ITV1 Astra Transponder Changes

Maybe its worth a call to Langage Science Park to find out "from the horses mouth" so to speak - 01752 333 333 - at least that number shouldn't divert to the duty office in Birmingham! (hopefully!)

I can categorically say that the WestCountry sub-regions will never appear as such. The reasons for this are:

(1) Cornwall will become independent, and not remain part of the UK. Redruth and Caradon Hill will only broadcast Celtic programming.

(2) The Plymouth area is to be sold to the Dick Cheney Corporation of Arizona. ITV are to lose their franchise to Fox News. The other three networks and all the DTT broadcasts in the area will be taken over for experimental RF work by QinetiQ.

(3) Torbay Conservative Association are to stage a coup and declare independence under the Duke of Normandy. Huntshaw Cross will therefore (as a volute farce) become part of the Channel Islands region, and will RBL Fremont Point via a Sabre aerial installed on Alderney.

(4) A new Wessex sub-region is to be established based on Stockland Hill, Weymouth and Harnham. Karl Tyler and Dorcus will be brought out of retirement to do the Weather.

(5) All that will remain of ITV WestCountry will be a chip shop in Barnstable. It is to be renamed as the Granada Chip and Kebab emporium, with Simon Shapps as skewerer-in-chief.

Ahem! BARNSTAPLE !!!

You won't want to show your face in North Devon now you've made that mistake! The locals won't be pleased!

So what percentage of Westcountry is being sold off to the W.I.?

Could it be that the WestCountry opts are actually performed (i.e. the switching takes place) in the little regional studio - or at the transmitter - and that there are currently no broadcast quality vision and sound circuits that can backhaul the feeds containing the opts to the centre at Plymouth, or to NTL in London.

If this were the case then to add them to the DSat service would be serious money - as you'd be fitting 3 more reverse vision circuits? (Presumably you couldn't use the contribution circuits for this if they existed)

This was the case with analogue, but aren't the sub-regions now on DTT? If this is the case then combination must be occouring at a signifcant NTL node, or at least at ITV Plymouth.

If there is feet-dragging going on over the ITV WC sub-regions, then is it possibly because there is only one region for advertising? Perhaps ITV are re-appraising the requirement for the WCTV news sub-regions, and that a consolidation will take place along-side what is effectivly an OfCom agreement to make HTV West/WCTV a dual-region?

Rgds/

If the splits are along advertising lines, surely there are more sub-regions to come? I'm sure TTTV's Chatton transmitter (Northumberland) gets different advertising to Pontop, it always used to.

Very good point about DTT - though ISTR there was some "oddity" about the Westcountry Mux 2 topology - maybe that was what it was...

Doing a bit of digging - here is the NTL abstract on the set-up of the D3/4 network - albeit from the days when ITV was based around regional playout.

"For example, Westcountry TV will start their service with a single region but with four SIP distribution feeds. A future option is to provide opt-out switching at the transmitter sites or alternately separate contribution feeds to the Plymouth studio."

It looks like DTT in Westcountry may have been set-up with some transmitter MPEG2 insertion capabilities - though I didn't think this was the case... (I thought ITV1 was statmuxed nowadays - though ISTR it was CBR originally)

Nail hit on head, noggin.

The backhaul costs are exactly the reason given in the initial whisper passed to me.

I think the switching actually still happens in Plympton; think back to the turn of the year, when Westcountry didn't have it's old teletext cut off until the staff returned after the holiday, yet the stations totally controlled from the South Bank lost theirs promptly on January 1st.

Ah - so Mr Strawsons Sheep and I are kind of both right.

The 4 sub-regional feeds are all present in Plymouth - where they are no doubt DTT encoded. However the cost of running 4 circuits back to NTL in London from Plymouth is too great? This contrasts with Meridian and Anglia sub-regions, where the news studio outputs are fed via circuits to London anyway, so the DSat encoding is far less expensive - just involving links from LNN/ITV Southern Playout to NTL in London?

There still seem to be a few (3 IIRC) test channels on the ITV transponders, which suggests there may be more sub-regions to come. Does anyone know which these might be? Yorkshire South has to be a contender.

BTW, I don't like some of the new labels the sub-regions have got. When flicking through the search and scan banner, 'ITV1 TT S' doesn't really stand out as much as 'ITV1 Tyne Tees' did... and why when they can manage 'ITV1 Meridian S' do they have to abbreviate 'ITV1 Mer W'*?

*Or it might be the other way round!

I'm only aware of TWO more DEFINITES to come in this current round. They are Yorkshire South and ONE more Grampian.

Then there's a grey area of some which MIGHT come, like a third Grampian and, from what's been said above, a third Tyne-Tees.

Then there's the DEFINITELY NOT category into which the three other Westcountrys, sadly, have to go.

Thanks for the info Nick.