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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, 7 September 2012
P
Pentode321
11:43 PM

Dave Lindsay.
It is not capitalism that is the problem it is weak minded government that believes that self regulation works. If companies provide TV services they should be compelled to provide it over the whole network.

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Pentode321's 1 post GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:58 PM

Pentode321: I agree that it is down to the government and that it isn't an issue with capitalism per se.

But as the government decided that there should be no obligation on these broadcasters to mirror the Public Service Broadcasters' network of transmitters, then a two-tier network is an inevitable outcome due to the laws of capitalism.

The first step down the slippery slope was the introduction in 1997 of Channel 5 with its quasi-national network. The network was engineered so that each transmitter had four channels, but the politicians saw that another one was crammed in with sub-standard results.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Saturday, 8 September 2012
D
david durney
12:44 PM
Clacton-on-sea

I have asked previously but got no replies..
A wind farm has recently been built approx half a mile away from us, it consists of five "125 metre" turbines which are not yet operational. It is sited between us and Sudbury transmitter. Is this likely to disrupt our signal when they start working?

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david durney's 10 posts GB flag
david's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:42 PM

Dave Lindsay: Thanks Dave! As I see that david's original posting was made under the "Freeview modes - a simplified explanation" heading.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:48 PM

david durney: The only qualification I will put on what was originally said is that it depends up to a point on whether or not the signal you receive crosses the turbine blades in a diagonal fashion, as if it does then obviously the chopping effect of the blades would be of a higher and "erratic" intensity, this adding to any problems that you may experience.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:01 PM

jb38: Welcome back!

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
M
michael
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:21 PM

We have 22 turbines between the tx and our lofty log. Blocking for a few seconds occurs frequently at irregular intervals. This could be due to almost random relative positions of the 66 blades, or to CCI from France (or Elsewhereistan, or a neighbours' thermostat). The good news for the turbine profiteers is that we will never be able to prove anything, so they keep smiling and counting their profits and bonuses and don't have time to publish the actual kWh production, which just might be very slightly less than projections presented at the planning phase, based on the rare occurance of 11m/s wind-speed.
As I type, Rule Britannia blocking-free lifts my spirits, so all's well.

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michael's 869 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:32 PM

Dave Lindsay: Thanks again Dave! and nice to be back, because terrible as it might be to say but I am not exactly a holiday type person.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Monday, 10 September 2012
Richard
10:17 AM
London

A friend of mine lives in a block of sheltered flats, and I was heavily involved in re-tuning the residents TV's during the London DSO earlier in the year (seeing as the landlord didn't provide any help at all), and now I am wondering if I will need to re-do them all again on the 19th Sept?

Or can I simply re-tune the residents who watch HD channels, seeing as these are the only ones that are moving that they might watch?

I thought there was supposed to be advertising of this, yet with just over a week to go,nothing has been said, so I am concerned that it will be a mass scramble on the Wednesday afternoon to make sure they can still watch TV, because as usual no-one thinks about these people and who has to do the re-tune (certainly not the Social Housing landlord!) They simply expect the residents to call the Helpline and follow their instructions to re-tune the TV's themselves.

And then if they resolve the issue with Sky then I presume another re-tune would also be needed, as the residents do watch the 24 hour news channels!

When I did the DSO, I could explain why it was required, and they did understand, but this is going to seem pointless to them, as they simply want to watch the few TV channels they like which are BBC, ITV and Channel 4, and I always have to delete the rubbish adult and dating ones, as well as the ones they can't receive as they kept asking me what they were and why nothing appeared when they selected that particular channel!

Sorry, rant over now!

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Richard's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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