Freeview: changes ahead!: Freeview are consulting about big changes to how channels are accessed - Page 3

RW

Robert Williams Founding member 20 November 2020 8:42am

DMOL consulted on the creation of a shopping channel section in January 2011 as part of a wider consultation (can't believe it was as long ago as that!) Unfortunately the Wayback Machine doesn't appear to have archived the original consultation document, but in April 2011 they stated there was 'strong support for the introduction of a teleshopping classification': https://web.archive.org/web/20120307172006/http://www.dmol.co.uk/DMOL%20LCN%20Statement.pdf

Yet in their final decision in March 2012 they decided not to introduce one:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120412141456/http://www.dmol.co.uk/DMOL%20LCN%20Consultation%2029%20March%202012.pdf

Quote:

Having considered carefully the results of the consumer research, DMOL has decided not to propose the creation of a dedicated Shopping genre at this stage, since the high level of neutral responses to all the concepts tested suggest that consumers are relatively content with the current listings structure and there is not currently a strong consumer drive for creation of a dedicated genre, in turn suggesting that the perceived consumer benefit from its creation is currently relatively small. Based on our pre-consultation discussions there is also no support for the creation of the genre from shopping channel providers

Basically the shopping channels didn't want it (QVC clearly have friends in high places as the subject of their LCN was even raised in parliament: https://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2011-11-23a.138.0 ) and most everyday people simply don't care.

I suppose one difference between the Freeview EPG and that on other platforms is that on the Sky EPG, for example, you can jump straight to the different genre categories, whereas on Freeview you have to go scrolling through all the other channels (I assume this is still the case on newer devices?)

PE

Pete Founding member 20 November 2020 9:10am

Steve in Pudsey posted:

The biggest usability improvement to the EPGs on all platforms would be to implement switching between HD and SD versions by a toggle (one of the coloured buttons perhaps) on the same LCN rather than cluttering up the EPG with duplicates.

The Virgin EPG is particularly awful but Freeview and Sky aren't great

Virgin in Scotland (and I believe NI and Wales) have simply ditched put BBC1 Scotland HD on 101 and STV HD on 103. Channel 4 remains an outlier with the SD version still on 104.

That said I was also informed this was perhaps more due to lucky accident / Virgin's incompetence than design. See also their mock designs gallery of channel logos

MA

Markymark 20 November 2020 9:45am

Pete posted:

Steve in Pudsey posted:

The biggest usability improvement to the EPGs on all platforms would be to implement switching between HD and SD versions by a toggle (one of the coloured buttons perhaps) on the same LCN rather than cluttering up the EPG with duplicates.

The Virgin EPG is particularly awful but Freeview and Sky aren't great

Virgin in Scotland (and I believe NI and Wales) have simply ditched put BBC1 Scotland HD on 101 and STV HD on 103. Channel 4 remains an outlier with the SD version still on 104.

They can do that, because in Scotland (Wales and NI too) BBC 1 SD and HD are exactly the same. It's the same for Sky and Frreesat. The same applies to STV, but possibly only the Black Hill portion, because the other areas of Scotland have different ads and news. I think Sky carry those other regions in HD but they are encrypted so not available on Freesat, only the Black Hill/Darvel (STV West) sub region is FTA ?

SP

Steve in Pudsey 20 November 2020 10:14am

The PSBs being as they are is more understandable, but the rest are a real mess. Some have the HD and SD variants side by side, others are on random numbers a hundred apart, often with the SD version on the lower number.