Trade Test Transmission

Yeah it's true - we might have the choice of 57 digital channels but late night TV is really poor. Ceefax used to be more entertaining than what we have now. Are you old enough to remember when TV channels would shutdown rather than just show repeated news or bronzed muscle-bound shiny white-toothed Americans selling impractical exercise equipment?

Back in the 70s, the BBC used to closedown at night and during a fair bit of the day as well. In closedown they'd just transmit the BBC test card. Watching the card was worse than watching paint dry. However, I don't see why they can't bring it back - folks who would rather watch a programme late at night could 'interact' by pressing their red remote button.

Commercial channels could show their test cards and still have adverts every 10 minutes or so like they do now. I don't think viewing figures would go down. I mean Channel 4 are already halfway there when they show 'live' coverage of the Big Brother contestants asleep in the early hours of the morning - Did anything move on the screen in the last 15 minutes? No, so why not save money and just show a test card instead?

Visit Channel M for another example of a test card.