Duna II Autonómia Televízió

Duna II Autonómia Televízi is a television station based in Hungary is closes down nightly at around 12am their time with this fantastic national anthem preformed by a classic orchestra and singers.

I believe is state owned and funded by the state, thanks for Kecske for informing me that they no longer have a licence fee, Duna is Hungarian for the Danube river.

After close down they air shots from space which is the most original use of close down time I have ever seen.

Over all this is a fantastic close down with no real political or ethnic ties, except for the National Anthem itself.

I like it, it screams simplistic and classy, and I hope you all enjoy....

Al-Iraqiya Mobasher

Al-Iraqiya Mobasher is an Iraqi channel that closes down each night and starts up each morning, I am unclear of the channels content or purpose so I really have little to write about so I will let the video talk for itself.

One thing I can tell you, last week the stars featured on the flag were removed, since they were seen by many in Iraq as a symbol of Saddam Hussein's Baath party. I am unclear if the channel has since removed it from its video, but after watching the channel the flag in this video is still in use for other items.

Cheers

Canal Trece LS85 Argentina

Continuing on The Spanish Speaking America's theme:

LS85 TV Channel 13 is the flagship station of the Canal Trece network in Buenos Aires, Argentina, it signs off / closes down each night, without much note, and airs simply just this graphic which can be seen here and music till 5:30am Argentina time when it switches to a Test Card G / Philips PM5544 test card, with station identification and clock, with an announcer repeating what is written on the test card.

The graphic essentially serves the same purpose of the test card, but looks a lot more pretty over night, well to some.

The graphic at the end of the video contains a condensed version of the National Anthem of Argentina.

Call-Sign Information:

LS is part of the Call-Sign range assigned to Argentina for broadcasting, I would personally like to know what the 85 stands for if it has any meaning please email me.

Enjoy....

XETV FOX6

XETV Channel 6 is the FOX network station in San Diego California United States and Tijuana Baja California Mexico.

Due to the properties of VHF and the close proximity of Tijuana and San Diego this has resulted in Mexican licensed stations broadcasting in English for the American market with US network affiliation, this has also happened in many other border towns.

XETV has a unique history of American licensed stations stealing its affiliations, its set-up which all can be read on wikipedia here.

Since it is a Mexican licensed station this has resulted in the station being required to play the Mexican national anthem at the beginning of each new broadcast day before the local 6am newscast.

Since its basically an American station in all but its broadcasting location it plays the US national anthem directly after the Mexican one, and has the familiar North American style sign on message of the broadcasting power and details of the station itself but not licensed to the FCC but the Secretary of Communications and Transportation of Mexico which is spoken both in English and Spanish, this is the only time that I believe Spanish is spoken on this station.

Technically, US cable operators are not legally required to carry XETV in San Diego, but it is de facto that it is carried.

I believe at the border Mexico and America has a little battle going on who has the biggest flag.

Over all this is a uniquely Mexican trait since you do not hear of either American stations aiming at the Canadian market or vice-versa.

Updated Affiliation Information

XETV has changed affiliation, to read more and to view the current Sign-On click Here.

Enjoy

XEW-TV

XEW-TV is the Flagship station of the Televisia owned El Canal de las Estrellas network in Mexico City, in Mexico all broadcast stations radio and television are required to play the national anthem each day by law under their licence from the Secretary of Communications and Transportation of Mexico.

The four Televisia stations in Mexico City all broadcast the same video, sometimes at similar times as each other, normally before 6am Mexico City Time.

Once again similar to Belarus they have the words to go with the National Anthem.

Hope you all enjoy....

Belarus TV

Belarus TV is Belarus state international broadcaster, it closes down daily around 4am Belarusian time.

It features the coat of arms of Belarus right at the beginning of the video, a very nice video featuring heavy machinery I guess is produced in Belarus, children of Belarus, shots of people from Belarus competing in the Olympic Games and of course their National Anthem which is even subtitled and the National Flag which is carried by either a Mi-8 or Mi-17 helicopter which I think creates a fantastic effect.

Enjoy....

BBC One and BBC Two RBS Tests

I know this is not a proper close down but its the closest we are going to ever get from BBC One and Two, except for "Pages From Ceefax"

Anyway BBC One and Two conducted their annual Relay Broadcast Service Test (on analogue only) early this morning (January 9th 2008).

Basically the reason for the tests are because if a transmitter loses its feed it will automatically pick up the closest other transmitter signal and rebroadcast that.

Every year The BBC switches off every feed to each transmitter except for Crystal Palace in London and test to see if every transmitter relays Crystal Palace properly, in 2007 the Scottish transmitters image was so low quality they could be barely viewed, after being bounced all the way up from London.

During this period Crystal Palace broadcasts Test Card J, a newer modification on the infamous Test Card F.

On both BBC One and Two the continuity announcer that morning announced the tests and the Learning Zone on BBC Two shows scheduled would be repeated at a later date for analogue viewers

I have specially encoded this video with stereo sound which is how its broadcast, test tone on the left channel and the talking clock lady on the right, you can listen to either by going into your Volume Control Panel and using the slider bar move either left or right.

Ceefax will also be the London region where ever you are, and it has its name changed to "VG Broadcast" as seen here.

Broadcast times

On BBC Two the tests were from 02:10 - 03:10
On BBC One the tests were from 04:10 - 05:10

CBFT Montreal Canada

CBFT is the Network Flag Ship Station of Télévision de Radio Canada in Montreal Canada, it is the oldest station in Canada and continues to close down / sign off and start up to this day.

Featured is a fantastically artsy (literally) promo for the station with people painting, inside the station itself, news cameramen running around Montreal to suggest a good news team, the repeaters details (note mostly VHF) and the information on the station all in French.

Then a brilliant animated patriotic video with O Canada which I assume is not unique to CBFT? at the end during the black level you will hear "The Pips" this automatically turns off transmitters that are (re)broadcasting CBFT around the area, they will switch to static *snow*, while cable and satellite will have the following days viewing which can be seen before you play this video.

On Start Up / Sign on, they will air the videos in opposite order, the national anthem first then the artsy promo.

Thanks for Franc, who has posted in the comments section, here is a translation:

In French:

Jour apres jour, un evenement unique se reproduit, ici meme, sous vos yeux. Chaque jour, le plus vaste reseau de television au pays, prend son essor. Son charactere est distinctif, son regard, essentiel. Il rassemble des gens de tout age et de toute origine. Un ensemble dont vous etes le coeur et l'unique raison d'etre.

Translation into English:

Day after day, something unique happens, right here, before your eyes. Every day, the countries largest television network soars. It has a distinctive character, an essential outlook. It brings together people of all ages and all origins. An entity of which you are the heart, and only reason to be.

Hope you all enjoy.

VTV 4

This is a very interesting one it is from Vietnam's state international broadcaster VTV4 prior to mid night their time on December 31st 2007, and into 2008 the new year and then straight into the start up video of a CG Graphic, National Anthem and Flag

This video contains a long video of Test Card G / Phillips PM5544 Test Card and clock counting into the New Years, so you can fast forward through that if you like.

BHT 1

BHT 1 is Bosnia and Herzegovina public broadcaster, a really plain simple close down with their national flag and anthem but at the end a fantastic test card I believe is unique to them?

I am pleased at the reaction I am getting on-line especially The TV Forum and will continue posting videos, but I do need your help so please email me at remlap1986 at gmail.com, once I run out of places to record from.

Thanks

ERI.TV

ERI.TV is Eritrea's state broadcaster it closes and starts up daily, during shut down they air a fantastic test card seen at the beginning of this video which features the countries coat of arms.

Eritrea is a small nation in North Eastern Africa bordered by The Sudan and Ethiopia.

The First Video

The First Video

I have been planning this blog in my head for some time, but have now finally decided to go ahead with it.

Basically I will be posting flash videos of television channels start up or close down or the North American term Sign off procedure videos and the test cards that are broadcast before or after them.

Normally they include patriotic footage of the country of origin, the national flag, sometimes militaristic displays of power and always the national anthem.

There are other sites out there that I admire, but they focus on mainly North American broadcasters and mostly dated material, good for historical reasons though.

So to start....

Radio Television Afghanistan is Afghanistan public broadcaster and it is new on Hotbird at 13e and Eutelsat W2 at 16e so I thought it would be a good start.

In the following days I will be uploading more, including Vietnam VTV4 at Midnight on January 1st and Turkey.

Enjoy.......