Music Channels

I used to work for a company that supplied hundreds of hours of music countdown programmes to Trace and were owed money from them for a very long time. They didn't seem like a particularly professional company back then and judging by their first few weeks in the UK they don't seem particularly professional now.

Trace had been operating the old channels since December last year, without all the problems they're now experiencing, with the distribution switching over from Sony to Trace in January:

https://www.arqiva.com/news/company/service-continuity-to-the-fore-as-trace-acquires-sony-uk-music-channels

Given the way the rebrands took place (basically switching from one feed to another), something must have changed at that point, which has led to the problems they're now experiencing.

Based on the initial BARB viewing figures, it's not looking good for Trace Urban and Trace Latina.

Week ending 27th October 2019 (last full week of the old channels):

The Vault 0.02%
Chart Show TV 0.01%
Trace Pop Up Channel (Christmas Starz) 0.01%
Other (Chart Show Hits) 0%

Week ending 3rd November 2019 (week the rebrand took place):

Trace Pop Up Channel (Christmas Starz) 0.02%
Trace Vault 0.01%
Trace Latina 0%
Other (Trace Urban) 0%

Week ending 10th November 2019 (first full week of the new channels):

Trace Pop Up Channel (Christmas Starz) 0.01%
Trace Vault 0.01%
Trace Latina 0%
Other (Trace Urban) 0%

I realise there's not much difference between 0% and 0.01%, and channels like Chart Show TV and Chart Show HIts have fluctuated between 0% and 0.01% in the past (although Chart Show TV tended to get 0.01% more regularly than 0%) so it might be too early to say if there has been a noticeable drop in viewing figures.

The DOG on Trace Vault has now changed, but only for non-music programming.

The coloured parts have been removed, so it is just "Trace Vault" with a border outline around the rectangle.

No changes to the DOGs on Trace Urban and Trace Latina, or the DOG on Trace Vault during music programming.

They also still haven't sorted out the listings issues not matching the EPG on Trace Urban and Trace Vault.

Now CSC's gone, what will happen to the Pop channels?

They're already owned by Sony...

Trace seem to have resolved the issue of the EPG listings not matching the DOGs, by removing the programme name DOGs from all their channels.

Also, although Christmas Starz reverted back to Starz on the 7th, it continued to show Christmas programming in the EPG for a few days after that, and is currently still using the Christmas Starz graphics.

I think it's back to normal now as of yesterday (finally)

I shouldn't be surprised, but Trace Vault's bitrate is appalling. Worse than YouTube 480p, which at least YouTube's audio is half decent to listen to. You can clearly hear the bitrate compression on the channel.

There are still issues with the epg listings, with programmes now being listed with odd start times on Trace Urban, Trace Latina and Starz.

For example, the programme currently being shown on Trace Urban started at 11.04am, with subsequent programmes starting at 2.01pm, 3pm, 4.59pm, 5.59pm, 7pm, 8.01pm, 8.17pm, 9pm, 10.01pm and 11.03pm.

EPG listings are out of touch with the programmes actually on air. Earlier on Trace Vault, they were scheduled to be showing FOCUS: Backstreet Boys however that wasn’t on air.

That's been the case since the channels launched in November, but is less noticeable now that they've removed the programme name DOGs.