Greenwich Time Signal not allow the pips to be broadcast except as a time signal. Radio plays and comedies which have fictional news programmes use various methods to avoid playing the full six pips, ranging from simply fading in the pips to a version played on "On the Hour" in which the sound was made into a small tune between the pips. "The News Quiz" also featured a special Christmas pantomime edition where the pips went missing, and the problem was avoided there by only playing individual pips and not the whole set. The 2012 project "Radio Reunited", however, did use the pips
Greenwich Time Signal tone when a pip should be sounded. This let faults on the line be detected immediately by automated monitoring for loss of audio. The Greenwich Time Signal was the first sound heard in the handover to the London 2012 Olympics during the Beijing 2008 Olympics closing ceremony. The pips were also broadcast by the BBC Television Service, but this practice was discontinued by the 1960s. To celebrate the 90th birthday of the pips on 5 February 2014, the "Today" programme broadcast a sequence that included a re-working of the Happy Birthday melody using the GTS as its base sound. The