Category: Terrestrial TV

Here you can find posts relating to terrestrial TV platforms (via aerial), such as Freeview in the United Kingdom, and Soarview in the Republic of Ireland.

Premiere League Scraps PPV

The English Premier League has scrapped the pay per view (PPV) set up for additional football matches that would not otherwise be shown on TV, but are being made available due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Most additional matches will now be shown on Sky Sports or BT Sport. A notable exception is Fulham v Everton which will be shown on the BBC, and will kick-off at 12pm on the 22nd of November.

The PPV service was criticised for being too expensive. Some clubs also criticised the cost, with Newcastle United suggesting a much lower £4.99 per match fee.

The situation will be reviewed in the new year, and highlights will continue to be available on the BBC’s Match of the Day programme.

Note: This story now falls outside of the scope for news articles on All About Digital TV, but has been included as a continuation of previous stories.

That’s TV Goes Festive

That’s TV, a network of 20 local and regional TV stations has temporarily become That’s Christmas. The seasonal service is offering a festive mix of classic drama and music.

That’s TV has recently become a music led service, maintaining local news and information during weeks, albeit in reduce amounts compared to when the channel first launched. Music is from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, with the channel found in some areas on Freeview, either on channel number 7 or 8.

This format appears to be successful, as in October 2020, the combined network attracted 4 million viewers. This is it’s highest ever reach, with the channel currently the most popular music based TV channel in the UK.

Major Freeview Channel Number Changes

To allow for BBC Four to move to channel number 24 in Scotland, as per Ofcom requirements, many channels are about to change channel number.

On the 4th November (2020), all channels currently with a number between 24 and 54 inclusive, will move down 1 slot. Affected channels include ITV4 which moves from 24 to 25, and E4 +1, which moves from 28 to 29.

Additionally, as of 27th October, some channels move to a higher number. ITV Be +1 makes the highest move, from 97 to 57. Horror Channel moves from 70 to 68, which Quest +1 and Quest Red +1 also moving to 69 and 70 respectively (from 76 and 72).

As no channels are changing frequency, a re-tuned is not automatically required, although some receivers may need a full or partial re-tune to update the channel numbers.

ITV’s The Voice Resumes

Signing competition The Voice, one of many high profile shows to stop filming due to Covid-19, is making its return on the 3rd October (2020).

The entire series so far is being made available on catch-up service ITV Hub, with a special catch-up show to air ahead of the semi-final and final, later this month on ITV.

The semi-final and final will be pre-recorded in the coming weeks, and will feature a virtual audience.

BBC Red Button Service to Continue

The BBC will now continue the text based Red Button information service. However, there will be further reductions in the content available.

From November 2020, Lottery results will no longer be available on the Red Button. From mid 2021, English regional sport pages and individual sports’ headlines (except football and those on the main sport pages) will be removed. National sport indexes for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland & Wales, will be retained alongside all sport fixtures and results.

Additionally, the BBC News & BBC Sport connected TV apps with be withdrawn before the end of the year, as will the lottery and weather pages on connected TVs. Video content on these apps will be moved to the iPlayer.

GB News to Challenge Sky and BBC

Andrew Neil, a former BBC journalist and broadcaster, is to launch a new 24 hour news channel called GB News. The channel will rival long established BBC News and Sky News, and will be on all major platforms, although exact platform availability is yet to be revealed.

Andrew Neil has been appointed chairman, and will also host a flagship programme. The management team will also include Angelos Frangopoulos (ex Sky Australia) and John McAndrew (ex Sky News).

Discovery has been named as the lead investor of the channel, which is expected to launch in 2021.

BBC Sounds App Now on Freeview Play

The BBC Sounds app, allowing users to access radio, podcasts, and playlists from the BBC, is now available on some Freeview Play devices.

Humax have confirmed that the FVP-4000T and FVP-5000T Freeview Play recorders can access the app via the Explore Freeview Play interface, which can be found on channel 100 when the device is connected to the internet.

It has not been confirmed if other Humax devices, or devices from other manufacturers, can access the app.

BBC Remains Most Used Media Organisation

According to the BBC’s annual report from April 2019 to March 2020, the BBC is still the most used media organisation in the UK, with 41 million users a day.

90% of the population use the BBC each week, and this grew to 94% in March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The BBC iPlayer recorded a record 4.8 billion requests to stream programmes during the period covered by the report.

Sky Arts Now on Freeview

As previously reported, Sky Arts has now gone free-to-air. The channel is available on Sky, Freesat, Freeview, and Virgin Media, and shows arts and culture based programmes.

Sky Arts is now available on Freeview channel 11, and has achieved a prominent position on the EPG due to number swapping with other Sky owned channels.

This means that the channel is close to channels from public service broadcasters BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5, who already show arts and culture based programmes.

All September Premier League Matches to Be Televised

With Covid-19 still forcing matches to be played behind closed doors, it has been confirmed that all September Premier League football matches will be shown live on TV.

Sky and BT Sport had already selected to show 17 matches, with a further 11 to also now be shown. Of these, Sky will show a further six, BT Sport will show a further three, with Amazon Prime and the BBC to show one each.

The BBC have confirmed that they will be showing Leicester City’s home fixture against Burnley, on 20th September (2020) with kick-off at 7pm.

It has not been confirmed if more Championship, League 1, and League 2 games will be televised.