Chasing Midnight on
New Years Eve.
End of the year fun on December 31st.
Page slightly updated 31 / 12 / 2004 with additional info.
I always find New Year's Eve a rather depressing day. There is never anything worth watching on the UK channels - and here in Scotland we always have to suffer blanket coverage of the dreadful "Hogmanay" celebrations from BBC Scotland. Things aren't quite so bad nowadays as I have all the BBC regions available through Sky, so I can escape BBC Scotland. (In recent years some of the NYE celebrations transmitted in Scotland have been pre-recorded around September - I leave it to your imagination for the reason for this!)
A couple of years ago, I decided to see what else was available on digital satellite to liven the day up a bit. Some research into the time zone differences and cross referencing the available Hotbird & Astra 1 channels, I managed to track down several New Years Eve special programmes leading up to the traditional midnight celebrations. So for the final day of 2003, plans were made to expand this fun, and see just how many New Year midnights we could find.
Working westwards and with a lot of channel hopping, it's possible to track each time zone as it hits midnight. Not every time zone has a suitable TV channel, but with a bit of forward planning, its certainly possible to watch the parties in multiple countries! And to make things nice and easy, most of the channels you need to look at are on just 2 satellites, the Hotties at 13E, and the Astra 1 constellation at 19E.
The notes below refer to the final hours of 2002 & 2003, and list some of the tv channels available from countries which reach midnight ahead of the UK. The times given below are for the local midnight time, so if you want to watch the Chinese celebrations, their midnight is at 4pm in the UK. Tune in earlier to watch the final hour's programming of the year.
All the pictures were grabbed on December 31st 2003.
1500 UTC (3pm UK time)
This is as far east as we can see at the moment. In 2003, JSTV Japan on 13°E dropped their usual encryption as midnight approached and went over to the NHK news service. The Japanese had a very restrained celebration to see in my first New Year of the day - and its 9 hours until the UK hits midnight!
1600 UTC (4pm UK time)
As 4pm UK time approaches, we can look 8 hours ahead of the UK. And China is the place to be. The Chinese always have an impressive show with lots of traditional dancing, acrobatics, and music. Channels to look at on Hotbird are CCTV4 and CCTV 9. (CCTV 9 is also available on Sky Digital). Either channel is suitable - they carry the same programming on this occasion :-) China is one of my personal favourites to watch during their celebrations.
CCTV-9 China. This was a nice sight - the dancers followed the second hand round the big clock on the studio floor for the last minute of the year.
In 2003, TPC - The Philipines Channel was clear for Christmas on 5°W, but with daytime outside temperatures heading down towards -10°C, I wasn't keen on re-aligning the dish round to 5°W to see what was happening.....!
1700 UTC (5pm UK time)
Seven hours in front of the UK is Thailand. In 2002, there was lots of colourful dancing on Thai TV Global Network (Hotbird), although in 2003, it was a rather boring and very long speech that occupied the final minutes of the year. The fireworks after their midnight were pretty though.
Thai TV Global Network - a long shot of some of the spectacular fireworks fired up over Bangkok as the first seconds of 2004 hit Thailand.
VTV 4 from Vietnam might be worth looking at if they are on air. In 2002, they seemed to have a news programme on, then a speech from the President. Unfortunately, in 2003, they were were on a later start, and were off air :-(
1800 UTC (6pm UK time)
Six hours ahead of UK time, and there aren't many channels in this time zone. Try Kazakhstan's Caspionet on Hotbird. 2002's programming in the final hour of the year was quite strange. At midnight they switched over to a speech from the President.
In 2003, there was what appeared to be a look around Kazakhstan, then the final few minutes were handed over to the President for his end of year speech. Although most of the programming is in English, the Presidential speech is in their own language.
Caspionet - The Kazakhstan President gives his end of year speech to his people.
1830UTC (6.30pm UK time)
(Update 12 / 2004) Try one of the Indian channels as India is + 5.5 hours Indiavision had a clock countdown the final minute of the year
1900 UTC (7pm UK time)
7pm is a total washout. I have never managed to find any channels in their final hour of the year :-(
2000 UTC (8pm UK time)
As 8pm approaches here in the UK, we are getting into the Middle East area. In 2002, Oman TV didn't seem to have much special programming on, but EDTV Dubai was a little better, with music and much flag waving.
In 2003, Armenia had a Presidential address to the nation on as midnight approached, with a cut to the clock as the final seconds of the year ticked away. After what was probably the National Anthem, there were various New Year greetings.
National Public TV of Armenia - the President gives his end of year speech to the nation
National Public TV of Armenia - A couple of seconds into the New Year - just time for the 2004 caption to be faded in. Note the Christmas tree addition to their logo!.
2100 UTC (9pm UK time)
Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia (all on Hotbird) are in this time zone, but none of them seem to celebrate New Year very much.
2200 UTC (10pm UK time)
2 hours ahead of the UK, and now you have a big choice of channels to pick from. In 2002, Romania TV had a folk music type festival on, then fireworks as midnight chimed. Also in this slot is Greece - ERT Sat, or multiple local channels, Turkey has TRT International , Bulgaria has their BulgariaSat. Or see what the numerous Italian channels are showing.
Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria also hit midnight here.
In 2003, TV Romania had a studio based party, with outside links to a pop concert - and the fireworks at midnight were great :-)
Romania International - taking the national channel Romania 1 here - and the studio party is going strong a few minutes before midnight The top inlay picture is from the live concert.
TV Romania International - this caption had a 20 - 19 - 18..... style countdown on it before fading up the 2004 logo as midnight rolled over Bucharest. The fireworks to greet the New Year in Romania were great - massive air burst rockets lighting up the sky :-)
2300 UTC (11pm UK time)
Swing your dish round to Astra 1, pick one of the German channels and enjoy the music from one of the "Bierkeller" type locations. Many of the German channels have singing and dancing from one of these Bierkeller halls on, and the audience love joining in! Well worth watching, (and dont forget to join in with a beer or two). For 2003, as midnight approached, it was over to the centre of Berlin to see in the New Year at Brandenburg Gate, and then there was a firework show over Gate. I like German TV coverage on New Year's Eve. (During New Years Eve, keep an eye out for the cult "Dinner For One" - its shown on most of the non commercial channels at some point during the day. There is more infomation on this on this on the Analoguesat web site)
This is one of the ARD channels. This is a big hall which has been turned into a bierkeller for the celebrations, and there is much singing, dancing and drinking during the evening! :-) As you can see, its just a few minutes until the New Year.
Most of the German channels take the midnight clock. Here the usual overlay of a clock counts down the final 5 seconds of 2003. The main centre of celebrations in Germany is the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
0000 UTC (midnight UK time)
If you don't want to have to suffer the bloody awful UK programming, have a look at RTPi Portugal In 2002, they had another good fireworks display to see in 2003.
Final result - not bad going at all. 8 New Year's celebrated in just one day, and a can of beer to greet each time zone ;-)
Later into the night
Not really much available as midnight advances westwards over the Atlantic. The eastern USA coast is 5 hours behind us, so if you are still up and sober enough to care at 5am UK time, then CNN, or Fox News might be worth giving a try.
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