C-Day#Commercials-Day in the UK

{{Short description|Name used for two different one-off events related to television in different countries}}

{{for|the military use of "C-Day"|Military designation of days and hours}}

C-Day is the name of two television-related events: 1 March 1975, when Australia moved to regular colour television, and 1 July 2000, the day the UK television industry began accepting only widescreen commercials, an important step in the general move of broadcasting in the UK to the picture format.

Colour Television in Australia

Australia was a little late in introducing colour television, to choose the correct television system, waiting about 8 years from the time PAL was invented.

It was then forbidden for broadcasters to transmit the chroma burst signal, until the designated day, 1 March 1975.{{Cite web|date=2013-06-29|title=Friday 28 February 1975 — MELBOURNE|url=https://televisionau.com/classic-tv-guides/tv280275|access-date=2020-10-05|website=Television.AU|language=en-AU}}{{Cite web|date=2014-10-07|title=40 years of colour TV|url=https://televisionau.com/2014/10/40-years-of-colour-tv.html|access-date=2020-10-05|website=Television.AU|language=en-AU}} The broadcasters were allowed to experiment with transmitting colour signals in the picture area, and get their transmission up and running while people who had already bought colour TV sets could only watch the shows in black and white. There were some people who built a circuit to circumvent this, where they would synchronise the chrominance decoding oscillator manually.

Commercials-Day in the UK

C-Day or Commercials-Day, 1 July 2000, was the date at which UK broadcasters (with the exception of MTV and VH1{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=7 July 2000|title=IPA warns on international perspective on widescreen|url=http://www.ipa.co.uk/news/news_archive/displayitem.cfm?itemid=258|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060926165924/http://www.ipa.co.uk/news/news_archive/displayitem.cfm?itemid=258|archive-date=2006-09-26|access-date=|website=Institute of Practitioners in Advertising}}) changed from requiring 4:3 aspect ratio commercials, to requiring 16:9 Full Height commercials supplied to them, shot "14:9 safe" for those channels which in part (i.e. the analogue feeds of Terrestrial broadcasters) or in whole (many cable television and satellite television channels) continued to broadcast a 4:3 frame.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title='C-Day', UK commercials go widescreen|url=http://www.seizmic.co.uk/docs/news/cday.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060924031000/http://www.seizmic.co.uk/docs/news/cday.htm|archive-date=2006-09-24|access-date=|website=seizmic limited}}

It was originally proposed by ITV in July 1999.{{Cite web|last=Tylee|first=John|date=1999-07-23|title=ITV names the day for transmission of ads in wide format|url=https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/itv-names-day-transmission-ads-wide-format/30472|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201005123901/https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/itv-names-day-transmission-ads-wide-format/30472?utm_source=website&utm_medium=social|archive-date=2020-10-05|access-date=2020-10-05|website=Campaign}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=1999-07-29|title=ITV SETS JULY 2000 DATE TO SWITCH TO WIDESCREEN ADS|url=https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/itv-sets-july-2000-date-to-switch-to-widescreen-ads/1217862.article|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113093743/http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/itv-sets-july-2000-date-to-switch-to-widescreen-ads/1217862.article |archive-date=13 January 2016 |access-date=2020-10-05|website=Broadcast|language=en}}

ITV and Channel 4 took advantage of C-Day to update their continuity suites to be widescreen capable, broadcasting their idents in widescreen.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=ITV • Ulster Television • July 2000 – January 2001 • Idents [1]|url=http://thetvroom.com/itv/itv-utv-06-01.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120715140440/http://thetvroom.com/itv/itv-utv-06-01.html|archive-date=2012-07-15|access-date=|website=The TV Room}}

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070929163800/http://www.bluelucy.com/C-day%20Technical%20Guide.pdf C-Day [UK] Technical Guide]

References

Category:1975 in Australian television

Category:2000 in British television