@thelog 526725 wrote:
I remember years ago before they had released all of the red dwarf series’ on VHS we had not seen al of the episodes for the fifth series. SO we called up the BBC archives and asked if we could purchase copies of them. They said yes but the prices were astronomical, like £100 jib or one episode. Obviously we didn’t get any.
yep and that is for a shitty dub to normal VHS. So you can imagine what BetaSP/Digibeta copies [1] must cost, and Auntie even charge that to other departments within the BBC. the worst part of it is that these cassette tapes need to be played and wound through periodically or they can start to shed oxide and trash the recordings, but the budget cuts and arguments over money mean that this isn’t being done as it should be.
[1] These are giant video cassette recorders which look like something from the 1980s but were still widely used in broadcast studios until the mid 2000s and everything going to servers rather than tape. I think some are still made/in use …
Producers making documentaries of 1990s era comedy (even BBC producers) have been forced to beg for copies of old shows from artists private collections.
Even a lot of the stuff on youtube especially lower budget shows such as youth and kids showes is only there because engineers hoarded old video cassettes and equipment when studios were closed down and kept private collections. Technically they aren’t supposed to be uploading that stuff but so many ITV companies are out of business though for the stuff which is still popular ITV have a load of young ambitious legal types scouring youtube and getting stuff taken down.
I can understand this from the 1970s/80s era when tech wasn’t as advanced and stuff wasn’t archived due to union wrangles over actors repeat fees (sometimes the broadcasters deliberately destroyed film or wiped tapes because they wanted to show the actors who had the power) but its shocking to learn this happens even since the 1990s..
