I amended my post to say that no
SINGLE
broadcaster is dictating the order on the Sky
EPG. It's decided by strict rules.
What advantage is it for someone to change it on their STB? If they see a trailer advertising something on 'Discovery History Sky Ch 522', do they then have to run a mental algorithm to remember how they determined channel positions, or just leave it where it was originally? I know which I'd rather do.
As for Freeview: I really can't see much difference between pressing '8' rather than '80' for BBC News. If that's the basis of your problem with the EPG then I suspect that you have bigger issues.
Now come on, calm down it's only the poxy telly. I don't have 'issues' with the EPG, but I do like to rationalise it to my own preferences. I've deleted all the subscription channels, p0rno stuff, and shopping gunk,, because it just gets in the way. I watch a fair amount of BBC News, so it makes sense to have a single button selection for it
It's of benefit to the broadcasters to have a standard EPG for each platform. For example 'Yesterday' is promoted as being on Freeview Ch 12 (even on trailers shown on Sky & Virgin), but it's no use to them if they have to add the caveat "...unless you've tinkered with your channel listing, in which case it could be anywhere, or nowhere!"
Fine, as I say have a default EPG by all means, and as I also said most would leave it at that, but to be forced to have it, is indicative of the one size fits all/lowest common denominator that gets applied to everything now.