ITV & Channel 4 to join Freeview consortium

Today's Observer reports that Channel 4 is to formally join the Freeview consortium as a shareholder in DTV Services:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1587833,00.html

(Edited to add: Today's Sunday Telegraph also reports that ITV will do likewise.)

No great surprise.

Now all muxes are effectively under Freeview control I think there should be a bit of redistribution so each mux has the same number of channels, rather than the D3&4/SDN mux being packed full - that would mean six channels on each mux, something Crown Castle now say they can do - and more specifically, an improvement in the quality of Mux 2 and Mux A, a benefit for all Freeview viewers.

This should be worked out so all BBC, ITV, C4 and five chanenls are on Mux 1,2,A and B, as Muxes C/D are still not available nationwide.


I'd say:
Mux 1:
BBC1
BBC2
BBC3/CBBC
BBC4/CBeebies
BBC News 24
BBC Parliament/BBCi News Multiscreen

Mux 2:
ITV1
ITV2
ITV3
ITV4/CITV
ITV News
Men and Motors

Mux A:
Five
BBCi (2 streams)
S4C/Bid TV
S4C~2/ABC1/TeleG/Top Up TV (TCM)
Price Drop TV

Mux B:
C4
E4
More4
E4+1
Quizcall
More4+1? (or Big Brother Live)

Mux C:
Sky News
Sky Three
Sky Sports News
UKTV History
UKTV BI/FTN
TMF

Mux D:
The Hits
Ideal World
Top Up TV (4 streams)


I'm sure I've missed a channel, but you get the idea - basically the BBC muxes take an extra two channels to include six on their muxes (as Crown Castle will do), with them being taken off the more crowded ITV and SDN mux. C4 effectively get their own mux as part of the deal.

So does this mean with ITV as part of FREEview that the TUTV streams on the Mux it part owns (Mux A) will disappear? Or will there be some loophole where payTV can continue on DTT?

And with regard to 6 streams on each MUX - with each mux at analogue switchoff due to be operating at 64QAM / 8k (whatever that means!!) my understanding is that each Mux can carry 8 streams but at the strength of the ones currently carrying 4 streams (i.e. Muxes 1 and B). So really we have a possiblility of 48 streams - perhaps up to 60 channels - on DTT BEFORE the other UHF channels get allocated.

I doubt it, as someone pointed out at Digital Spy, the SDN Mux is quite complex as though ITV own it, the space TUTV rent is from Five. Personally I see no problem in keeping TUTV, and I think having some limited pay component is good for Freeview.


And your quite right that after switch off their should be upto 8 channels on each Mux (though there is already nine on Mux A, with plans for a tenth!).

No word on it yet, but I do think another two Muxes should be made available, one for C4 and one for Top Up TV.

Aye - what a mess it is.

1) FIVE
2) BID TV (OR BID TV / TCM IN WALES)
3) PRICE DROP
4) QVC (OR S4C2 / QVC IN WALES)
5) ABC1 / TCM (OR S4C IN WALES)
6) REALTIME / DISCOVERY / TEACHERS TV
7) BLOOMBERG or TOONAMI / UKTV FOOD / EUROSPORT / RED HOT
CARTOON NETWORK / UKTV STYLE / TELEVISION X
9) BOOMERANG / UKTV GOLD

As a TUTV user, I don't ever get any use out of Bloomberg, UKTV Food or Boomerang. Certainly Bloomberg can be scrapped to make room for 24 hour UKTV Gold, as Toonami is an embarrassing addition to TUTV (8 hours a week), and Eurosport can extend its hours into the paltry 3.5 hours that UKTV Food is on air for. Most of the decent RealTime programmes are on post 12pm anyway. Plus think of the benefits of removing 5 hours of UKTV Style and carrying on Cartoon Network once the other kids TV channels had closed down

ABC1 / TCM
DISCOVERY / TEACHERS' TV
UKTV GOLD
BOOMERANG / EUROSPORT / RED HOT
CARTOON NETWORK / TELEVISION X

Bringing down the subscription price to £5.99 would ensure £1 per channel per month - and people would still get decent channel times. Plus with the expected arrival of Paramount or Hallmark on the 10th stream this would make the service much more attractive.

Of course we all know that TUTV is run by two ex-ITV Digital con-merchants, so they'll keep timesharing until each channel has 4 hours time each and TUTV offers "18 channels!"

Is TUTV really worth it? I currently have the basic Telewest cable package which includes Living and UK Gold, and neither offer anything to get excited about (unless you include Most Haunted Live, which I don't). I can't see TUTV surviving for very long - compared to all the new Freeview channels, it isn't offering anything worth setting up a subscription for IMO.

Sorry - but the two TUTV channels I use most are Eurosport and Bloomberg. I for one am annoyed that Bloomberg's transmission hours have been cut back recently.