[gunner45]

Originally Posted by cje85

This isn't actually correct. Every channel that appears on the EPG must be licenced by Ofcom and this includes FAST channels. All FAST channels that appear on the VM EPG are Ofcom licenced.

Here are the first few channels listed on the EPG. In some cases VM itself holds the licence on behalf of the channel. Real Wild and History Hit are examples below.

220 Inside Crime - https://static.ofcom.org.uk/static/r...nsidecrime.htm
221 Real Wild - https://static.ofcom.org.uk/static/r...a1realwild.htm
222 Mystery TV - https://static.ofcom.org.uk/static/r...1mysterytv.htm
223 Haunt TV - https://static.ofcom.org.uk/static/r...ba1haunttv.htm
224 History Hit - https://static.ofcom.org.uk/static/r...historyhit.htm

This means they must also meet the Ofcom COSTA rules regarding advertising limits.

In many cases there are fewer ads on FAST channels and programmes have shorter run times as a result. Looking at Inside Crime, the documentaries that have 60 minute slots when shown on normal channels run for around 50-55 minutes and have odd start times like 13:26, 14:23, 15:17, 16:11 due to fewer ads meaning they don't fill a 60 minute slot.

Your post is substantially correct. VM's EPG is regulated and, interestingly, VM itself became the licensee for a whole group of channels — Real Wild, Real Crime, History Hit, Wonder, Demand Drama, Hotel Inspector, River Monsters, The Chat Show Channel and Saturday Kitchen. This gives VM substantial influence including how FAST ad income is split and enables VM's FAST operation to bolster its linear TV offerings via the EPG. (This may be for another thread, as I'm saying that linear no longer means just broadcast TV.)

I'll quibble with something: not every channel that appears on the EPG must be licenced by Ofcom as there are a few exemptions including some ECTT/Irish services.