Channel Television on Digital Satellite

Channel Television take everything from Meridian. Occassionally we have had the Meridian News instead of Channel News if Channel have had a problem.

The through the night is all direct as Channel close down at around 12.30 and they all go home !.

We get the Meridian bumper breaks all the time why they bother trying to cover them I don't know everyone in Jersey knows it's Meridian.

Except for that it's hard to beat real local television.

Dave - Jersey

Back when it was TVS and there were two lots of ads, one for 'south' and one for 'south-east', many of the 'south' ones, which Channel were going to take overnight, had 'not available in the Channel Islands' in small print superimposed across the bottom; a bit like many satellite ads now have 'not available in ROI'. Do they still do that?

Nick Harvey.

Here goes...

<Engaging Anorak Mode>

Channel TV receive Meridian off-air from the Rowridge transmitter - over 60 miles away - at a receive station on the French coast. This off-air signal is then sent via a microwave link to a receiver at Fremont Point, and then from here, by fibre to Channel TVs studios in Jersey, where they opt-out for their presentation, local programmes and adverts etc. It is then sent to the transmitter at Fremont Point, where it is broadcast to the islands.

To get the signal back to NTL in England, for uplink to Astra 2D, a satellite truck has apparently been parked near the transmitter at Fremont Point, and is sending the Channel TV feed back to a satellite receive point at Crawley Court. From there it is fed to London, to be bundled up with the other ITVs on its transponder (UTV, STV, Grampian and possibly ITV2), and then it is sent back to Crawley Court, but it is not uplinked there, instead it is fed on, by fibre to a different uplink site at Morn Hill.

The number of different Off-air, microwave and satellite hops the signal has been through it is not surprising that it is a little on the dodgy side.

Apparently there will soon be a fibre link between the Channel Islands and England (not sure if direct or via France) This may remove the need for Channel TV to receive Meridian off-air in France, and will certainly remove the need to have a sat truck parked by the transmitter to get the Channel TV feed back to London! This may well improve the technical quality - both on satellite and in the Islands.

(Hope it doesn't mean that Jersey subcontract presentation to Granada or Carlton though )

I will have to pop up to Fremont and check out the sat truck later !

Adverts don't have unavailable in the Channel Islands.

We still have adverts for things that aren't available in the Islands like, Sainsbury, Tesco, Asda, Toy R Us and loads of others makes us realise what we're missing out here !

Dave - Jersey

I saw Channel at 9.25, I like the music they use in their idents, so soothing!, I also like the fact that their logo is animated, unlike the other regions who took the blue hearts theme, their weather is a bit odd though!

They have a better weather update during Channel Report at 18.00.

Dave - Jersey

As I don't wanna miss out, how do I receive Channel on satellite ?
I only have Sky Digital, no mega-technical all singin & dancin computerised whatsit.
Can I therefore receive it ? If so what number do I twiddle ?

I am really impressed by presentation on channel tv, it reminds me of TSW and their news really reminds me of the early days of westcountry live, with the different sections. i love that clock thing and voice over at the beginning of channel report. The weather graphics are terrible though, it looks as though they have been using them for years! How is thier lunchtime and late news reported.....i thought the news team finished at 7..... channel tv = how itv regions should be

Lunchtime news is good. They have started putting the Channel logo in the bottom corner of the screen but this only appears at lunchtime. They also have a new Business News section which I think is to fill time as we don't have much news ! (hence why Channel has no afternoon bullittin just Channel Report. They also now hand back to ITV news saying 'thats all from the Channel Islands nwesroom now back to John in London'

I agree the weather graphics are poor although in Channel Report they do use computer graphics.

I am hopeing they mighjt revamp the weather stuff it does look very old.

Dave - Jersey

I've caught a couple of their lunchtime bulletins and I'm very impressed with the professional way they chop the (dirty) network feed BEFORE Meridian; and then rejoin AFTER Meridian have.

Must be more of a nightmare for their presentation controllers than the rest of the day's opts.

Nick Harvey.

(Edited by Nick Harvey at 5:22 pm on Nov. 22, 2001)

I'm impressed with the professional way they manage to link everything in relatively seamlessly at all times. It really must be a nightmare for Channel if Meridian make a mess of things

I don't think it's really fair saying Meridian make a mess of things. I'm sure their primary concern is providing a decent service for the south of England, not worrying about their feed to the Channel Islands. It must be a nightmare for Channel to keep away from the Meridian stuff, but surely they understand it's not Meridian's (or anyone else's) fault.