More changes at Top Up TV

Top Up TV have announced that further cutbacks to the old £7.99 / month 'linear' service will be made within the next few days. Discovery, Real Time and Cartoon Network will go, whilst Eurosport will broadcast different hours.

The new lineup will now be:

British Eurosport 07:30-10:00
UK Style 13:00-16:00
UK Gold 16:00-01:00
TCM 19:00-01:00

So they'll now be down to 4 channels timeshared into 15.5 hours. The website now confirms that new subscriptions to the linear service are not allowed (even though it's been patently obvious that that's been the case since September) yet it does not give a date for the ending of the old service alltogether (nor does it even confirm that it will happen at all).

Some of this space is inevitably going to be used for Setanta Sports, but whether the rest of it is going to be used for extra space on Anytime or whether it'll house FTA broadcasters isn't clear.

Is there actually anyone out there who has stayed with the £7.99 package? Is anyone who has planning on staying with it after this?

I pulled out as soon as they cut the hours. I am surprised people still have this service.

isn;t one of the channel own by Sky so there can make Sky1 FTA?

I would have little interest in Sky One, I really don't see the attraction of wall to wall Simpsons and the odd US drama!

Sky do own one of the multplexes, yes. It is this multiplex that they carry Sky Three on. They won't make Sky One FTA on Freeview as it always has been a subscription channel. Sky Three was their free alternative to it.

21.5 hours actually - not that that's acceptable! They'd be better off just offering one premium channel in the slot instead alongside Setanta IMO.

And although still months behind with their imports, Sky Three have been showing alot of Sky One's home grown programming within a week of transmission lately.

That's good. Yet, is it actually worth getting TopUpTV?

I've heard if you phone them up and complain, they'll reduce your sub to £3.99.

for £7 more you can get basics Sky and get hell of alot more!

If they get rid of

QVC
Ideal world
Bid TV
Price drop TV.

We could have 4 24 hour Top Up or Freeview channels of entertainment.
How on earth can freeview justify having these pieces of Cr@p on its services.

Agree - but it's never going to happen. I think Ideal World recently signed a contract meaning they'll remain until 2018.

QVC, Bid TV and Price Drop on the other hand could in theory go a bit sooner - IIRC they are contracted until 2010, so now ITV has bought that mux they may want to use the space themselves - for ITV Shop, ITV Bid and ITV Play 2 I'm sure!

Err - because these services paid to lease capacity from the people who have the licences to broadcast the Freeview multiplexes.

As far as the Mux owners are concerned, it isn't the quality of the programmes nor directly the number of viewers that concerns them, it is the amount that a channel provider will pay to be on the platform that matters. Sure - higher rating channels will push the sale of boxes - and thus increase the desirability of being on the platform, thus pushing up the cost of being on the platform (and thus the income to mux operators) - but the bottom line is money.

Shopping channels were willing to pay decent amounts to get onto Freeview, other channels weren't. (Notably the Turner CNN/TCM/Cartoon Network - or was it Boomerang? - proposal for the original Freeview line-up)

Also worth remembering that "Freeview" don't operate the muxes, they are just a loose marketing and co-operation entity.

The BBC have two muxes (1 and B) - which can't carry commercial programming. (Though the new licence fee settlement seems to imply that the Beeb will have to provide C4 with one video stream and 4 audio streams?) This is full and not available to commercial operations - though the BBC do provide space for The Community Channel.

ITV and Channel Four share a single mux (2) which they jointly operate via a 3rd company.

SDN used to own a single mux (A) - which carries Five and also used to carry TopUpTV stuff. I believe this may now be owned by ITV?

Crown Castle (now National Gride Wireless) own the other 2 multiplexes - and these provide outlets for Sky, UKTV etc. - as well as a couple of overspils from Mux 2.

I don't think Sky own a mux - I think they just agreed to take up a certain number of slots?