General : Channel renumbering - your views.

Originally Posted by jempalmer

Given the fact that we have newspapers delivered each day, the TV guide would be out of date before the paper went to print.

Newspapers have always been notoriously poor at providing listings information. Radio listings sometimes being months or even years out of date. By listings magazines, I was referring to listings magazines only, they do generally keep in touch with the service providers and their information up to date.

[wwe]

Are they going to be moving them all around?

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

What do you think Virgin Media will move to new channel numbers later this month?

Virgin Media workers and Media Boy cant vote.

Channel renumbering.....grrr....something that has gone on and on and on....

Perhaps at some point we might finally have a properly ordered epg, it has come close in the past, but I shan't hold me breadth.

As for what channels should move, sticking the sports channels on 501 onwards would be a good start.

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by Horizon

Channel renumbering.....grrr....something that has gone on and on and on....

Perhaps at some point we might finally have a properly ordered epg, it has come close in the past, but I shan't hold me breadth.

As for what channels should move, sticking the sports channels on 501 onwards would be a good start.

Some of the renumbering are mad.

I mean

Why did Virgin move Syfy +1 to channel 136 and Virgin keep SyFy HD on channel 165 for???

Then an week later Virgin moves Discovery down to channel 211 to make room for Discovery HD to move from Channel 214 to Channel 212.

Also why move Discovery History to Channel 222 for when they have got two EPG Slots free on Virgin Channels 214 and 215.

[Horizon]

.....indeed! Will it ever be sorted out? Hasn't happened yet over the last 20+ years. ....

And if people think that Vm being owned by Liberty will tidy things up, have never seen a US cable epg.... They're all in a complete mess!

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by Horizon

.....indeed! Will it ever be sorted out? Hasn't happened yet over the last 20+ years. ....

And if people think that Vm being owned by Liberty will tidy things up, have never seen a US cable epg.... They're all in a complete mess!

Telewest has the best idea in 1999 when they started Digital TV - Telewest let you make your own lineup (When I started one up I only got 76 channels).

But Telewest axe the idea when On Demand launch.

If Virgin Media offer this we may have seen some viewers going with the following BBC and PSB Channls lineup.

001. BBC One HD
002. BBC Two SD
003. ITV HD
004. Channel 4 HD
005. Channel 5 HD
006. BBC One SD
007. BBC Three
008. BBC Four
009. BBC HD
010. BBC Alba

[andy_m]

Is it really that much work to change things around? I would guess much of the issue is that epg slots are part of the carriage negotiations meaning Virgin simply aren't free to re order the channels they carry. With different deals expiring at different times I don't think things are likely to change.

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Telewest has the best idea in 1999 when they started Digital TV - Telewest let you make your own lineup

Yes, I remember the days when you could reorder channels etc. But it was stopped, they call it progress...

Anyway, this is sore point for me, so I'll leave it there!

---------- Post added at 18:32 ---------- Previous post was at 18:28 ----------

Originally Posted by andy_m

Is it really that much work to change things around? I would guess much of the issue is that epg slots are part of the carriage negotiations meaning Virgin simply aren't free to re order the channels they carry. With different deals expiring at different times I don't think things are likely to change.

That doesn't answer why sports don't start on 501 though and believe me, I have tried to get a answer out of them. Well, in fact I did once, the answer was "we don't want to."

Unlike Sky, which is a open platform, VM have far more flexability in how they organise their channels. But yes, I am sure exisiting agreements with channel providers play a part, though.

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Telewest has the best idea in 1999 when they started Digital TV - Telewest let you make your own lineup

It was a crazy idea. See post #27 for why. But it wasn't Telewest's idea. Cable & Wireless used the same software first.

Originally Posted by andy_m

Is it really that much work to change things around?

Small changes are easy. Big ones not. I wouldn't want a repeat of 2006.

---------- Post added at 19:10 ---------- Previous post was at 19:01 ----------

Originally Posted by Horizon

That doesn't answer why sports don't start on 501 though

That's also answered in post #27. Personally I prefer them starting at 511 as it's quicker to enter on the remote.

[andy_m]

What happened in 2006 (I was with Sky then).

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by andy_m

What happened in 2006 (I was with Sky then).

This was just after NTL & Telewest had merged, but before the Virgin rebrand. Telewest had a fairly sensible numbering scheme, with channels numbered 100 to 999. Meanwhile, NTL had two schemes, the original NTL (Langley network) one, again with channels 100 to 999, and the Cable&Wireless (Bromley network) one using channels 1 to 999. The original NTL and C&W schemes were totally unrelated, but there was a policy of fitting new channels in on a common number whilst leaving the original channel numbers in place, regardless of whether the channels were related. Resulting in things like this:

905 The Dating Channel
906 Alpha Punjabi
907 Thane Direct
908 attheraces

A decision was taken to adopt a scheme similar to the Telewest one, but cleaned up a bit. For NTL customers it was an almost total renumbering, so mailshots etc were required. Cue forum discussion here. (Have a read for the usual mix of discussion, rant and misinformation)

It was such a big change, it was decided to do the three networks on three separate nights, each a few weeks apart. Langley was done first (6th Sep), and all went well, and not too many complaints in that thread. (Langley users already had BBC1 on 101 etc, so not too much culture shock)

Buoyed up with that success, we set about Bromley on 27th September. All hell broke loose. See this spin-off thread. There was a bug related to the change from 1- to 3-digit numbers that killed thousands of boxes. I didn't get much sleep that week.

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

It was a crazy idea. See post #27 for why. But it wasn't Telewest's idea. Cable & Wireless used the same software first.

Did they - I has no idea.

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Did they - I has no idea.

Yes, the C&W and Telewest digital systems were designed by the same group of consultants, but C&W was first. They both used the same Pace boxes, running the same software.

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

That's also answered in post #27. Personally I prefer them starting at 511 as it's quicker to enter on the remote.

The sports PPV channels are long gone and if they did come back would be accessed via the menus along with all the other vod stuff. It just looks silly now.

But sports aside....why are news channels in such a mess with large gaps between them, and kids channels are all over the place.

And I don't agree with your views on channel re-ordering (as you may recall...), we both know why that was stopped and it was nothing to do with customers but the convience of ntl call centre staff.

Anyway, all arguments in the past.... If you ever do put the channels in a good order, I'll send you a mars bar as a reward. And I don't give them away lightly.

Ps: On UPC's Horizon platform, the channels can be reordered. The Lobbying starts now!

Originally Posted by Media Boy

If Virgin Media offer this we may have seen some viewers going with the following BBC and PSB Channls lineup.

001. BBC One HD
002. BBC Two SD
003. ITV HD
004. Channel 4 HD
005. Channel 5 HD
006. BBC One SD
007. BBC Three
008. BBC Four
009. BBC HD
010. BBC Alba

Public Service broadcasters are guaranteed prominence in the EPG. That means the fully regionalised version available to all users (not everyone has a HD STB). For the moment that means the first 5 slots have to go to BBC One SD, BBC Two, ITV SD, Channel 4 SD and Channel 5 SD.