TV Home Forum

Ofcom’s new EPG rules

(July 2019)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
AS
Ash101
Quote:
This is how Ofcom's ruling will affect individual channels and platforms:

- Welsh language broadcaster S4C will have to be given a higher slot on Virgin Media's UK-wide channel list by January 2021, so that it appears among the first 24 slots on the channel list.
- Gaelic service BBC Alba will need to be found a higher slot on both Sky and Virgin by 2021, so that it can be seen in the top 24 slots across the UK.
- BBC Four, shunted down to channel 82 in Scotland following the launch of the BBC Scotland channel, will need to be moved to a new position on Freeview and YouView in Scotland - Ofcom has determined it must be located no lower than channel 24 on the channel list - this could mean that existing commercial channels are forced down the channel list, at least in Scotland.
- CBBC and CBeebies will have to be promoted on Sky's EPG. In a move that Broadcast estimates will cost Disney £300,000 a year, the two BBC children's channels will have to be moved from their current positions - 613 and 614 to at least 607 and 608 or higher. The easiest way to resolve this would be to swap the BBC's and Disney's services over - as Disney occupies a block of numbers between 607 and 612, or move the BBC services higher, which would also affect Nickelodeon, Boomerang and Cartoon Network.
- In Wales only, where S4C is the official fourth channel, Channel 4 must be moved to a more prominent position on Sky and Freesat, meaning that Channel 4 must appear within the first eight channels on the list - with channels 101-105 awarded to the five terrestrial broadcasters under existing prominence rules, Channel 4 will have to be assigned channel 106, 107 or 108 in Wales, a move that will impact on either Sky One, Sky Witness or Sky Atlantic on Sky and various BBC channels on Freesat.
- BBC News and BBC Parliament are safeguarded by needing to be located within the first eight slots in the news section of each TV platform - a criteria already been met by all platform operators. Additionally, BBC Scotland must be found in the top 24 channel slots in Scotland - all providers are currently meeting this criteria, so there will be no changes needed.


https://www.rxtvlog.com/2019/07/how-ofcom-is-changing-where-you-find.html


Seems a bit ridiculous to have BBC Alba high up across the UK - for example. I can’t quite work out how Sky are going to make this work. Which one of their own channels will they sacrifice from 106/107/108?
Last edited by Ash101 on 9 July 2019 10:48am
TM
tmf9
They have mistaken "UK Wide EPG" to mean Sky and Virgin Media when it actually refers to Virgin Media only. BBC Alba will not be moved up outside Scotland on Sky.

The Ofcom document contains this note at the bottom of page 37:
"... currently Virgin Media is the only major EPG provider that does not provide a fully regionalised EPG.
However, it does provide a slightly different variant of its UK-wide EPG for Scotland (where BBC Scotland is listed at a slot
reserved for BBC One HD across the rest of the UK). While we note this variation, for simplicity we refer to Virgin Media’s
EPG as UK-wide. "

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/154459/statement-on-changes-to-the-epg-code.pdf
CW
Charlie Wells Moderator
tmf9 posted:
They have mistaken "UK Wide EPG" to mean Sky and Virgin Media when it actually refers to Virgin Media only. BBC Alba will not be moved up outside Scotland on Sky.

The Ofcom document contains this note at the bottom of page 37:
"... currently Virgin Media is the only major EPG provider that does not provide a fully regionalised EPG.
However, it does provide a slightly different variant of its UK-wide EPG for Scotland (where BBC Scotland is listed at a slot
reserved for BBC One HD across the rest of the UK). While we note this variation, for simplicity we refer to Virgin Media’s
EPG as UK-wide. "

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/154459/statement-on-changes-to-the-epg-code.pdf

It sounds like having regionalised EPG for each of the nations would probably be the best solution for Virgin Media. If done then only one of the channels would need to be moved to a higher number, and then S4C and BBC Alba could then simply swap channel numbers depending on nation.

Newer posts