F TN - Whats on?

SSN should stay although I don't watch it. Sky One type thing is going to replace Sky Travel.

So who owns the MUXs now?

1 - BBC
2 - 3/4
A - SDN
B - CC
C - CC
D - CC

Why do SDN still own that Mux? I thought their's was sold.

Plus if they are planning to put Bidup on, what will happen when the ITC (most likely) make them change to the new transmittion menthod? Won't they go down the evil compression road?

I know, and I don't understand why. Surely most of the people who would watch SSN would also want Sky Sports. They certainly spend a lot of time promoting the Sky Sports channels, no doubt in the hope that you would upgrade your subscription to include Sky Sports. But with no Sky Sports possible on DTT, they can only want it there as an unofficial barker channel for Sky which imo the regulator should realise and clamp down on. In programming terms, it's clear to me that Sky Travel is a lot more worthwhile than Sky Sports News.

In any case, I'm pretty sure that Sky One Mix was created with eventual DTT carriage in mind, and if it stays it it's current hours, it's probable that it won't totally replace Sky Travel, it will just nab half of it's hours.


Almost, multiplex B is BBC, not CC.


No, the licences of D3&4 and SDN have not been revoked, they have got their multiplexes for a long time yet (until 2012 I think).


The ITC aren't going to make them change. They've now decided that multiplexes licencees can operate their multiplexes in either 16QAM or 64QAM as they sit fit. What this means is that D3&4 and SDN will stay as they are.

I thought Sky One Mix was just a sweetener to help make the Sky Digital subs rise go down a bit nicer.

The replacement for Sky Travel on DTT will be something slightly different - Sky One Mix is just last night's Sky One programmes in a slightly different order, while the Freeview channel would have to be programmes which Sky does not own the pay-TV rights to only.

And then, of course, there's that "Channel 6" that Dawn Airey wants Sky to get around to eventually. That's the FTA channel with enough home-grown and quality content to go alongside the "Big 5", quite an ambitious idea.

In all honesty, f:tn's programming looks pretty dire. It's not the sort of thing I would go for - as is the same as UK Bright Ideas. They have gone for (on f:tn) what looks like all the cheap programmes Bravo/Living makes to fill up their schedule mixed with one or two others. Disappointing. But it's free, isn't it - we shouldn't complain.

But I am going to.

Re: Bright Ideas - I like the idea of it being a placeholder. Ideally, I prefer cwathen's view of it being a placeholder for UK Gold 2 but would much prefer an amalgamation of f:tn and UKBI to make one full Flextech channel with the best of UKTV, Bravo, Challenge, Trouble, Living etc as, in all honesty there isn't a channel on freeview that's general entertainment. ITV2 is the nearest ('full time' channel)but that churns out the same things day on day (usually repeated at least 2 times), week on week. Just how many times can they show 1 Corrie episode in a week?

Anyway, that's my view....

but BrightIdeas has a large audience potential of bored hosewifes (i.e. mummy)

And in the daytime would DIY/Cooking/Gardening from UK Style, mixed with talk shows and lifestyle from Living and classic shows such as EastEnders, Tenko, The Onedin Line etc from UK Gold not appeal to housewives? I would have thought they would.

My ideal preference would work like this:

7-9 'Trouble' shows
9-5 'UK Style, UK Food, Living, UK Gold' shows mixed - basically 2 hours per channel
5-7 'Challenge' shows
7-9 'UK Horizons' programmes
9-11 'UK Drama' programmes
11-7 'Bravo' programmes with a repeat of other shows through the day.

All under the brand of one channel. Anyway, pointless now.

Giving Ftn time it might work - kind of a light version to what C4 is to E4. I think if Sky launch a new channel on Freeview it would likely be a Sky Showcase, probabley including programmes made for Sky One (such as Dream Team, The Villa), a flagship Sky News bulletin and some magazine shows from Sky Sports, plus the movie chart shows from Sky Movies.