jj20x

As far as I know from Astra 28 scan changelogs, on Sky it appears that the narrative audio stream has been added to some, or all, of the individual STV regions but that the actual audio hasn't yet been added. So possibly a case of just waiting for STV to activate the audio. I'm not sure why VM are creating an AD version rather than adding a narrative stream to individual STV sub regions. That said, I don't know why VM have AD versions for Channel 5 and S4C. The Channel 5 and S4C AD streams point to exactly the same video/audio streams as the national Channel 5 and S4C services, so it would seem simpler to just enable AD on the main service.

I've not seen any new scan data since Tuesday. The Astra 28 changelog shows that ARY channels are returning to Sky. They were removed from all UK platforms when their licence was revoked by Ofcom. Maybe the return to Sky will be followed by a return to VM?

Unfortunately a result of a placeholder being created for the old Playboy service. If only it was a simple as closing SID 1709 and replacing it with SID 1710. The 1759 placeholder is the "additional" service. There are quite a few placeholders in the NIT and they are all included in the "Total Channels" count.

As far as I know, the barriers preventing RTE Radio from being added to DAB don't apply to VM. It's a licensing technicality.

The big two adult tv broadcasters, Playboy and Portland, market their own channels on Sky direct to the end customer, offering their own bundles of channels. VM offers various individual subscription channels and a bundle of channels taken from both broadcasters. It's possible that Playboy has simply "rested" Playboy TV on Sky, they still offer a bundle of 4 channels. Maybe VM don't want to carry Playboy's substitute channels and have reached an agreement for Playboy to continue to supply the original channel.