C4 win new Freeview slot

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds26454.html

I'm reporting that Digital Spy is reporting that The Times is reporting that C4 have won the new Freeview slot on Mux D, at the cost of £10m a year for the 18-hour a day slot (though E4+1 and Men and Motors both broadcast 24 hrs).

More4+1 will take the slot for now, which becomes available November 24th (Thursday), though it's expected a new channel will fill the slot later in 2006 (see: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds26081.html )


Hopefully this extra slot will ensure Celebrity Big Brother's live streaming will be available on Freeview in January, and I suspect may be used for Big Brother 7 in May before a new channel launches next August.

Perhaps they'll use it for Space Cadets in December, Celeb BB in January, then More4+1 until BB7 in May.

I just have reservations about what this new channel may be - if it's the previously reported C4US filled with US programming, I don't think that do C4 any favours.

Personally I think their portfolio of C4, E4 and More4 is probably the best of the terrestrial companies at the moment, with E4 and More4 having clear boundaries which rarely overlap and cover all of C4's output.

LOL. Found it funny with your wording. "I am reporting that Digital Spy has reported that ... blah".

Good on Channel 4 though, what a great package they have on Freeview now.

Channel 4
E4 and E4+1
More 4 and More 4+1

Everyone at five must be devastated at this news. No five.2 on Freeview then. Looks like out of the "get or die" policy, five has died.

Here is the Times article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1878856,00.html

Apparantly Five walked away after buying a stake in Top Up TV - they will use some of TUTV's capacity (meaning Toonami's hours will probably be cut from 8 a week!)

Another slot should be made available soon on Mux C, probably the last for now.


TV Freak - not sure whether your being genuine or not with your references to E4+1 and More4+1, but though I hated the idea of +1 channels taking valuable space, I've found E4+1 to be very useful, especially on days when reception is dodgy.

It's certainly a far better use of space than Quizcall - and it generally pulls in about 50% of the audience E4 does, which isn't bad at all really.




Well, if it turns out to be a false rumour you can't blame me!

I was being genuine.

+1 channels are probably a bit of a waste of space but they are useful and good for Channel 4, I suppose.

They can always be replaced later, but as you said, this might not be a good thing. C4US would be a terrible idea. Just awful. So they should be careful what they do here.

With - as that article says - five having bought into TopUpTV and gearing up to launch up to two new channels next year, I think we may need another EPG reshuffle.

I still think it's a joke that ITV4 is at Ch30.

Serves Five right really. Weren't they allocated space on Freeview in the same way C4 & ITV were initially but had nothing to use it for so leased their space out to TUTV ?

We have Five to thank for the return of pay TV to DTT. They effectively leased their space until 2010 and now find the only way they can get any space on the platform is to buy a stake in the service.

Top UP channels are on Multiplex A aren't they ? What with ITV now owning SDN who hold the licence to operate Mux A not sure that it's a wise move for Five to be cosying up to Top Up, which are on contract to use the space until 2010. Effectively then, ITV own the space and can do what they like with it, or does it go back to Five ? Five should have been securing some space of their own, otherwise their multi-channel ambitions look a bit shaky.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, it's hard to keep up with the comings and goings of DTT.

There shouldn't be +1 channels on Freeview. With limited capacity, Freeview isn't the sort of platform for this sort of thing

I like the +1 channels MUCH better than the shopping and quiz shows.

What a sad, sad choice to award a Freeview slot too.

Another +1 Channel. Woo.

As I said above the +1 services are far better than the likes of Quizcall - especially as with most Freeview boxes you can't watch one channel and tape another!

ITV4 on 30 - as I said at the time the EPG reshuffle was a joke - a couple of improvements, but until the shopping channels are moved their will be no serious improvement.


It's bizarre with Five / SDN / ITV - SDN run the Mux, but I think Five control half of it, so ITV may have no say in what Five do with their half!

Also, re: Freeview - now ITV and C4 have joined Freeview, do they put in as much money as the BBC considering they have less than half the capacity the BBC does?


Some other news that's been missed here!!!

It was reported earlier this week that the spare analogue spectrum after switchoff will be sold to the higher bidder, so it looks like that if any more Muxes are to be added to DTT, Freeview will have to bid for the space in an open auction.

I still think once the analogue signal is switched off ITV and C4 should get a Mux each, with perhaps two muxes being added. One would be for Top Up TV, with another for other channels - perhaps restricted so ITV/C4/five can't have channels on it!

freeview is just a brand name, not a platform, by joining freeview channel 4 and itv have taken a 20% share of dtv services - the people who administer the freeview brand and promote the DTT platform.

crown castle and bbc won the multiplexes, not freeview.

OK - confusing lot ain't it - and it was ITV/C4's bid for the old ITV Digital muxes that first came up with the Freeview name anyway!


As for other possibilities for C4's space - after having the interactive feed for Big Brother this year, I don't want to lose it in future years.

I think this new slot raises the possibility of the interactive feed being available next year ahead of a possible launch of a new channel, but then we'd probably lose it the next year once the new channel is on air.

I guess it's more difficult for a commercial channel to have a permanent interactive channel, as having bandwidth not used for huge periods wouldn't be ideal - and reserving a channel for Big Brother would probably see the space unused for 40 weeks of the year.

Also, I can't see programmes like C4 News wanting to launch interactive services if they are lost for 3 months of the year when BB is on air.

However, here is an idea - how about using the space the rest of the year for showcasing the new broadband channels C4 have to offer. FourDocs could run during the day, with FourLaughs running at night.

These could be "interactive" channels, linked to via C4, More 4 or E4 - and would be cheap fillers for when BB or other interactive content isn't on air.

Oh Jesus Christ, does this news have ANY Positive side to it?