New Sky EPG

No, I meant I CAN actually see it happening, but only after analogue switch-off. Once most people get away from the idea that the "former" terrestrial channels HAVE to be on 101-105

Slightly off topic as its not really related to the Sky EPG - but this little piece is from this morning's (1st October) "On This Day in Broadcasting History" from the MHP Mailing List:

1998 (7 years ago)
Digital satellite television is officially launched in the UK, as Sky
Digital's equipment goes on sale for the first time. The set-top box and
satellite dish cost £199.99 (£159.99 for subscribers to Sky's analogue
service) provided you signed the Interactive Discount Contract, which
required that you leave your "digibox" connected to a telephone
line. If
you subscribed to Sky's channels at the same time, you were also
entitled to free installation of a "minidish" (a saving of £99.99).
There was also a one-off connection fee of £30 (£25 to existing
subscribers).

How prices have changed over the last 7 years, eh?

Is just a "tadge" off-topic, but I know what you mean JV. I paid that price for my Sky Analogue box (£149) and then again 2 years later for the first Digibox, but I did get a suscription discount for a while, and some "free months" when they cocked it up.

Having paid only £49 for my Sky+ box with free installation in May 2005, I agree that prices have definately changed, and for the better!

SDO claim to have the new channel line-up here.

Interesting. So to summarise...

100s - Entertainment
200s - Lifestyle & Culture
300-339 Movies
340-399 Music
400s - Sport
500-519 News
520-599 Documentaries
600s - Kids
700-759 Box Office
760-799 Religion
800s - not mentioned, but presumably Shopping, plus Gaming & Dating
900-970 - Adult
971-999 BBC regions, AD services and Sky customer channels.
0100s - Radio

I suppose the biggest surprise is the move of the music channels. Personally I think they should have moved the kids' channels above Sport, News and Docs.

It's also a shame to see that they've not sorted the issue of channels like UKTVG2+1 being nowhere near their original channels.

All in all, it'll certainly be an improvement, but it seems like they've missed a few opportunities to iron out some niggles.

It also seems the rumours about Sky News going to 401 and Sky Sports going to 109 were red herrings. (The latter of course I think we knew anyway!)

101-249 Entertainment
250-299 Lifestyle & Culture
300-339 Movies
340-399 Music
401-499 Sport
501-519 News
520-599 Documentries
601-629 Kids
630-699 Shopping
700-753 Sky Box Office
760-779 Religion
780-839 International
840-889 Gaming & Dating
890-899 Specialist
900-969 Adult
970-999 BBC Regions/Customer channel
0101-onwards Radio

Probably the most interesting thing is that Friendly TV, Live TV, Game Network and Get Lucky are moved to the adult section!

The upgrade with the new categories will start to go out on 24th October, with most of the channel numbers changing on 29th November, although some sections will be changing on other dates (Horror channel says it's moving on Nov 1st, for example)

Whilst I am not questioning the integrity of SDO, this alleged line-up seems like an awful waste of the opportunity to solve existing problems within the EPG. The +1 channels which are currently seperated from their "parent" have not been re-aligned, and there are few or no gaps for further channels from the "main players" in the Entertainment section (BBC, ITV, C4, UKTV, Flextech).

This is the biggest overhall of the EPG since it Sky Digital launched. It seems almost like a quick fix, with no thought for the future. Why (for example) allocate all the 400s to sport, yet squash all the entertainment channels into 101-180 with very few gaps (albeit with 70 numbers free after that)

Have Sky employed the idiot from Oftel/Ofcom who was responsible for the re-numbering of the telephone system over the last 15 years (the one responsible for London's codes changing 4 times). It certainly looks like it!

On the subject of the +1 channels, I agree that it's annoying to have them separated from their non-timeshift counterpart.

However, I could see it causing conflict if other channels have to be shifted down the EPG just so a rival can have a +1 channel.

Another point... Why has the tedious You TV not been moved to the Lifestyle section?

Well, as with the Freeview EPG changes they haven't gone for the radical overhaul which in the long run would have been better, but the new sections make sense!

Question about Sky Box Office - do you actually use the channel numbers, I always assumed it be some kind of interactive operations.

Also, quite surprised the radio channels are 01xx, rather than 10xx.


It looks like the main changes come from taking out the gaps and moving some channels to new sections, but little room is left for further developments, especially possible new channels from the main companies and, as someone said, room for +1 channels currently at the end of the entertainment section. Notice ITV News is still behind the likes of S4C~2 in the news section!


While it wouldn't be fair for channels such as Living and UKTV G2 to be put lower down to make room for a possible ITV5, ITV6 etc, I do think more consideration is required. The EPG should basically be based on ratings, with channels with higher ratings being higher up the EPG.

However, it should also be arranged so families of channels are together, like UKTV, ITV and E4/More4 etc. So basically, the average of the combined ratings of each family of channels should be taken into consideration when organising the EPG!

But don't they show some adult material at night as well?

If the radio stations were on 10xx, the box wouldn't know what to do when you pushed 101 - should it go to BBC1, or wait for another digit? It could wait for a second or two, like some TVs, but it bugs me when they do that. Having the radio stations start with 0 means the box knows from the first digit that you're after a radio station (and it puts up the appropriate icon while it waits for the rest of the digits).

David

The same can also be said for the radio section, with channels such as the BBC's scattered allover the place, 5 Live Sports Extra nowhere near 5 Live, plus foreign stations next to religion, next to hard rock etc.

I would have thought a seperate EPG would be a good addition for radio, where when pressing whatever number radio is on, another selection of options appear spliting the stations into categories