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Freeview channel numbers change on September 19th 2012

Following a consultation earlier in the year, from lunchtime on Wednesday 19th September, you will have to retune to get the new numbers allocated to some Freeview channels; in particular those used for News, Adult, Children and high definition services.

Following a consultation earlier in the year, from lunchtime on
published on UK Free TV

DMOL (DTT Multiplex Operators Ltd), the company that manages the channel numbers used on Freeview, have decided to make some changes to the allocations to allow the Freeview platform to grow over the next three to five years.

The changes will happen from lunchtime on Wednesday 19th September 2012. In summary the changes are:

  • Adult channels move to 171-198
  • News channels move to 131-150
  • Children's move to 121-130
    Proposed changes to the News and Children's genres will be put on hold pending the outcome of an appeal by Sky. All other changes will continue as planned on 19 September 2012.
  • HD channels move to 101-120
  • General entertainment channels now have 1-99
  • Text services move to 200-224
  • MHEG services move to 225-299
  • Interactive channels stay on 300-320
  • IPTV channels move to 400-499
  • Radio stays at 700-750
  • Manufacturer allocation remains 800-899


Adult channels move to 171-198

The "adult" channels on Freeview move up from 92-99 to start from 171. Channel 170 and 199 will be "bookend" pages to note the presence of the adult channels for those who flick up and down the channels.

171 Television X; 172 smileTV2, 173 smileTV3, 174 Babestn, 175 PARTY, 176 Blue, 177 Babestn2, 178 Playboy.

News channels move to 131-150

131 BBC NEWS, 132 BBC Parliament, 133 Sky News, 134 Al Jazeera 6-8, 135 Al Jazeera Eng, 136 Russia Today, 137 Community. Proposed changes to the News genre will be put on hold pending the outcome of an appeal by Sky. All other changes will continue as planned on 19 September 2012.

Children's move to 121-130

121 CBBC; 122 CBeebies, 123 CITV. Children's genre will be put on hold pending the outcome of an appeal by Sky. All other changes will continue as planned on 19 September 2012.

HD channels move to 101-120

The "normal" order of channels is restored to HD:

101 BBC One HD; 102 BBC HD [or BBC TWO HD]; 103 ITV1 HD or STV HD; 104 Channel 4 HD; 105 S4C Cirlun.

Note that S4C Cirlun is due to close at the end of the year. BBC TWO HD is planned to replace the BBC HD channel at some point in 2012.

General entertainment channels now have 1-99

There will be twice as many channel numbers now for "general entertainment", allocated on a first-come first-served basis. Most channels do not move numbers, except

48 Food Network; 49 The Jewellery Channel.

Channel 8 is reserved for the Local TV services in England and Northern Ireland, 45 for Local TV in Scotland and Wales.

100 is a "Navigation page", but only on Freeview HD.

Text services move to 200-224

200 BBC Red Button; 201 Teletext Holidays; 202 Rabbit; 203 Gay Rabbit; 204 1-2-1 Dating; 205 Mail Travel; 206 Sky Text.

MHEG services move to 225-299

225 VISION; 226 CCTV; 227 Sports Tonight; 228 Connect 1; 229 Connect 2; 230 Connect 3; 231 Racing TV; 232 The Space.

Interactive channels stay on 300-320

301 301; 302 302; 303 301 HD; 304 Channel 0; 305 TUTV Anytime 1; 306 TUTV Anytime 3; 307 TUTV Anytime 5; 208 TUTV Anytime 6.

IPTV channels move to 400-499

These will be used in future.

Radio stays at 700-750

No changes to radio.

Manufacturer allocation remains 800-899

No changes to manufacturer allocation.

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Comments
Friday, 3 August 2012
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:59 PM

Paul Murphy: Purely on the issue of Freeview light transmitters expanding, this is something that's very unlikely ever to happen as its 100% dependant on whether the transmitter operators consider that there are sufficient numbers of potential advertisers around that's willing to contribute towards the substantial costs involved in running the service, this being unlike the PSB channels where its principal role is purely to provide a service devoid of any profit motives in mind.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Saturday, 4 August 2012
S
STEVE
5:51 PM

Getting fed up this retuning,was year in year out now its twice a year,can;t they make their minds up,,,,got to retune and then zap out the rubbish so they don't show on epg AGAIN!!!

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STEVE's 3 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:08 PM

STEVE: Well if you are receiving your signal from Emley Moor then there isnt any more changes in the pipeline that I can see, and 2014 is indicated as the final situation.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Dave
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

11:35 PM

So slots for another 16 HD channels, when can we expect these though I wonder ?

I thougth I read on here once there is potential capacity for up to 35 HD channels ?

Certainly need 5 HD and the other ITV HD channels at least..






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Dave's 126 posts GB flag
Monday, 6 August 2012
M
Michael Bourne
12:27 PM
Spalding

where will I find bbc i player?

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Michael Bourne's 2 posts GB flag
Michael's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
R
Rob
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

1:13 PM

Oh my god not a re tune again!! means i have to retune my dads tv sets and my girlfriends tv sets and PVRs as well as mine.. what is there to say if thats the final retune or we got more to come.... freesat and sky do it automaticly.. why cant it be same for freeview boxes? i think the freeview system is not very well thought out system.......

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Rob's 171 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:06 PM

Rob: The only reason Freesat and Sky can do this automatically is because satellite transponders cover the whole of the UK at the same time, whereas with Freeview it involves hundreds of transmitters covering a multitude of areas all operating on different frequencies.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
M
Mike Davison
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

6:59 PM

Accepting it's not perfect, will we still get the BBC widescreen testcard using the same key sequence on our remotes as at present or will that be lost? It is useful just to make sure LCD sets are doing their best.

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Mike Davison's 127 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
D
Dale
12:09 PM

Hi Mike can you tell me What the key sequence for this BBC widescreen testcard, apologies never heard off this before, is it to just test the aspect ratio or something like that?

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Dale's 4 posts GB flag
T
trish
6:52 PM
Doncaster

1 had bbc channels, and channel 3 and 4 and some childrens and sky channels, they have all disappeared why

link to this comment
trish's 5 posts GB flag
trish's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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