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With so many of us now working from home in lockdown, plenty of people understand the embarrassment of being about to make a really good point in a Zoom meeting, only to get chucked out when you reach that dreaded 40-minute mark.
But not all of us have that cringe moment on national television.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened during a
BBC News interview on Tuesday afternoon, when Westfield’s managing director Scott Parsons found himself unceremoniously cut off live on air.
He was being interviewed from his home about what could happen to his business in the next stages of lockdown being lifted, but disappeared mid-sentence, having apparently run out of free meeting time on Zoom.Haha I guess @BBCNews is also using the free version of zoom. pic.twitter.com/WNh25R8D7t— Luke Taylor (@davidluketaylor) May 26, 2020To make matters worse, before he disappeared viewers were treated to a glimpse of one BBC producer’s desktop and the message: “This free Zoom meeting has ended.”Oh dear.
The awkward moment did not go unnoticed by viewers watching along on social media, either… As if @BBCNews have been using a free version of Zoom 🤣😂 pic.twitter.com/vEG9QZBQsN— Rob Davies (@rob_davies) May 26, 2020Oh how annoying. We’ve all been there @BBCNews. Interesting that zoom has been adopted instead of the usual Skype. #zoomfailpic.twitter.com/Z2y6xacFBz— Luke Dudley (@LukeDudley1) May 26, 2020This cracked me up! Managing director of @westfieldlondon got cut off @BBCNews as his free zoom session ran out 😂😂😂😂😂 #Covid19UKpic.twitter.com/6ftVwAvU0W— Amana -
Social Media Manager (@SocialFactorHQ) May 26, 2020Lol @BBCNews live interview just went down because their free @zoom_us account ran out of time 😂 pic.twitter.com/kKDsyXFUdP— Alex Price (@alxprce) May 26, 2020.@BBCNews - just a thought, get a pro license for #Zoom? pic.twitter.com/nLdOrS7Vlo— Ian Mitchell (@ianmsmitchell) May 26, 2020Looks like the BBC News budget can't stretch to actually paying for Zoom! Just cut to this in the middle of a live interview. pic.twitter.com/HYypFzrPLL— Kevin Murphy (@DomainIncite) May 26, 2020Oops. @BBCNews using @zoom_us and their free 40mins ran out live on TV. pic.twitter.com/wZP4vHL2rX— T. Yates (@MortenSummer) May 26, 2020Omg BBC News interview is terminated because someone used up the 40 FREE MINUTES ON ZOOM https://t.co/ykuVjFDIzw— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) May 26, 2020Plenty of news anchors have been discovering the trials of live-streaming from home during lockdown in the last few weeks.
That includes ABC reporter Will Reeve – the son of Christopher Reeve, fact fans – who suffered an unfortunate moment when he inadvertently revealed he’d sat down for an interview without any trousers on.
But that’s nothing compared to the absolute saga that transpired in
Spain last month, when Alfonso Merlos was forced to apologise when a semi-nude woman was spotted in the background of one of his home broadcasts… and viewers quickly realised that she was not his girlfriend.READ MORE: 29 Classic TV Moments We'll Never Not Find Hilarious