General : Changes to Virgin TV (2022)

[nodrogd]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

A wee bit of me was hoping Virgin would have moved BBC One SD England regions channels to Virgin Channel starting from number 866 but nothing happen. Oh well.

BBC1 London SD will continue on 861/851 for the time being. As far as the rest of the SD regions are concerned, the BBC will want to pull the plug on these ASAP. I can’t see them leasing transponders for SD & HD on Astra for very long as this would prove hugely expensive. At present SD & HD are also uplinked from 2 different sites. The Beeb wants everything uplinked from Chilworth as again this will save money. That will then only leave the Freeview distribution in SD until MPEG4 transmission becomes standard.

[epsilon]

Originally Posted by nodrogd

BBC1 London SD will continue on 861/851 for the time being. As far as the rest of the SD regions are concerned, the BBC will want to pull the plug on these ASAP. I can’t see them leasing transponders for SD & HD on Astra for very long as this would prove hugely expensive. At present SD & HD are also uplinked from 2 different sites. The Beeb wants everything uplinked from Chilworth as again this will save money. That will then only leave the Freeview distribution in SD until MPEG4 transmission becomes standard.

But no commercial incentive for that investment to be made with an uncertain future for the platform.

[Media Boy UK]

Since 5.56pm tonight Digital Bit Rates has pick up tests for BBC Red Button 5 on Virgin Media:

https://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.p...&sec=0&lang=en

[epsilon]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

That original post from Mark C is dated October 2021 though, so assume it's more than just those four now.

And more up to date posts from TV Live Forum, which is probably the best place to get such info, naming just those four regions.


https://tvliveforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=65150#p65150

---------- Post added at 18:52 ---------- Previous post was at 18:51 ----------

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Since 5.56pm tonight Digital Bit Rates has pick up tests for BBC Red Button 5 on Virgin Media:

https://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.p...&sec=0&lang=en

Aha! interesting indeed.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by epsilon

Don't bet on that, it will be slow progress and with ever more pressure on the licence fee I can't see it speeding up.

---------- Post added at 17:56 ---------- Previous post was at 17:54 ----------


Probably as likely to go HD as all of the +1 channels. They are already in HD in their own coverage areas.

Are the Nations in SD outside their own areas to save on capacity? I didn't think that they had any capacity issues after all the changes they had made??

[cheekyangus]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Since 5.56pm tonight Digital Bit Rates has pick up tests for BBC Red Button 5 on Virgin Media:

https://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.p...&sec=0&lang=en

You think a staff member has got the Eurosport extra channel numbers mixed up with BBC Red Button HD? I didn't think BBC has said if it was having HD Red Button for this Winter Olympics.

---------- Post added at 19:11 ---------- Previous post was at 19:10 ----------

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Are the Nations in SD outside their own areas to save on capacity? I didn't think that they had any capacity issues after all the changes they had made??

They'll still want to use a little as possible in case they want to reassign space for broadband provision I'd imagine.

[epsilon]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Are the Nations in SD outside their own areas to save on capacity? I didn't think that they had any capacity issues after all the changes they had made??

I would say they are just supplementary services like +1 channels and don't merit carriage in HD. I wouldn't say that there are capacity issues. TS11 is empty other than the unknown channel aka BBC Red Button 5 which Media Boy has found on digitalbitrate. From the data on that site, the service doesn't seem to have been added yet, it links to a slate. It's unlikely to be BBC Red Button 5, it is just using its old SID number. I guess the BBC Red Button 5 placeholder and perhaps the BBC Red Button 2 to BBC Red Button 6 range will shortly be moved to placeholder SID numbers outside the normal range before the mystery service is revealed.

---------- Post added at 19:25 ---------- Previous post was at 19:17 ----------

Originally Posted by cheekyangus

They'll still want to use a little as possible in case they want to reassign space for broadband provision I'd imagine.

Well, there's that but they have given up (I think) 20 transport streams over the last few years.

I understand they are testing other methods of delivery that could save quite a lot of "spectrum".

[nodrogd]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Since 5.56pm tonight Digital Bit Rates has pick up tests for BBC Red Button 5 on Virgin Media:

https://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.p...&sec=0&lang=en

I have not seen anything on the BBC launching any additional streams. There was only a single additional HD stream for the summer Olympics.

Eurosport has the primary rights & will be launching Eurosport 3 to 5 on Virgin (ch 537 to 539), Sky & BT at the end of next week.

[ozsat]

Seems they is a Eurosport 4K due on Sky too - although little publicity.

Originally Posted by nodrogd

I have not seen anything on the BBC launching any additional streams. There was only a single additional HD stream for the summer Olympics.

Eurosport has the primary rights & will be launching Eurosport 3 to 5 on Virgin (ch 537 to 539), Sky & BT at the end of next week.

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by nodrogd

Eurosport has the primary rights & will be launching Eurosport 3 to 5 on Virgin (ch 537 to 539), Sky & BT at the end of next week.

I have still to see any news of extra Eurosport channels testing on Virgin Media - I only know of Sky tests.

[nodrogd]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

I have still to see any news of extra Eurosport channels testing on Virgin Media - I only know of Sky tests.

Channel numbers quoted from next weeks Radio Times.

[epsilon]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

I have still to see any news of extra Eurosport channels testing on Virgin Media - I only know of Sky tests.

The heads up for new channels is usually when the service labels are added to the SDT. In this case, they will already be there as placeholders from the last time the popup channels were used. Keep watching digitalbitrate.

---------- Post added at 10:09 ---------- Previous post was at 10:08 ----------

Originally Posted by nodrogd

Channel numbers quoted from next weeks Radio Times.

The same channel numbers as they used last time.

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by nodrogd

Channel numbers quoted from next weeks Radio Times.

Just got my copy. Thanks for head's up.

---------- Post added at 11:37 ---------- Previous post was at 11:10 ----------

EXCLUSIVE: Zee TV HD to launch on Virgin Media next week

I have just been told by Zee TV via Twitter that Zee TV HD is set to launch on Virgin UK Channel 809 from February 4th.

Source: Zee TV on Twitter.

[Media Boy UK]

Since 4.32pm tonight Digital Bit Rates has pick up tests 4 new test but BBC Red Button 5 is no longer testing on Virgin Media:

A four new one are: Eurosport UHD, Eurosport 3 HD, Eurosport 4 HD and Eurosport 5 HD

https://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.p...ve=209&lang=en

@epsilon All tests are using CO71.

[1701-e]

You’ll find BBC Four on channel 108 from 1st February 2022. So if you have any series link recordings for BBC Four shows, you’ll need to re-set those up now, as well as adding BBC Four back into your list of favourite channels.

Need a hand? Find out how to manage your recordings here and set your favourite channel here.

Just to recap, your new BBC channel line-up will look like this:

107 BBC Three
108 BBC Four

Per email to my mum who has the old TiVo box.