Continuity is a term used in broadcasting, especially in the United Kingdom, to refer to announcements, messages and graphics played by the broadcaster between specific programmes. It typically includes programme schedules, announcement of the programme immediately following and trailers or descriptions of forthcoming programmes. Continuity can be spoken by an announcer or displayed in text over graphics. On television continuity generally coincides with a display of the broadcaster's logo. Advertisements are generally not considered part of continuity.

A continuity announcer is a broadcaster whose voice (and, in some cases, face) appears between radio or television programmes to give programme information.

Continuity announcers tell viewers and listeners which channel they are watching or listening to at the moment (or which station they are tuned to), what they are about to see (or hear), and what they could be watching (or listening) if you changed to a different channel operated by the broadcaster. At the end of programmes, they may read out information about the previous programme, for example who presented and produced it, relay information on information or merchandise relating to the show, or to provide details of organisations who may offer support in relation to a storyline or issue raised in the programme. Continuity announcers may also play music during intervals and give details of programmes later in the day. If there is a breakdown, they make any necessary announcements and often play music for its duration.

Usage

Television

Television continuity announcements typically take one of two forms:

• Out-of-vision, where only the announcer's voice is heard, either over the end sequence of a programme or on-screen graphics. With appropriate training in sound and vision mixing, this can be achieved with a single person acting as both voice and controller.
• In-vision, where the announcer seen delivering the announcement on-screen. This typically requires a number of people in a small studio, including sound engineers, vision mixers, and occasionally camera operators. Modern installations with motorised cameras can reduce this to two — the presenter, and a technical assistant to perform the "backstage" functions such as adjusting the camera and mixing.

Presently, the following European television channels use in-vision announcers:

• Belgium: één, Ketnet, VT4 and VIJFtv
• Finland: YLE TV1 and YLE TV2
• Ireland: TG4
• Italy: Rai Uno, Rai Due and Rai Tre
• Norway: NRK1
• Sweden: SVT1 and TV4
• United Kingdom: UTV, the CBBC Channel, CBeebies, BBC Three and BBC Alba

Radio

With most radio stations now broadcasting only music, few networks retain continuity announcers. Exceptions include talk stations such as SR P1, National Public Radio in the United States, BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service: in the case of Radio 4 they have the extra tasks of reading the Shipping Forecasts and gale warnings. Many double up as newsreaders.

In different countries

Canada

In Canada, CBC Television used in-vision announcers to 'host' primetime programming from 2001 to 2006. The host would appear before a program to describe the forthcoming episode. As the credits rolled, the announcer would describe upcoming episodes of the series, then introduce the next program at the top of the hour. The evening's host changed daily. Usually, the host was appearing in a major upcoming program the same week, giving the appearance that the host is promoting not only the next program in the evening but his or her own upcoming show. Sometimes CBC Radio newcasters or program hosts would appear as the evening TV hosts. The initiative, sometimes known as "Hosted Prime", only covered the CBC's core evening block (8:00 to 10:00 p.m. local) as opposed to programs in the 7:00 hour, and would not normally appear during the summer.

CBC Radio One has used continuity announcers in recent years. Originally, a number of staff announcers shared the duties, however, in 2004, the service began employing actress Shauna MacDonald as its primary continuity announcer. Her identity remained a secret for more than a year leading her to be dubbed "Promo Girl". MacDonald has since been replaced by Steve Fletcher, serving in a similar capacity for both Radio One and Radio 2.

Omni Television in Toronto has used in-vision continuity announcers for the past 10 years or so. These "interstitial" segments fill in the time left in programming due to the different break structure of American TV programming, that cannot be filled by commercials in Canada due to Canadian broadcast regulations regarding the number of minutes of commercials allowable per hour. The segments range from 30 seconds to 2 minutes, and in addition to announcing the station and the programs coming up, the announcers will talk about other programming, station contests, quirky news or celebrity gossip.

Continuity announcements on Citytv are voiced by Mark Dailey. The original continuity announcer was Dan Aykroyd.

Other Canadian stations will fill this time in by a news update or a teaser about news stories.

Ireland

All domestic terrestrial channels in Ireland make use of continuity announcers, mainly to introduce programmes, promote forthcoming programmes, provide information relating to the programme just broadcast and, in the case of RTE's two channels, cross-promote programmes on the other channel.

RTÉ One used in-vision continuity announcers until at least the mid 1990s and in-vision continuity was briefly reprised in the late 1990s for overnight programmes.

RTE Two used in-vision continuity announcers from its launch in November 1978 to at least 1986. In-vision continuity links were reprised on the channel, then known as Network 2, during the evening schedule, from 1997 to 2001.

From January 2008, the daytime schedule on TV3 launched with two new in-vision continuity annnouncers, Conor Clear and Andrea Hayes.

TG4 makes regular use of in-vision continuity during its evening schedule. Currently, TG4 employ six continuity announcers. The station's announcers also present weather forecasts in-vision, and often mention forthcoming programmes during the weather bulletins.

Italy

Continuity announcers still appear in-vision on the three main RAI channels, where female continuity announcers are known as signorine buonasera (or 'good evening ladies'), although their role is much more marginal than it used to be. Past continuity announcers such as Nicoletta Orsomando or Rosanna Vaudetti are regarded today as cultural icons of the 1960s, particularly because of their impeccable elegance and perfect pronunciation of Italian. Other Italian channels such as Retequattro, Canale 5 and Italia 1 also used their own team of signorine buonasera in the 1980s and 1990s.

Flanders, Belgium

één, VRT's main television station in the Flanders region of Belgium uses a team of six staff announcers, who perform in-vision and out-of-vision continuity links. They are Andrea Croonenberghs (senior announcer), Evy Gruyaert, Geena Lisa Peeters, Sandrine Van Handenhoven, Saartje Vandendriessche and Hilde Rens (alias Yasmine). VRT's childrens station, Ketnet, also utilises in-vision continuity with announcing staff known on-air as Ketnetwrappers. Ketnet's announcers are Peter Pype, Karolien Debecker, Melvin Klooster, Kobe Van Herwegen and Kristien Maes. As opposed to één and Ketnet, the highbrow station Canvas uses live out-of-vision announcers.

vtm, the main commercial television channel in Flanders, uses live out-of-vision announcers. Its sister station, 2BE, only utilises pre-recorded voiceovers.

Both of SBS Belgium's television stations, VT4 and VIJFtv use in-vision continuity announcers. VT4's station announcers are Hanne Troonbeeckx, Veronique De Kock and Ann Van Elsen whilst VIJFtv's continuity team are Gene Thomas, Sophie Dewaele and Els Tibau. Prior to an on-air relaunch on August 27 2007, VIJFtv continuity was provided by pre-recorded voiceovers.

Sweden

In Sweden, a continuity announcer is informally known as a hallåa, which roughly means "helloer". This comes from the early days of radio when the station in Stockholm contacted the rest of the station around the country by shouting "hallå, hallå".

Continuity announcers have been present on Swedish television since November 1957. Initially they had both male and female announcers, but in the 1960s the announcers became almost solely female. Male announcers returned in the 1970s.

Both the first channel, the second channel and the educational television continued to use in-vision announcers during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, except for a few years in the early '90s when Kanal 1 had switched to out-of-vision announcing. In an effort to save money, SVT decided to drop the in-vision announcers from SVT2 in January 2005. The educational broadcaster UR dropped in-vision announcers by the end of 2006. Since then, SVT1 is the only public channel that uses in-vision continuity, while SVT2, SVT24, Kunskapskanalen and UR use out-of-vision announcers.

The largest commercial channel, TV4, have used in-vision announcers since they started broadcasting in 1990. Most other commercial channels broadcast from London and use out-of-vision announcers. Private channels with out-of-vision announcers include TV3, Kanal 5, TV6 and TV4 Plus.

United Kingdom

See also

See bumper music for a similarly functioning idea used in talk radio in the United States.

References