Seeing as both More 4 & ITV 4 were known about for a long while it seems as if news of any new channels coming to Freeview have gone quiet. I know there was a rumour of either a sport or movie channel coming to Freeview but talk of this seems to have dissapeared.
So are there any comign up within the next 6 months at all?
Well, there's the new children's channel from ITV arriving in February in the space vacated by ITV NC.
And Channel 4 may decide to use their expensively acquired space currently used for More4+1 for a new venture.
And there's Five.2, but despite Five's investment in TUTV i don't quite see where the space for that is coming from on DTT - surely something will have to give?
Well, there's the new children's channel from ITV arriving in February in the space vacated by ITV NC.
And Channel 4 may decide to use their expensively acquired space currently used for More4+1 for a new venture.
And there's Five.2, but despite Five's investment in TUTV i don't quite see where the space for that is coming from on DTT - surely something will have to give?
Quite a few then, not sure on Five.2, surely thats a "temporary name"
I think Freeview needs a movie channel as a selling ploy. I mean it hasn't even got TCM, that's on Top Up Tv. I don't think we'll see a sports one as Sky Sports News is on there, and live games aside you won't get any better than that.
As Turner Broadcasting owns CNN and TCM why not use there space for CNNi instead? I reckon it would give an extra UK Presence for them and with the loss of the ITV News Channel another news channel is needed as an extra news source.
Would it require an extra license or would they just use there current TCM license?
Well Channel 4 have said that they wish to bring FilmFour to Freeview some time in the new year - whether that be the full channel or some sort of "FilmFourFree" version, until they can sort out contracts with Sky. Obviously the channel would have to carry more advertising for this to be possible. But either way this would be quite an exciting proposition for Freeview viewers.
Five have said that they are planning to launch 2 new channels on Freeview, five.2 and five.3. Five.2 is likely to contain a Milkshake-branded kid's block, but last I heard they were undecided as to what to put on five.3 - ideas included a movies channel or a female-skewed lifestyle channel.
Obviously if five are allowed to use two Top-Up TV slots to launch its new channels, this could have quite dramatic consequences for Top-Up TV's line-up. 2006 looks as if it will be an interesting year for Freeview!
Well Channel 4 have said that they wish to bring FilmFour to Freeview some time in the new year - whether that be the full channel or some sort of "FilmFourFree" version, until they can sort out contracts with Sky.
I think they are doing little more than "considering" it actually - and it's just one of a number of things they are "considering" (another thing mentioned was C4US, for US imports). They've bought a slot but not decided what to put on it.
I expect More4+1 will remain on it until at least the Summer. They may use the slot for Big Brother Live over the summer and then launch a new channel around September, but who knows.
As for Five - I think the launch of "Five.2/Five.3" would probably have a far greater impact on Top Up TV than Freeview. TUTV currently broadcasts in 4.5 slots, and I think they could afford to lose half a days broadcasting, but anymore would seriously affect it.
I think Freeview deserves at least one good movie channel, sports channel, a decent childrens channel and UKTV Gold.
I see no point in getting TUTV, because you need to buy a box with a slot if you haven't already got one, there aren't that many boxes with slots in them and they are all pretty pricey, there is only one or two decent channels on there, and alot of them don't even transmit the hours they should! Plus £7.99? We have Sky in the house and for £2 more I could have Sky in my room.
I tried Top Up Tv purely for when E4 was on it and also Uk Gold. But Uk Gold doesn't broadcast 24 hours on TUTV, and the programmes I would want to watch on it are in the hours it's off air. And as we all know E4 is on Freeview now. I had right job cancelling Top Up Tv as well. I phoned up and the guy kept me on the phone asking me why I was cancelling and saying they wanted to keep me, he said he would put my membership on hold and ring me before charging me again in 2 months. I never got a phone call and they suddenly charged me after 2 months without warning so I cancelled the direct debit immediately.
I nearly got TUTV but when saw the price of it & the amount of channels compared to Sky I didn't bother. I don't watch much TV nowadays anyway so Freeview does just fine
