Freeview: Freeview channel numbers change on September 19th 2012 | Freeview news
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Freeview channel numbers change on September 19th 2012

Following a consultation earlier in the year, from lunchtime on Wednesday 19th September, you will have to retune to get the new numbers allocated to some Freeview channels; in particular those used for News, Adult, Children and high definition services.

Following a consultation earlier in the year, from lunchtime on
Published on by on UK Free TV
DMOL (DTT Multiplex Operators Ltd), the company that manages the channel numbers used on Freeview, have decided to make some changes to the allocations to allow the Freeview platform to grow over the next three to five years.

The changes will happen from lunchtime on Wednesday 19th September 2012. In summary the changes are:

  • Adult channels move to 171-198
  • News channels move to 131-150
  • Children's move to 121-130
    Proposed changes to the News and Children's genres will be put on hold pending the outcome of an appeal by Sky. All other changes will continue as planned on 19 September 2012.
  • HD channels move to 101-120
  • General entertainment channels now have 1-99
  • Text services move to 200-224
  • MHEG services move to 225-299
  • Interactive channels stay on 300-320
  • IPTV channels move to 400-499
  • Radio stays at 700-750
  • Manufacturer allocation remains 800-899


Adult channels move to 171-198

The "adult" channels on Freeview move up from 92-99 to start from 171. Channel 170 and 199 will be "bookend" pages to note the presence of the adult channels for those who flick up and down the channels.

171 Television X; 172 smileTV2, 173 smileTV3, 174 Babestn, 175 PARTY, 176 Blue, 177 Babestn2, 178 Playboy.

News channels move to 131-150

131 BBC NEWS, 132 BBC Parliament, 133 Sky News, 134 Al Jazeera 6-8, 135 Al Jazeera Eng, 136 Russia Today, 137 Community. Proposed changes to the News genre will be put on hold pending the outcome of an appeal by Sky. All other changes will continue as planned on 19 September 2012.

Children's move to 121-130

121 CBBC; 122 CBeebies, 123 CITV. Children's genre will be put on hold pending the outcome of an appeal by Sky. All other changes will continue as planned on 19 September 2012.

HD channels move to 101-120

The "normal" order of channels is restored to HD:

101 BBC One HD; 102 BBC HD [or BBC TWO HD]; 103 ITV1 HD or STV HD; 104 Channel 4 HD; 105 S4C Cirlun.

Note that S4C Cirlun is due to close at the end of the year. BBC TWO HD is planned to replace the BBC HD channel at some point in 2012.

General entertainment channels now have 1-99

There will be twice as many channel numbers now for "general entertainment", allocated on a first-come first-served basis. Most channels do not move numbers, except

48 Food Network; 49 The Jewellery Channel.

Channel 8 is reserved for the Local TV services in England and Northern Ireland, 45 for Local TV in Scotland and Wales.

100 is a "Navigation page", but only on Freeview HD.

Text services move to 200-224

200 BBC Red Button; 201 Teletext Holidays; 202 Rabbit; 203 Gay Rabbit; 204 1-2-1 Dating; 205 Mail Travel; 206 Sky Text.

MHEG services move to 225-299

225 VISION; 226 CCTV; 227 Sports Tonight; 228 Connect 1; 229 Connect 2; 230 Connect 3; 231 Racing TV; 232 The Space.

Interactive channels stay on 300-320

301 301; 302 302; 303 301 HD; 304 Channel 0; 305 TUTV Anytime 1; 306 TUTV Anytime 3; 307 TUTV Anytime 5; 208 TUTV Anytime 6.

IPTV channels move to 400-499

These will be used in future.

Radio stays at 700-750

No changes to radio.

Manufacturer allocation remains 800-899

No changes to manufacturer allocation.





Your comments: most recent posts are at the bottom

firstFirst comments prevEarlier comments  ◊ 

Your comments are always welcome. Please use the form below to add your thoughts or questions to this page. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

Peter Harrison
Thursday 20 September 2012 6:58PM
I'm connected to Storeton (Wirral) and following the change seem to have lost the HD channels (very weak signal on chs 50+, no sign of them on chs 101+) Anyone know whether this is likely to be a temporary thing while it shakes itself down or am I stuffed permanently?

Cheers.
Peter Harrison
Thursday 20 September 2012 7:17PM
Scratch that - looking at where my aerial is pointed, it must be Winter Hill I'm having trouble with. Same problem though. Any thoughts?
r.brettle
Friday 21 September 2012 8:59AM
I have lost all TV The screen shows no signal. I was on Freeview. How do I retune? At the moment my segam box shows a word I cannot read and the button I normally press will not move it on to show the clock, normally the prerequisite for going to a channel
Kev
Friday 21 September 2012 1:24PM
For 3View users who have been following this --- I had a reply from the BBC today.

Quote:""Thanks for contacting the BBC regarding your Freeview reception.
I forwarded your correspondence to our engineers who have asked that I pass on the following:
"These changes would be in line with the D Book, with all manufacturers aware of these changes.
Normally a software download by the manufacturer would resolve these issues, but as 3View is no longer trading this will be difficult to achieve.
However,further news is available at: www.3viewpvr.info link icon 3view HD PVR: News
It might also be useful to talk to your retailer with regard to this problem."
(Please note we are not responsible for the content of any non-BBC websites.)
I hope this information helps to clarify the situation and I'm grateful to you for taking the time to raise your concerns with us and I’d like to assure you that we value your feedback highly.
Kind Regards
James Kelly
BBC Audience Services
www.bbc.co.uk/reception"

Regards Kev
R Pallister
Friday 21 September 2012 4:10PM
After rescanning some channel numbers have not changed for our Hastings TX. BBC HD is still 50 and all other HD numbers are still in 50s but Yesterday and Dave have swapped numbers.
Jonathan Currah
Friday 21 September 2012 4:25PM Tonbridge
I have just done a retune and nothing seems to have changed HD still in 50s etc. I receive from Bluebell Hill.
Can you explain?
Dave Lindsay
Friday 21 September 2012 4:32PM
R Pallister, Jonathan Currah: There was an "update" which said that only a few channels would move slots:

www.ukfree.tv link icon Updated - changes to Freeview channel numbers this week on September 19th 2012 | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice

There may be a second retune, perhaps next month, dependent on the outcome of the appeal by two channels to their change of logical channel number.
michael
Friday 21 September 2012 8:46PM
We all LOVE retunes. Please Mr Ofcom, may we have a random re-arrangement of channels every week or so, preferably without pre-notification, so that we may delay the onset of Alzheimers with constant retune adventures?

Ron Pallister
Sunday 23 September 2012 12:09PM Polegate
Thank you Dave. We await the (maybe!!), the final retune.
Dave Lindsay
Sunday 23 September 2012 12:17PM
Ron Pallister: Final until the next time.
Lizzy Thorn
Thursday 27 September 2012 10:41AM Saltburn-by-the-sea
Why are some freeview channels now too weak to watch and will the signals be boosted I live in north yorks.
leslie rain er
Saturday 6 October 2012 11:37PM Skegness
we have free view in bed room and get a good reception not only that we did not have to do another serch for channels
KMJ,Derby
Sunday 7 October 2012 9:36AM
Lizzy Thorn: All the Freeview transmitters in your region are currently working at full power as planned. You are predicted to be able to receive signals from Bilsdale, Chatton and Pontop Pike, it is possible that you have not stored all the available channels from the same transmitter, which should be the one to which your aerial is pointing. It might be necessary to do a manual tune on the correct frequencies, after first clearing the channel list, in order to receive the correct set of channels. For Bilsdale (aerial pointing SSW) the frequencies are C26, C29, C43, C46, C40, plus C23(HD). For Pontop Pike (aerial points WNW) they are C58, C54, C50, C59, C55 plus C49(HD). If by any chance your aerial points NW to Chatton then use C45, C42, C41, C44, C47 and for HD if required, C39+. Note that if you receive from Bilsdale the correct aerial group is now group K. If you still have a group A aerial, often distinguished by a red stopper in the end of the boom, you could struggle to receive the COM muxes. Pontop Pike and Chatton both currently use frequencies within their respective former analogue aerial groups.
G.S.CLARKE
Saturday 27 October 2012 1:55PM
SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME. I LIVE IN SHREWSBURY WEST MIDLANDS AND UNTIL ABOUT 3/4 DAYS AGO I WAS RECEIVING/RECORDING ANY/ALL PROGRAMMES ON CHANNEL 19 - "YESTERDAYS".
NOW ALL I GET IS A BLANK SCREEN AND "NO SIGNAL".
I HAVE NOT TOUCHED MY SETTINGS AT ALL . SIMPLY, CHANNEL 19 HAS GONE AWOL.
WHAT HAS GONE WRONG ???
jb38
Saturday 27 October 2012 9:21PM
G.S.CLARKE: I already replied to the earlier posting you made under the heading of "Updated - changes to Freeview channel numbers this week on September 19th 2012", and in which basically asked the same question.

What I wondered was whether or not you can view ITV4 (24) or Film4 (15)? as these two programmes are on the same mux transmitter as Yesterday whereas Dave is broadcast on different transmitter, and with this being why one programme is OK and the other isn't, Yesterday (19) being on COM6 mux Ch47 and with Dave (12) being on COM5 mux Ch44, however should you be able to receive ITV4 & Film 4 but still nothing on Yesterday (19) then carry out a "first time installation" on your TV or box, or if this is not an option then a "factory reset / default setting", checking if Yesterday has returned after completion.

If though on the other hand you cannot receive these programmes then you should carry out a signal strength check on the muxes concerned, this done by going into the tuning menu / manual tune and entering Mux Ch47, but do "NOT" press scan or search, as on most equipment as soon as the channel number is entered the signal strength / and quality of will appear, make a note of whatever it is and try the same test on mux Ch44, likewise noting the indication then comparing the two, as the latter reading may well be higher.

Further info dependant on findings.



Melonie Joseph
Monday 29 October 2012 7:26PM
how do you get a video player to tune if th frequency is coming though on the same place as you digi freeview box please can you help how i can change setttings cheers melonie Joseph
KMJ,Derby
Monday 29 October 2012 8:14PM
Melonie Joseph: If you need to change the frequency of the RF modulator in your video player, depending on how old it is. On old equipment there will probably be a screw accessed by a small hole in the rear or base of the video player which can be adjusted over a (short) range of UHF channels, possibly only offering C34 to C44 for example. On more recent equipment you need to go into the menu and look for "settings" or "set up" where you should find an option to change the RF frequency to any spare channel from C21 to C69.
John Gallard
Thursday 8 November 2012 5:26PM
Since retuning the selection of channels is a nightmare. BBC1 used to be 1, BBC2 2, ITV 3, C4 4 C5 ..5 and were all next to each other in the guide but now they are all over the place!
Dave Lindsay
Thursday 8 November 2012 7:01PM
John Gallard: The usual cause of the services not taking up their designated logical channel numbers is because the country has not been set to UK/GB.

The only other thing that I can think is if you are in Northern Ireland where you may be bale to pick up Saorview from the Republic and that this is your cause of difficulty. If so, then perhaps avoiding having the aerial plugged in during the part of the scan that the Saorview signal is on might work. Knowledge of your location may help if this could be a possible issue.
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