[jfman]

Because I got extremely bored I decided to check out just how much capacity there is on the Virgin network, based on the information on Digitalbitrate.com (I use a recent average over the last week to reflect the post movement position:-

TSID QAM Max Recent Average
34 256 51 47
35 256 51 47
33 256 51 47
6 256 51 47 Added ABN TV
7 256 51 49 Added Nick jr too
8 256 51 45
9 256 51 45
10 256 51 45 Added food netword, ndtv india
11 256 51 42
12 256 51 40
13 256 51 45
36 256 51 3 One channel - static image ps2
37 256 51 5 one channel - ps2 duplicate
43 256 51 45 All duplicates
44 256 51 44 All duplicates plus Virgin 4K test
45 256 51 20 Sky red button
31 256 51 47
22313 256 51 - vod
22313 256 51 - vod
22313 256 51 - vod
22313 256 51 - vod
14 256 51 48
15 256 51 45 porn
16 256 51 46 bt red button
17 256 51 46
101 256 51 25 bbc 1/2
102 256 51 35 itv/c4
32 256 51 46
104 256 51 32 bbc/itv hd
2 256 51 42
3 256 51 48
4 256 51 47
5 256 51 46
18 256 51 34
19 256 51 43
20 256 51 35
21 256 51 34 all duplicates tv. Some radio
104 64 51 32 bbc/itv
2 256 51 41
1 64 38 34
42 64 38 32
30 256 51 46
22 256 51 44 bt 4k plus slates
23 256 51 49
24 256 51 48
25 256 51 48
26 256 51 47
27 256 51 49
28 256 51 48
27 256 51 47

Now frequencies above 45Mb on average are realistically 'full' because you lose a small percentage in overheads which is why they max out about 48Mb.

They key finding is however that TSIDs 36, 37, 43, 44 and 21 are fundamentally empty, except for Virgin's own 4K test (every other channel is duplicated somewhere else). TSIDs 18, 20 and 21 all have over 12Mb of free space so could realistically consolidate into two frequencies. TSIDs 11 and 12 probably have enough bandwidth for 2 or 3 SD channels.

I don't know what kind of efficiencies Virgin could make with the frequencies broadcasting the regional four main terrestrial channels due to regional overlaps and HD variants (Channel 5 HD is national I believe).