7 out of the 9 Viacom Networks on COX Basic Cable were off the air from 5:30-6AM. The ones that were off were: Spike TV, Comedy Central, Nick-At-Nite, MTV, CMT, VH-1, and TVLAND. Only BET and MTV2 remained on. This despite only Nick-At-Nite, CMT, and TVLAND being listed as off the air on the TV Guide Channel. (CMT was listed as off the air. Nick-at-Nite and TVLAND were both listed as Bars & Tones)
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7 of 9 Viacom Networks off the air this morning
- Thread starter MarcB
- Start date
E
E-Dub
Guest
Same here with Comcast. It's not unusual for Nick to sign-off on a Friday, though it's usually on the first Friday of the month and at 6AM. Any reason why?
I have no idea, since Viacom's networks are the only ones to leave the air for a half-hour once a month.
Up until the mid-1990s, Nick would use this brief down-time to transmit promos for Nick and Nick-at-Nite for the following month to cable systems, in which they would record them and use them later during local ad times on the other cable channels. The down-time very likely stemmed from that era, though of course, the only thing they show these days is a generic test pattern.
You can see a promo feed from 1990 (and even buy your own copy, as part of a sign-off collection) here:
http://www.jawtoons.com/sign-offs/sign-offs-misc.htm
Up until the mid-1990s, Nick would use this brief down-time to transmit promos for Nick and Nick-at-Nite for the following month to cable systems, in which they would record them and use them later during local ad times on the other cable channels. The down-time very likely stemmed from that era, though of course, the only thing they show these days is a generic test pattern.
You can see a promo feed from 1990 (and even buy your own copy, as part of a sign-off collection) here:
http://www.jawtoons.com/sign-offs/sign-offs-misc.htm
F
Frasier
Guest
MarcB said:
They actually run infomercials; in fact, not too long ago, VH1 (when they were actually focused on music) ran infomercials every night starting at 3:30 AM.
MarcB said:
They were off the air for maintence and testing of their transmission facilities. This happens every so often. It happens on the Starz/Encore networks from 4-4:50 AM on the second Wednesday of the month, and the HBO channels do so as well (but it is a different channel each day).
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