Freeview

does anybody know of any new channels going to be realised on the freeview platform, I have been hunting around online and been unable to find what future plans there are for any new channels.

Disney are planning the launch of a new channel on Freeview called "Daytime" I believe. This will carry a large lump of ABC (who are owned by Disney) daytime programmes - like soaps?

Channel Four have two slots they have yet to fill in their half of the ITV/Channel Four multiplex. There were suggestions that they might be launching a G4 service - which would be like E4 but aimed at an older audience - and as it is likely to be non-subscription it would show programmes later than E4 as the channel won't be able to buy the earlier pay-TV rights.

More4 - a channel from Channel 4, will be more upmarket than E4 and sounds like it will probably show documentaries and stuff like that.

Setanta Sport (Rumoured) - a free sport channel rumoured to be arriving this year.

Daytime - a channel from ABC/Disney - rumoured to be starting three days ago, but still hope of it arriving this month

There's still rumours of a channel from the people behind the elusive CBM, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

When Freeview was launched, it was suggested that TCM would be arriving on the platform. Has this now lost all hope of ever being available? If so, does anyone think a movie channel of some description should be on this service? Maybe BBC4 could be a movie channel instead and BBC3 could show a combination of the programmes on 3 and 4 rather than showing the same stuff over and over again!

The latest word from them (which is couple of months old now) is that they are getting on board with Setanta to develop this sports channel together. Since Setanta's current operations are in PPV, and CBM made press releases about their original service starting 4 weeks before it disappeared off the face of the earth, I won't believe it'll happen until I actually see the channel up and running.


Since the channel numbers for it disappeared, and Daytime will go in the space which was earmarked for them, I'd imagine that there is no hope of TCP appearing now.

I'm reasonably sure TCM is no longer free-to-air; I think they switched to an encrypted broadcast a few weeks ago, so I wouldn't expect it on Freeview any time soon.

I don't think that really makes a difference. Many of the channels on Freeview are pay channels on Sky, and it's possible that TCM have encrypted on Sky so they can use the money to subsidise carriage on Freeview.

I'm not confident of this though and I would be very surprised if TCM did appear on Freeview.

So it's gone the same way as Boomerang then. Always knew it would happen really, if anything I'm surprised it stayed FTA as long as it did (and than Cartoon Network/TNT (later TCM) stayed FTA on analogue for their whole life).

Anyway, as said above, many channels on DTT are chargeable on Sky's DSAT service (and I would assume on cable too?); ITV2, Sky Travel, UK History, The Hits, UK Bright Ideas, FTN, TMF, and Sky Sports News are all on Freeview but all are subscription channels on other platforms.

I don't know about TCM encrypting on Sky to subsidise a potential appearance on Freeview though. Although Sky subscriptions have ballooned to 400% of what they were 10 years ago (and still rising above inflation on a yearly basis), a non-premium pay channel on Sky on receives a miniscule amount from each subscriber, and actual total revenue from this isn't that much when compared with a channel's income from sponsorship and advertising. Only premium channels actually make serious money from subscriptions (which is why I think it's entirely feasible for UK Gold to appear on DTT), so I wouldn't say their move to pay TV on satellite has anything to do with a possible move to Freeview.

Cartoon Netowrk / TCM still is FTA on analoogue cable. It is round here anyway.

Setanta have announced this morning that they're not hoping to launch a sports channel any more. However (in unrelated news), ITV have pretty much confirmed ITV3 will begin in the next year or so, and have hinted strongly that it would appear on Freeview, but at the moment there isn't space on ITV's Mux, so they may well try to use SDN's newly vacated gap, or move the News Channel over there (picture quality on SDN is poorer).

On TCM, I really wouldn't get your hopes up. And no, BBC Four won't becoming a 'movie' channel, although it does already show foreign language and arthouse films. So Freeview would still appear to be without sport and film channels, but then it isn't a 'premium' service, is it!?

The "picture quality" on SDN is identical to the picture quality on any Mux. If the same digital signal at the same data rate is broadcast on SDN and received correctly then there will be no difference in picture quality.


HOWEVER SDN and the ITV/C4 Mux are broadcast at a higher data rate (24Mbs allowing more channels to be broadcast) but with a less robust signal than the BBC and Crown Castle Muxes. This means if you have a poor signal then they will be more difficult to receive - and may suffer more from interference. This will reduce the picture quality - but only if you are in a poor signal area. In good signal areas the picture quality will be the same.

It may also be that SDN broadcast their services at lower data rates (I think they use 540x576 rather than 720 or 704x576 resolution for some services - as ITV do for the News Channel - and all their channels on satellite) which will result in a lower picture quality however you receive the signal - but this doesn't mean that other services on the mux will be poor quality. Five is broadcast on the SDN Mux A - and is one of the highest quality pictures on Freeview.

All of SDN's channels are broadcast at a lower picture rate (including Channel 5 which is of poorer picture quality (or resolution) than the other main 4 channels. Source: http://uk.geocities.com/talk2me2u/mux.html