OrbitTv/docs/advent-on-orbit-proposal.md

Advent on Orbit: design and editorial rules (proposal, read only)

4 November 2026, Paul's seasonal concept. Not implemented and not scheduled. This is for approval only, and the Drive-In's Christmas triple bill on Saturday 19 December stays an independent event.

The idea

From 1 to 25 December, Orbit opens one advent-calendar door a day. Behind each door is that day's confirmed Christmas film, on one channel at a fixed time. A numbered door ident plays before the film and opens to reveal it. Christmas Day is Door 25, with its own special presentation.

What the library has

From the box's catalogue as of today, read only:

• 1,290 Christmas films of feature length with an IMDb ID. Most are recent made-for-TV films: 589 from the 2020s and 475 from the 2010s.
• Well-known titles: 47 are found, including:
  • It's a Wonderful Life, White Christmas and Miracle on 34th Street (1947);
  • Scrooged, Gremlins, Die Hard, Trading Places and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation;
  • Home Alone, Jingle All the Way, The Santa Clause and The Muppet Christmas Carol;
  • Elf, Love Actually, The Holiday, Arthur Christmas, Klaus and The Polar Express;
  • Nativity! and Get Santa, which are British;
  • Krampus and Black Christmas.

So 25 strong films is easy, without leaning on made-for-TV filler.

Editorial rules

1. One door, one confirmed film. A door shows only a booked, verified film: the exact item and IMDb ID, playable on the box, rested, and with no clash.
   • Before booking: a door never reveals a proposal.
   • If the booking falls through: the door shows the channel's normal ident instead. It never shows a wrong or missing reveal.
2. The door number comes from the broadcast date. It's the day of the month in local time on the day the film starts.
   • A film starting at 00:30 on the 12th is Door 12.
   • Door numbers are never stored separately, so they can't drift from the booking.
3. The reveal comes from the booking. The title and artwork are read from the confirmed entry at play time, as Ring X's PPV and the Premiere lower third already work.
4. The best-loved films go to the strongest nights:
   • big crowd-pleasers on the weekends;
   • the classics on the last nights, 22 to 24 December;
   • Door 25: a film everyone knows, at a family time such as 15:00 or 17:00. My suggestion is It's a Wonderful Life, but it can't be the same film as the Drive-In's triple. So it's either another classic for Door 25, or a different opener for the Drive-In. That choice is yours.
5. No repeats within Advent. Each of the 25 doors is a different film, and none repeats the Drive-In's Christmas triple.
6. Suitable for the slot:
   • family films (U, PG, G or TV-G) before 21:00;
   • Krampus, Black Christmas, Bad Santa and Violent Night only after 21:00, and only on a channel that already carries that tone.
7. Each channel keeps its identity. Advent borrows a channel's slot without changing what the channel is.
   • Only films that fit the host channel are used: Wonder gets family films, BritX British ones.
   • The channel's own programmes resume after the film.

Channels

Option	How	Fits
A. One home	Every door on one channel at one time, such as Orbit Premiere at 18:00	Simplest to find and promote. Premiere's big-film identity suits the classics
B. A trail across channels (recommended)	Each door on the channel that suits its film, at a set time such as 18:00	Wonder for family and animation (Klaus, Arthur Christmas, The Polar Express), VHS for the 80s and 90s (Gremlins, Scrooged, Home Alone, Jingle All the Way), Premiere for the big classics, BritX for British (Nativity!, Get Santa, Love Actually)
C. Wonder only	Family Advent for the kids, at teatime	Smallest change; misses the grown-up classics

With option B, What's On's "Door 12 tonight" card always points to the right channel.

Presentation

The door ident is one shared 4-second clip:

• an advent calendar wall in Orbit's navy and gold;
• one door lights up and opens;
• the app draws the door number and the film's title and artwork from the booking, as the existing overlays do.

It's a single video for all 24 doors, so the app stays small.

Door 25 has its own clip: the big double door, with snow and gold.

Like every ident: silent by default, with a still last half-second. If the clip or artwork is missing, the channel's normal ident plays instead.

Promotion:

• What's On shows "Advent on Orbit · Door N tonight" only for a confirmed booking.
• The guide marks the programme with a small door number.

What it would need (later, each with your approval)

1. The Advent list: 25 films, verified like the Drive-In events (item, IMDb, playability, rest), each assigned to its date, channel and time. I'd bring this as a proposal first.
2. The booking: fixed slots on the host channels, booked like the Vortex premiere.
   • Bookings already made are never rewritten.
   • Each door must be booked before that channel's week-ahead booking reaches its date. The first is 1 December, so it would need to be installed by about 23 November.
3. The two clips: the door wall and Door 25, as design previews for your approval.
4. Tests:
   • the door number from the start date, including after midnight and across the clock change;
   • the reveal only from a confirmed booking;
   • the fallback when unbooked;
   • no repeats;
   • no clash with the Drive-In triple or any channel;
   • What's On shows confirmed doors only.

Decisions for you

• Channels: option A, B or C. B is recommended.
• The time of each door.
• Door 25's film, and whether It's a Wonderful Life stays in the Drive-In triple.
• Whether grown-up Christmas films such as Krampus or Bad Santa have any place in Advent, or stay off it.

Paul's choices (4 November 2026, 20:05)

Approved for proposal and development. Not approved for installation or booking.

• Channels: option B, a trail across Wonder (612), VHS (306), Premiere (301) and BritX (309).
• Time: 18:00 each day, and 17:00 on Christmas Day.
• Door 25: The Muppet Christmas Carol, subject to exact verification.
• The Drive-In: It's a Wonderful Life stays in the Drive-In Christmas triple.
• Adult Christmas horror: kept for separately approved After Dark specials ("The Naughty List"), never in Advent.

The proposed 25 doors

Every film was checked against the box's catalogue as of today (132,674 items). Each is one exact item with its IMDb ID. Where the library also has an unlabelled copy, the labelled one is listed.

• Not used: none is in the Drive-In's events or its Christmas triple (It's a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, Elf), and none is an adult horror film.
• Repeats: none within Advent.
• Ratings: everything is U, PG, G or PG-13 by its metadata, suited to 18:00.
• Weekends: crowd-pleasers.
• 22 to 24 December: the classics.

Door	Date (18:00 unless shown)	Channel	Film	Year	Min	Rating	IMDb	Item
1	Tue 1 Dec	Wonder	The Polar Express	2004	99	G	tt0338348	5688746
2	Wed 2 Dec	VHS	Scrooged	1988	101	PG-13	tt0096061	5706930
3	Thu 3 Dec	BritX	Get Santa	2014	102	PG	tt1935940	5642871
4	Fri 4 Dec	Premiere	Fred Claus	2007	115	PG	tt0486583	6048904
5	Sat 5 Dec	VHS	Home Alone 2: Lost in New York	1992	120	PG	tt0104431	7416998
6	Sun 6 Dec	Wonder	Klaus	2019	98	PG	tt4729430	5847706
7	Mon 7 Dec	Premiere	The Christmas Chronicles	2018	103	PG	tt2990140	5848529
8	Tue 8 Dec	VHS	The Santa Clause	1994	97	PG	tt0111070	5684856
9	Wed 9 Dec	BritX	A Boy Called Christmas	2021	106	PG	tt10187208	6399934
10	Thu 10 Dec	Wonder	The Nightmare Before Christmas	1993	76	PG	tt0107688	5848040
11	Fri 11 Dec	VHS	Jingle All the Way	1996	93	PG	tt0116705	6062933
12	Sat 12 Dec	Premiere	How the Grinch Stole Christmas	2000	104	PG	tt0170016	5848691
13	Sun 13 Dec	Wonder	Arthur Christmas	2011	97	PG	tt1430607	5689513
14	Mon 14 Dec	VHS	A Christmas Story	1983	93	PG	tt0085334	6259980
15	Tue 15 Dec	BritX	Nativity!	2009	105	PG	tt1242447	6056877
16	Wed 16 Dec	Wonder	A Christmas Carol (Disney)	2009	95	PG	tt1067106	6035893
17	Thu 17 Dec	VHS	Santa Claus: The Movie	1985	108	PG	tt0089961	6933347
18	Fri 18 Dec	Premiere	Red One	2024	124	PG-13	tt14948432	6948638
19	Sat 19 Dec, 17:00	VHS	National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation	1989	97	PG-13	tt0097958	5848022
20	Sun 20 Dec	Wonder	The Grinch	2018	85	PG	tt2709692	5689633
21	Mon 21 Dec	BritX	Last Christmas	2019	102	PG-13	tt8623904	6067366
22	Tue 22 Dec	Premiere	White Christmas	1954	120	NR	tt0047673	6048026
23	Wed 23 Dec	BritX	Scrooge (Alastair Sim)	1951	86	NR	tt0044008	7485376
24	Thu 24 Dec	Premiere	Miracle on 34th Street	1947	96	NR	tt0039628	5688583
25	Fri 25 Dec, 17:00	Wonder	The Muppet Christmas Carol	1992	86	G	tt0104940	5847993

Balance:

• Doors per channel: Wonder 7, VHS 7, Premiere 6, BritX 5.
• Weekend doors: Home Alone 2, Klaus, the Jim Carrey Grinch, Arthur Christmas, Christmas Vacation and The Grinch.
• Fit with each channel: BritX's are all British (Get Santa, A Boy Called Christmas, Nativity!, Last Christmas and the Alastair Sim Scrooge). VHS's are all 80s and 90s. Wonder's are family and animation. Premiere carries the big studio films and the two great classics.

Door 25: The Muppet Christmas Carol is in the library as one item, 5847993, with IMDb tt0104940, 86 minutes, rated G, and no second copy. The box's decoder check is the one step still to come; it runs on the box when booking, as for the Drive-In events.

Things to watch:

• Door 19, Saturday 19 December: Christmas Vacation at 18:00 on VHS runs to 19:37, while the Drive-In's Christmas triple opens at 19:00. There's no film clash, but they overlap for viewers. My suggestion is to move Door 19 to 16:30, so it ends before the Drive-In opens. Otherwise it stays at 18:00, as you set.
• Films already on their channel's list: Klaus and The Nightmare Before Christmas are in Wonder's pool, and Home Alone 2 and Christmas Vacation are in VHS's. The implementation would hold every Advent film back from all rotations, the Drive-In's included, for 14 days either side of its door, as the Drive-In events do. Home Alone 2 is also in the Drive-In's hand-picked Home Alone Double Bill.
• Committed bookings: channels book only 7 days ahead, so nothing in December is booked yet. Each door must be fixed before its channel's booking reaches 1 December, which means installing by about 23 November.
• Not used, available as swaps: Prancer, Ernest Saves Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street (1994), The Santa Clause 2, Noelle, Four Christmases, Christmas with the Kranks, Holiday Inn, The Bishop's Wife, Scrooge (1970) and Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas.
  • Not offered: Love Actually (rated R) and The Holiday (135 minutes), which are both on Orbit Romance's list already. Gremlins goes to The Naughty List instead.

Door-ident design (proposal)

One shared clip for doors 1 to 24:

• Length: 4 seconds, 1280x720, the same spec as every block ident.
• Look: a wall of 24 numbered doors in Orbit's deep navy, each framed in gold, with snow drifting past and a soft glow from behind the doors.
• Motion: the camera eases towards one door, which lights up and swings open with warm light spilling out. The last half-second holds still.

What the app draws over the clip, as the Ring X and PPV overlays already work:

• The door number: the day of the broadcast date, in local time, worked out at play time. It's never stored, so it can't drift.
• Inside the opened door: the film's title and artwork, read from the confirmed booking.
• Below: "ADVENT ON ORBIT · DOOR 12" in gold.

Door 25 has its own clip: a large double door with a wreath. It opens onto a golden glow and heavier snow, with "MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ORBIT" and the film's title. It's the same length and spec.

Sound: a soft sleigh-bell shimmer and one chime, silent unless Special ident sound is on.

Fallback:

• Unbooked or failed: with no confirmed booking, or if verification fails, the channel's normal ident plays, never an empty door.
• Missing artwork: if the artwork is missing, the door shows the title in gold only.

Making it: the existing Blender block-ident pipeline, with about 2 minutes of rendering per clip. I'd show previews of both clips before any of it goes into the app.

What's On: a confirmed door appears as "ADVENT ON ORBIT · DOOR N" with its channel. Nothing appears before it's booked.

Paul's approval (4 November 2026, 20:27) and the final list

• Approved: the 25-film direction above is approved as the final item-by-item list.
• Times: Door 19 moves to 17:00 (Paul asked for 16:30; slots are on the hour, and he chose 17:00 at 21:05), ending by about 18:50, before the Drive-In opens at 19:00. Door 25 stays at 17:00, and every other door is at 18:00.
• Previews: Paul approved making previews of the shared door ident and the Door 25 ident.
• The booking release: waits for his approval of this list. It's built and verified as its own release, and installed only with his separate approval. No committed booking is ever rewritten.

Holdback check against the box's actual bookings (copied when Orbit was opened at 20:27 today; every channel is booked to Wednesday 11 November):

Film	Already booked	Its door	Gap
The Nightmare Before Christmas	Wonder, 4 November 19:02 and 10 November 12:52	Door 10	30 days
Klaus	Wonder, 7 November	Door 6	29 days
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation	VHS, 5 November	Door 19	44 days
Home Alone 2	VHS, 7 November	Door 5	28 days

Every gap is past the 14-day hold, and no other Advent film is booked anywhere.