Timeshift Channel

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(Redirected from Plus One)

Also known as a "Plus One" channel, this is a supplementary TV channel in which the programmes shown on the channel are repeated an hour later. Essentially a delayed feed with a slightly different network logo.

There are numerous examples on British satellite and cable TV, including +1 versions of terrestrial networks such as Channel 4. Sometimes called "catch up" channels because they give viewers a second chance to catch a program that might have clashed with something else they were watching. Or as the Brits might say, "more bloody repeats!"

Occasionally, as on ITV 1 +1, the channel may go blank during a programme for which the immediate repeat rights are unavailable. +1 channels can also be slightly confusing when carrying "live" news or sports.

Needless to say, catching the last two minutes of something you would have been interested in seeing is doubly annoying when it's on Plus One, meaning you've managed to miss it twice within an hour...

Network Decay can occasionally cause this in a formerly-independent channel. This can occasionally be subverted by the network running a spare timeshift channel temporarily in order to retain hold of an EPG position prior to a new channel launching- X League / Pulse did this with three(!) other channels, and Living TV had a +2 for a while, before it became Living HD.

Related is cable networks in the United States that make both their East Coast and West Coast feeds available to everyone, or more rarely, re-air a truncated network block of what the network figures are the most watched and anticipated shows, sometimes and even more rarely out of order, usually after the West Coast feed or late night (thus sometimes giving three opportunities to view programming). On cable providers having a +3 or -3 feed has become less popular as they would rather carry more high definition programming than a feed featuring duplicative programming in the age of DVR's and on demand, which a second network feed would limit.

Examples of Timeshift Channel include:

Television

  • Discovery +1 (and +1.5)
  • An example of the Network Decay variety: Nicktoons Network. (Is this a specifically British example?)
    • The Americans have Nick 2, with Nicktoons Network being a different channel.
  • Averted in the US by running the same program twice within three hours on the same channel. Channels like History and Discovery generally tend to air programs this way to avoid a double channel for the West Coast feed. A show airing at 9 pm and 12 am on East Coast time ensures that the 12 am showing will air at the advertised 9 pm on the West Coast.
      • Looking at the schedules of some channels in the UK that do timeshift, this technique doesn't avert it at all. One a few of them you get a three-hour block, repeated, and then the whole lot timeshifted by an hour on another channel. A couple do it in reverse, where two or three programmes leading up to a long documentary or movie will be followed by the two or three programmes that preceded it in reverse order. Particularly humorous on Channel 4 with their piano-roll ECPs where you blatantly see the repeated entries scroll past you.
    • Fox News and MSNBC generally do this with their 8PM, 9PM, and 10PM shows. However, sometimes Red Eye comes on at 12AM instead of 3AM, so I don't know what they do then...
    • Adult Swim's second half is usually a repeat of its first half. Made a little muddy by the fact that Saturdays feature no repeat programming and the occasional nights of programming decided by contest winners will leave it to said contest winner as to whether the block repeats or not (they usually opt to air additional programming instead). Made even muddier on Sundays in that King of the Hill will, as best as I can describe it, have an "offset repeat."
      • Considering that Cartoon Network/Adult Swim also has separate East and West Coast feeds, it's sometimes possible to watch something four times in a night.
  • Food Network, Spike TV and Discovery Channel will sometimes do the rare truncated version mentioned in the main article, depending on scheduling. For example, Food Network will re-air both of the day's episodes of Good Eats late-night, but flip-flop the airing order.
  • Australian Pay TV has several channels with this feature but it's generally +2. Thus to those in Perth the main channel is their -2, allowing them to watch a show ahead of time if the Sydney-centric channel is offered on their system.
    • It also causes an unintentional example with SBS in Queensland during summer due to New South Wales and Victoria having daylight savings time and Queensland... not. Australian Pay TV providers also includes feeds for Free-to-Air channels as well and each state gets the feed from their local version (mostly just different news). But SBS only has a single, nationwide version and the Pay TV feed is set so Queenslanders with Pay TV can get it an hour earlier than normal or turn over and get the normal times from the local transmitter.
  • British station Dave calls its +1 channel "Dave Ja Vu". Why a channel that shows almost nothing but whole series of Top Gear, Have I Got News for You and QI back-to-back, frequently showing the same episodes twice in the same 24-hour period thanks to British Brevity, feels the need for one of these is anyone's guess.
  • British satellite TV station DMAX is currently up to four channels - DMAX, DMAX+1, DMAX+1.5, and DMAX+2.
  • Canadian sports broadcaster TSN used regulatory loopholes surrounding such services to create the digital channel TSN2, which primarily timeshifed programming from TSN (such as the night's major sporting event), but could also air a limited amount of alternate content daily. As such, TSN2 would also be used to off-load other live events that couldn't be shown on the main TSN channel due to other commitments. While competing sports networks complained that TSN was abusing this ability to create extra advertising revenue, the CRTC (like the FCC, except that they also regulate specialty services too) decided there was no wrongdoing, and then decided to reduce exclusivity restrictions for sports and news channels, and amending TSN's license to simply say it can operate multiple feeds without much restriction. Following the change, TSN 2's schedule began to become more autonomous from its flagship, much like its American equivalent.
  • ESPN often does the same thing as TSN, often running shortened (well, two hour block) versions of the night's big game on the network around 2 AM or so on ESPN 2, giving night owls the phrase "Due to time constraints, we'll move ahead to further action."
  • ESPN's practices have now moved to regional sports networks, allowing second shifters to catch their games.
  • Most of the networks aimed at kids in the U.S (Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel) have a East and West coast channel.
  • Starting originally as east/west coast feeds, but always featured as separate channels on Satellite and increasingly Cable Networks, premium movie channels like HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax have several channels now with a repeat 3 hours later -W channel (HBOW, Show-West, etc)
  • Pro TV Chișinău is the Moldova sister-channel of Romanian Pro TV. The timeshift is actually incidental and the result of poor timing of commercial times, but can act as this with a maximum difference of about 15 minutes. The irony goes further that there are obvious awkward attempts to put the shows in perfect sync, but it rarely works out.

Radio

  • A radio example: CBC Radio 1 network programs (but not the local morning and afternoon shows) are aired first in the Atlantic time zone, repeated one hour later in the Eastern time zone, repeated another hour later in the Central time zone, repeated one more hour later in the Mountain time zone, and repeated once more in the Pacific time zone. All Radio 1 stations are live-streamed on the Internet, which means that shows that run longer than one hour (such as q or As It Happens) can be heard at multiple points in their runs at the same time as shown at Greenwich.