy but I think italian mobiles companies didn't want to increase SMS fee (maybe they had a warning from TLC Authority) so since two weeks no SMS at all (and no mods, I think Simone is now in Bahrein for Formula 1 tests :)) and that "lovely" graphics during the whole day.

I was just sitting around playing some "Kneesie, Earsie, Nosie", sometimes interrupted by a nice "Finger-Wiggle", when I saw someone messing up some facts about some of my favourite actors ... ;-)

11 out of 10 for spotting the delibarate mistake -))

Gotta make sure that someone is awake ;)

Little correction about the L&H quote: Oliver Hardy used to say that ...
And, like a lot of other quotes (like: "Play it again, Sam" or "Beam me up Scotty"), it was never said ...
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