Any New Freeview Channels on the Way?

fender

Are there any new channels coming?

Thanks.

JCourierPA

Hi fender if you visit the freeview website (google it) you put in your post code and it will tell you a list of channels that are coming to freeview soon or with the switch over. I was surprised to see we can get a few more soon

fender

Tried your suggestion but it mentions nothing on new channels.

Does anybody else know what is coming next?

Thanks.

:money::money::money:

mrweeble

In a nutshell, all the capacity on Digital Terrestrial has been allocated until after the digital switch, when some more capacity may be allocated by Ofcom. Therefore a new channel can only launch in "dead man's shoes", e.g. most recently Virgin 1 took over the space from FTN and Dave took over the space of UKTV BrightIdeas and the evening capacity of UKTV History.

Recently Disney decided to close ABC1 so they may sell that on to someone to launch a channel (or to extend an existing channel's hours - my guess being Virgin Media may bid for it to make Virgin 1 a 24 hour service)

BSkyB wants to take its channels (Sky Three, Sky News and Sky Sports News) off Freeview to launch another Top Up TV type service ("Sky Picnic"), so we will actually be getting less channels soon rather than more!

There is also spare capacity in some of the major channel's down time, eg FilmFour between 3am to 3pm, however don't expect anything too exciting there as it is hard to make money in the mornings, so it will either remain empty or have something like tele-shopping/quiz channels on it

The final thing to mention is that Bid TV and Pricedrop TV are also owned by Virgin Media who may at some point want to swap them for entertainment channels to boost the Virgin Media brand, Setanta Sports News (a VM co-production) has been mentioned on some forums as possible channel coming to Freeview in this space as the sports news channel niche will become vacant with the dropping of Sky Sports News.

On other platforms, Cable and Satellite capacity is not such a problem so there will be many more launches. Of note may be Freesat (see http://www.freesat.co.uk/), which is not a channel, but a new platform from the BBC and ITV, it plans to do for Satellite TV what Freeview did for terrestrial. This may spur more operators to launch free-to-air satellite channels. A list of channels that are mooted to launch on all platforms is available on digital spy http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/upcoming/ which may be useful.

Hope this helps

derrick

DAVE started this/last week, channel 19, from what I can see, it is a load of junk/repeats.

adam2484

DAVE is amazing. The top gear repeats are so old i can't even remember them!!!

topmum

We LOVE Dave - all our fave programmes on one channel :j

Potsdamerplatz

I'm sorry but the 2 new channels mentioned above "DAVE" and "VIRGIN 1" are both complete rubbish as is the other late-night "NUTS-TV" - this is dumbed-down TV for today's brain-dead 20 somethings.

It's a disgrace that the UK HISTORY CHANNEL was taken off air at 6pm to make way for this kind of rubbish. :mad:

Also "FIVE US" is getting pretty tedious with its endless repeats of the CSI franchise and all the other mediocre US cop/detective dramas which have been done to death.

Why don't the BBC start a new freeview channel for classic repeats of their comedy sitcoms such as Dad's Army, Porridge, Keeping Up Appearances, One Foot In The Grave, Fawly Towers, Blackadder, Only Fools And Horses etc. - I'm sure it would be a massive hit.

Helix

Potsdamerplatz wrote: »

Why don't the BBC start a new freeview channel for classic repeats of their comedy sitcoms such as Dad's Army, Porridge, Keeping Up Appearances, One Foot In The Grave, Fawly Towers, Blackadder, Only Fools And Horses etc. - I'm sure it would be a massive hit.

They already have UKTV Gold (which BBC Worldwide owns half of with Virgin Media) which shows all of these. Maybe if Dave (which they also own) is successful they might think about putting UKTV Gold on Freeview.

topmum

Potsdamerplatz wrote: »

I'm sorry but the 2 new channels mentioned above "DAVE" and "VIRGIN 1" are both complete rubbish as is the other late-night "NUTS-TV" - this is dumbed-down TV for today's brain-dead 20 somethings.

Now should i flattered you think I am a 20 something?

Lots of love from a braindead Topmum :rotfl:

Smickan

Helix wrote: »

They already have UKTV Gold (which BBC Worldwide owns half of with Virgin Media) which shows all of these. Maybe if Dave (which they also own) is successful they might think about putting UKTV Gold on Freeview.

I love Dave (And e4 and ITV - if they put UK Gold on Freeview I'd never have to leave my room again :rotfl:)