Entertainment
Channel 4 apologises for more technical issues after Countdown is cancelled
Fans were confused after regular shows did not air (Picture: Channel 4)
Channel 4 has apologised to viewers after its services suffered further ‘technical issues’ on Friday afternoon, which saw last-minute swaps in its scheduling.
The broadcaster has experienced a number of major outages since September, caused by issues at the broadcast centre which handles its playout services.
Friday’s 2:10pm broadcast of Countdown was replaced by an episode of Find It, Fix It, Flog It, while the channel also didn’t show its scheduled episode of Moneybags afterwards.
A statement posted on Twitter said: ‘We’ve experienced temporary technical issues related to the new operating process that was put in place after the outage.
‘We are working to rectify it as quickly as possible but can confirm that the peak schedule is unaffected.’
Viewers had taken to Twitter earlier to air their frustration over the missing shows.
Perennial favourite Countdown didn’t air (Picture: Rachel Joseph/Channel 4)
‘I had moneybags set on my sky planer [sic], but no episode today, what happened?’ tweeted one, while another wrote: ‘I was looking forward to Moneybags too.’
A fan of the broadcaster’s flagship afternoon show posted: ‘Why wasn’t Countdown on today please. It’s the 1 [sic] show Iook forward to Monday to Friday.’
Others were keen to know when the programmes would air instead, if at all.
‘Will Countdown and Moneybags be broadcast at all, please?’, asked one in response to the organisation’s tweet.
An unverified Twitter account seeming to be linked to quiz show Moneybags also interacted with fans and shared an update, posting: ‘Channel 4 experienced a temporary technical issue related to the new operating process that was put in place after a recent outage.
‘We’ll let you know how to catch up on the scheduled episode of #Moneybags very soon. Until then catch up on the series here.’
The issues originally arose after a fire suppression system was triggered at the broadcast centre of Red Bee Media, severely damaging a large number of hard disks in a variety of systems.
As well as its audio and pictures, Channel 4’s subtitles, sign language and audio description services were also temporarily disrupted, prompting criticism from the National Deaf Children’s Society and Ofcom.
More: Channel 4
The broadcasting watchdog criticised the broadcaster for not having ‘strong back-up measures’.
It said that once the issues were permanently resolved it would review Channel 4’s ‘equipment and facilities’ and consider ‘what action might be required to make sure broadcasters do not find themselves in this situation again’.
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