Why do VM put up channel off air slates?
 

AFAIK with the advent of digital, channels no longer close down and have an off air static picture, rolling promo loop etc.

Why do VM bother replacing these with their own slates? I originally thought that it might be to free up the bandwidth being used, but I doubt this would actually be needed during the night.

All I can think of is that it's done to promote their own brand.

I don't think it even needs to be done for BBC4/Cbeebies any more as I think that these no longer share the same stream.

Could it be that some channels show Teleshopping and VM wouldn't class this as a part of the normal channel output and would expect some form of payment to transmit this feed to its customers??

Re: Why do VM put up channel off air slates?
 

Sometimes it's because of a fault. TV5 Monde does this often, so you have to reset the TIVO to "retune" it.

Re: Why do VM put up channel off air slates?
 

The SD satellite transponder feed is still shared between BBC4 & CBeebies.
http://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.ph...g=fr&mux=10773

I'm sure VM still use Astra for the majority of SD feeds.