BBC News Channel General Discussion

So what is the article talking about, the BBC not having to pay for their EPG slots?

Correct. There was nothing (since 2003 when the BBC went FTA), and still is nothing that stops the BBC to be viewable on satellite receivers, all they were paying for was inclusion on Sky's propriety EPG. The video and audio streams of their output has never gone anywhere near Sky or its uplink sites.

Yep.

Sky have never uplinked or provided transponder space for the BBC services other than the BBC London 2012 Olympic stuff (and possibly BBC Parliament when it was still covered by legacy Parliamentary channel stuff). The BBC pay for the uplink of their channels on DSat (they outsource the compression and uplink to third parties these days) and lease their own transponders independently of Sky. The same transponders are tuned by both Sky boxes and Freesat boxes, and the BBC broadcast EPG, subtitle and interactive content compatible with both platforms on the same 'channels'

The BBC paid Sky for encryption services before they moved to Astra 2D's tighter UK/Ireland spot beam which minimised non-UK coverage and satisfied rights holders that encryption wasn't a pre-requisite.

After that point the BBC were paying Sky significant amounts each year for a slot in the EPG (and had to pay for each slot - which is why the Red Button services weren't in the EPG) Never been sure why these were called 'retransmission fees' - but they were, effectively, the fees that the BBC were paying Sky to be on their platform.

News channel having some problems. They're repeating the 7pm hour at 8pm.

Perhaps they're testing for BBC News +1

Looking on rewind, the view switched to a moving camera to the side of the presenter a couple of times with the presenter seemingly unaware, that was during the last report before the weather. Other than that nothing unusual.

Oops, the Gallery crashed!

Now back to live output. Sean has apologised - it was due to a computer freeze in the gallery which meant that no packages could be played out.

Yes, looking back from around 19:52 poor Shaun Ley was trying to hold things together (and did so well) as several reports failed to play.

Just watched the relevant points, exceptionally well handled, and a comprehensive description of the issues at the end. If only all breakdowns were handled with such professionalism.

Yes, well handled by Shaun Ley.

Here's what happened for those who don't fancy trooling through iPlayer.

Great explanation from him, I like this guy not seen him around before myself.