But the soap will be cheap to buy in and achieves the purpose of filling a channel that will be ditched the moment another broadcaster buys the channel and secures channel 23.
It definitely has the feel of a channel created for
EPG switching purposes.
For the benefit of anyone who doesn't already understand how the move works. Imagine at the start you have...
No. 12: Channel a - owned by broadcaster x
No. 55: Channel b - owned by broadcaster y
Broadcaster x wants to sell their number 12 slot to y but can't due to rules. So x waits until a new slot becomes available (No. 42 in this example). They buy this slot and launch a new channel 'c'.
Then whilst following the rules they swap the positions of channels 'a' and 'c', resulting in...
No. 12: Channel c - owned by broadcaster x
No. 42: Channel a - owned by broadcaster x
No. 55: Channel b - owned by broadcaster y
With the first swap done channel 'c' is then sold off to broadcaster 'y'. This is then followed by broadcaster 'y' swapping the positions of their channels 'b' and 'c' to give.
No. 12: Channel b - owned by broadcaster y
No. 42: Channel a - owned by broadcaster x
No. 55: Channel c - owned by broadcaster y
With the EPG positions all switched channel 'c' has fulfilled its purpose. Chances are it'll be closed down and become a "channel 'a' +1" channel.
Similar past swaps have included the community channel, and more recently with the UKTV/Discovery split.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
