Freeview - A reorganisation of the EPG?

There have been rumours of Sky getting a reorganisation of their EPG. I think Freeview needs a reorganisation. I have tried this below with a similar structure to Sky.

I have tried to place channels in relevant groups. What do you think?

Sky currently has entertainment and lifestyle between 100 - 299. For Freeview I have put entertainment in 01 - 19, while placing lifestyle with factual in 20 - 29.

01 - BBC1, 02 - BBC2, 03 - ITV1, 04 - C4, 05 - Five, 06 - ABC1 (Freeview equivalent of Sky1), 09 - UKTV Gold, 10 - FTN, 13 - E4, 15 - BBC3, 16 - BBC4, 18 - ITV2, 19 - ITV3, 07/08/11/12/14/17 - Free Slots

21 - Discovery, 22 - UKTV Style, 23 - Home & Leisure, 25 - UKTV Food, 26 - UKTV Bright Ideas, 28 - UKTV History, 29 - Sky Travel, 20/24/27 - Free Slots

Sky currently has movies between 300 - 399. For Freeview I have put movies with sport & music in 30 - 39.

31 - TMF, 34 - The Hits, 37 - TCM, 38 - Sky Sports News, 30/32/33/35/36/39 - Free Slots

Sky currently has sport & music between 400 - 499. For Freeview I have put news with information in 40 - 49.

40 - BBC News 24, 41 - Sky News, 42 - ITV News, 44 - Bloomberg, 45 - Community, 47 - BBC Parliament, 49 - Teachers TV, 43/46/48 - Free Slots

Sky currently has news & factual between 500 - 599. For Freeview I have put kids & shopping in 50 - 59.

50 - CBBC, 51 - CBeebies, 52 - Cartoon Network, 53 - Boomerang, 55 - QVC, 56 - Ideal World, 57 - Price-Drop TV, 58 - Bid TV, 59 Top-Up TV Sampler, 54 - Free Slot

Sky currently has Kids & shopping between 600 - 699, PPV between 700 - 799, radio between 800 - 899. For Freeview I have put radio in 60 - 89.

60 - Radio 1, 61 - 1Xtra, 62 - Radio 2, 63 - Radio 3, 64 - Radio 4, 65 - Radio 5 Live, 66 - 5 Live Sports Extra, 67 - 6 Music, 68 - BBC 7, 69 - Asian Network, 70 - World Service, 71 - Q, 72 - Smash Hits, 73 - Premier Christian, 75 - Magic, 77 - Oneword, 78 - Talksport, 79 - Heat, 80 - The Hits, 82 - Mojo, 83 - Kerrang, 85 - 3C, 87 - Jazz FM, 88 - Kiss, 74/76/81/84/86/89 - Free Slots

Sky currently has regions & adult between 900 - 999. For Freeview I have put regions & adult in 90 - 99.

91 - C4 (Wales)/TeleG, 92 - S4C 2, 94 - Radio Scotland/Ulster/Wales, 95 - Radio nan Gaidheal/Foyle/Cymru, 97 - Television X, 98 - Red Hot, 90/93/96/99 - Free Slots

For Freeview I have put interactive in the 700's.

700 - BBCi, 701/2/3 - BBCi Video Screens, 704 - 4TV Interactive, 705 - Teletext, 706 - Teletext on 4, 707 - YooPlay, 708 - Teletext TV Guide, 709 - Teletext Holidays

It certainly needs a sort out - but not as complex as you've suggested.

ITV3 should move to 13. This is used by S4C2 in Wales, which could move to 15 (ABC1 - not available in Wales).

Another possibility with Teletext launching on ITV is for Teletext to move to the 50's (unlikely though) and ITV3 move to channel 9 - though it be better if it swapped places with BBC3 so you get ITV2/3 on 6/7 and BBC3/4 on 9/10.

Moving the shopping channels out of the general section to either 35+ or the 60's would allow the general section to be tidied up. Move UKTV Gold to the early 24 so that frees up 16/17 and 22/23.

That's about all that is desperately required now.

For me, they should lump all the shopping and TUTV channels all in one block so they are not littered around the EPG.

I think there is still an element of "first come, first served" in the EPG alignment.

ITV News launched on DTT before Sky News, so gets a lower EPG entry. (41 vs 42) News 24 were there first so get the best entry - 40.

Being the first entry in the EPG in a given section is a real advantage.

I agree that moving all the TUTV channels into their own section would be useful - as most Freeview viewers don't receive them. (Luckily my PC ignores them)

For me the current line-up works quite well, apart from the bizarre situation of ITV3 being on 34 - in the Kids section of the EPG.

The plan was to put the Top-Up TV channels all together, however Top-Up TV objected to this.

You can arrange the channels in the order that you want on Freeview. At least you can on my box.

I never thought it was worthwhile grouping channels in the EPG according to genre. There just aren't enough on there.

Just number them 1-30 or whatever, without silly gaps in or text services getting a channel number. S4C2 and Tele G can go at the end, so it's a continuous run, but invisible in England.

And Top Up needs lumping together, perhaps 50+. And radio can stay as it is.

I don't really think that the EPG has got change at all really. I couldn't care less whether BBC News 24 was on 77 and ITV News on 89 because quite frankly I'd prefer to *watch* the channel than wonder whether the channels are grouped according to their genre or not.

IIRC, Teletext Ltd. is guaranteed channel 9 under the terms of it's license. Therefore, it's got to stay where it is.

Mind, in North Wales it would be nice to have the option of Freeview at all!

Don't know if it needs to be that complex - but I would prefer it if the TUTV bits were all in one place at the end. I don't really want to know what I could (but can't) watch every time I flick past.

I know what you mean. I want freeview but it's not coming to our area and more annoyingly still it has been available three roads away for the past couple of months and is making no progress.