General : Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2017)

[passingbat]

Originally Posted by mike_gain

The channel is a result of the charter renewal, which the Scottish Government had an involvement in for the first time. It's probably taken till now to iron out the details. Don't think it has any reflection on

a) whether indyref2 will occur
b) the outcome of any indyref2

Thanks for the background info.


So, if Scotland do, at some stage, go independent, where would Scotland stand with the BBC? Presumably they would have to pay the BBC for their services, or start a new broadcast service, SBC?

[mike_gain]

Originally Posted by passingbat

Thanks for the background info.


So, if Scotland do, at some stage, go independent, where would Scotland stand with the BBC? Presumably they would have to pay the BBC for their services, or start a new broadcast service, SBC?

The "indyref1" white paper outlined plans for a SBS that would be publicly funded. But also suggested a formal arrangement with the BBC in order to provide access to BBC programming for Scottish viewers in return for providing the BBC with the same level of programming as BBC Scotland currently does.

EDIT:I should qualify the above, the White Paper was in many areas speculative and optimistic at best and misleading at worst. But in terms of broadcasting the £320 odd million currently raised in licence fees would probably cover an SBS but I suspect there would be some contention over the current BBC assets and whether SBS would be entitled to a per capita share of any assets, these assets being assumed as being available in the White Paper.

[passingbat]

Originally Posted by mike_gain

The "indyref1" white paper outlined plans for a SBS that would be publicly funded. But also suggested a formal arrangement with the BBC in order to provide access to BBC programming for Scottish viewers in return for providing the BBC with the same level of programming as BBC Scotland currently does.

EDIT:I should qualify the above, the White Paper was in many areas speculative and optimistic at best and misleading at worst. But in terms of broadcasting the £320 odd million currently raised in licence fees would probably cover an SBS but I suspect there would be some contention over the current BBC assets and whether SBS would be entitled to a per capita share of any assets, these assets being assumed as being available in the White Paper.

Thanks again for that info.

[RichardCoulter]

I wonder if this will be available nationwide on VM?

The BBC say that programming will be available nationwide both online and via the iPlayer, (but I'm assuming that it will be available on Freesat too).

VM currently carry the BBC nations, BBC Alba ect nationwide.

I do find it odd that the BBC closed BBC3 citing their funding problems, yet have found the money for this. Maybe it's getting external funding like BBC Alba??

I imagine that there are more young people in the UK than the population of Scotland too.

[OLD BOY]

I wonder if this is the reason the launch of Amazon on Virgin Media was delayed?

http://www.rapidtvnews.com/201702224...#axzz4ZUf23G1d

[nialli]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

I wonder if this is the reason the launch of Amazon on Virgin Media was delayed?

http://www.rapidtvnews.com/201702224...#axzz4ZUf23G1d

Possibly. The Fire TV Stick is pretty neat and has a better lineup of apps than our TiVo one, which VM seems to have neglected in recent years.
I get Amazon through my Sony TV and have found the player to be less reliable than the TV's Netflix one, particularly with regard to picture quality. I also still think that the Netflix app on TiVo, even on the V6, is more flakey than my Sony version.
The Fire TV stick is still limited to 1080p BTW - you need the Fire box to access Amazon's 4k content.

[Bananaman_007]

So they close BBC3 due to lack of funds but then suddenly find 30 million for a programme budget for this BBC Scotland. I understand the launch of new channels has to go through the BBC Trust, not that they did much to save BBC3 will certainly be registering my disgust at this.

[passingbat]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

I wonder if this is the reason the launch of Amazon on Virgin Media was delayed?

http://www.rapidtvnews.com/201702224...#axzz4ZUf23G1d

A new interface is being progressively launched across all Amazon Fire TV devices, including first generation boxes and sticks. My first gen boxes have not been updated yet. Some US second gen boxes have.


Maybe Amazon want the new interface on the Tivo, if it is planned to arrive on Tivo?


There does not seem to be universal approval of the New Interface

[mike_gain]

Originally Posted by Bananaman_007

So they close BBC3 due to lack of funds but then suddenly find 30 million for a programme budget for this BBC Scotland. I understand the launch of new channels has to go through the BBC Trust, not that they did much to save BBC3 will certainly be registering my disgust at this.

Just to clarify £11 of that is existing funding. But £20M is still a fair whack of cash.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by mike_gain

Just to clarify £11 of that is existing funding. But £20M is still a fair whack of cash.

Is that what they will save by ceasing BBC2 scottish opt outs?

[cheekyangus]

I can't remember how much the broadcast part of the cost of BBC3 was. It still has a programme budget of course, since it still commissions programmes for iPlayer of which some then get repeated on BBC1 and 2.

Is the "existing funding" part of that BBC Scotland channel amount made up from the budget of BBC1? It is meant to be providing shows that can be used for the main UK network as well as this new channel.

I believe since there were rules with regard to what the BBC3 Freeview space could be used for the BBC had little choice with what they could do with it. They expanded one of the children's channels until 9pm but they aren't allowed to sell the remaining space to a 3rd party. Presumably this is the space that is being used for the channel. Rather than leave it doing nothing they view it as providing a use. The children's channel of course would have to go back to its original times in Scotland.

Given they announced similar new services and money for Wales (including a new Welsh iPlayer channel) the day before I don't see why they didn't use that space in Wales the same way. Unless it doesn't exist anymore for some other reason. They could make a regional channel for each of the English regions and NI too, taking the existing regional programmes from BBC1 and/or 2.

I was surprised when they didn't just make an extra Red Button channel from the BBC3 space, but they stopped it after Olympics.

[cje85]

Originally Posted by cheekyangus

I believe since there were rules with regard to what the BBC3 Freeview space could be used for the BBC had little choice with what they could do with it. They expanded one of the children's channels until 9pm but they aren't allowed to sell the remaining space to a 3rd party.

They are selling the former BBC Three HD capacity: http://www.a516digital.com/2016/11/b...-freeview.html

The CBBC channel uses the bandwidth until 9pm but the new Scottish channel will broadcast from 7pm-midnight so it can't be using the former BBC Three capacity.

[cheekyangus]

Originally Posted by cje85

They are selling the former BBC Three HD capacity: http://www.a516digital.com/2016/11/b...-freeview.html

The CBBC channel uses the bandwidth until 9pm but the new Scottish channel will broadcast from 7pm-midnight so it can't be using the former BBC Three capacity.

I wasn't talking about the HD capacity, I knew about the sell off.

For BBC Alba on Freeview they take BBC radio stations off air and use their multiplex space, so having a different setup in Scotland isn't unheard of. That's why I speculated they'd just revert the SD CBBC airtime for Scotland back to 7pm finish time, it's the easiest way to fit the new channel in on existing BBC space.

[nodrogd]

Originally Posted by cheekyangus

I wasn't talking about the HD capacity, I knew about the sell off.

For BBC Alba on Freeview they take BBC radio stations off air and use their multiplex space, so having a different setup in Scotland isn't unheard of. That's why I speculated they'd just revert the SD CBBC airtime for Scotland back to 7pm finish time, it's the easiest way to fit the new channel in on existing BBC space.

With the service not launching until 2018 the Freeview allocations are bound to change. Frequencies at 700MHz start to be cleared in Scotland this month, along with the prospect of more muxes moving to DVB-T2 operation. If the main BBC mux moves to DVB-T2 there will certainly be room for more services.

[cheekyangus]

Originally Posted by nodrogd

With the service not launching until 2018 the Freeview allocations are bound to change. Frequencies at 700MHz start to be cleared in Scotland this month, along with the prospect of more muxes moving to DVB-T2 operation. If the main BBC mux moves to DVB-T2 there will certainly be room for more services.

If they were moving to T2 in time for launch they really would need to say now to give those of us with old equipment to replace it.

A map of the proposed 700MHz move I saw had the most populated areas of Scotland switch in 2019 as I recall so this wouldn't help with space for most. The areas allocated for this this year cover mostly rural, low population areas in the north.