Take Two Gas Leak Takes Channel 4 Down
Monday November 18 2002
At around 11.45am, Channel 4 viewers across the country saw their screens go blank as the station's Horseferry Road headquarters were evacuated following a mains gas leak.

Channel 4 engineers managed to restore a programme service in the London area by 12.08pm after staff were moved to the channel's back-up transmission facilities at its disaster recovery site.

Outside of London, analogue viewers in the remainder of the country had to make do with black screens and silence until around 12.50pm, when service was restored. DSAT viewers had to wait until c. 1.30pm before Channel 4 returned. Digital cable viewers across the country didn't fair quite so well, with Channel 4 remaining off for much of the afternoon. DTT viewers were the worst hit, with no signal at all from Channel 4 until early-evening.

Channel 4 owned networks - E4 and FilmFour - were unaffected.

Channel 4 presentation returned to Horseferry Road at lunchtime the next day.
Above: rarely seen on Channel 4 under normal circumstances, VT clocks were putting in regular appearances in the first few hours following the evacuation.
Above: the station made the most of their emergency facilities; much presentation material appeared slightly squashed though.
Above: commercial breaks had returned by 1.40pm; however, it is believed that most parts of the country were receiving ads intended for the London area only.

LINKS  BBC International Presentation  •  Five Presentation  •  Sky Presentation

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