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Major Freeview EPG revamp to go ahead after appeals rejected

Fresh retune booked for 17 October

DMOL, the company maintaining the Freeview EPG and the order of stations listed within it, has thrown out two appeals made against the channel listing revamp it proposed in July.

The channel number changes were due to be implemented in a retune that went through on 19 September. Thanks to two separate appeals against the plan - made by Sky and an “adult channel provider” unwilling to be identified in public, respectively - the rejig was only partially implemented.

Originally mooted in March and confirmed with minor changes in July, the channel revamp would have seen programme genres more evenly spread throughout the 700-odd channels pegged for TV and related uses rather than have them all crammed in below 120.

“Both appeals have been considered in accordance with DMOL policy,” the EPG overseer said today.

“Having independently reviewed the evidence put forward, the chair of DMOL does not consider that either party has presented a sufficiently compelling case that the moves should not go ahead.

“The original decisions will therefore stand.”

Consequently, the changes to the HD and Adult channel bands will now be implemented on 17 October.

HD channels will then start at 101 - they currently begin at 50, and the adult selection will move from channels 91 and up to 171.

Other proposed changes will continue to be delayed. Children’s channels and News stations were due to move to 121 and 131, respectively, but these will now be shifted “on the Wednesday that follows 16 weeks after Logical Channel Number (LCN) 65 is allocated, ie. when the General Entertainment genre nears full capacity”.

In the event of inclement weather - or that the move date falls during a change freeze period - then “the move will take effect on the Wednesday that follows the end of the change freeze”, DMOL said. ®

Re: Sounds great...

but does it do the channel rejig for you? MY Fox T2 drops all my serieslink recordings on a retune - wasn't cheap either.

Getting quite fed up - my PC needs upgrades, my phone now needs upgrades, my consoles now need upgrades and now MY GODDAMN TV NEEDS UPGRADES!

I'm waiting for my shoes to tell me they need a software upgtrade to stop squeaking.

16
0

Re: Renumbering

Depending on your PVR it loses serieslink recording stuff - so if you have a dozen or so links to programmes it LOSES THEM ALL and then you need to enter them all back in - by hand.

If you just have a dumb Freeview box no biggie, but PVRs are more of an issue, and I for one am getting fed up with it.

7
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It would be nice if the BBC actaully started their programs at the listed times.

I really don't want to see their self promoting crud anymore - especially when it's taking up valuable disk space. That's is all.

7
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Please Stop it.

I can't take those changes anymore.

The more I read about it, the more I want to never turn on a TV again

7
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Re: It would be nice if the BBC actaully started their programs at the listed times.

I watch BBC programmes only on iPlayer now, for just this reason. No pompous, plummy "oh, we're the BBC, we do all this stuff, aren't you all so grateful, you plebs" ads, no cutting off the end of the programme I've recorded because they started five minutes late (or, just to keep us on our toes, cutting off the beginning because they started two minutes early), no squeezing down the credits so you can't read them (so what's the point of showing them?), no cutting into your train of thought after a good programme with fake, cheery ads (sorry, trailers, sorry, TRAILs) for the next programme you're never going to see because you're watching a recording, or for some rubbishy programme next week you've no intention of watching, no prancing cartoon character jumping up right at the cliffhanger moment of a Doctor Who programme to advertise (sorry, TRAIL) the next programme.

Gah.

Channel 4 do it all *so* much more tastefully. They don't need to squeeze the credits because the credits are narrow anyway. You feel the continuity announcers are real people, and they talk about "filums". You know the programmes won't be exactly at the listed times because they show ads (real, commercial ones), which is forgiveable. Can't think of much else to say, really, they just don't get in the way or up my nose like the BBC.

5
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