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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 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.

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Comments
Thursday, 20 September 2012
P
Peter Harrison
6:58 PM

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.

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Peter Harrison's 4 posts GB flag
P
Peter Harrison
7:17 PM

Scratch that - looking at where my aerial is pointed, it must be Winter Hill I'm having trouble with. Same problem though. Any thoughts?

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Peter Harrison's 4 posts GB flag
Friday, 21 September 2012
R
r.brettle
8:59 AM

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

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r.brettle's 1 post GB flag
K
Kev
1:24 PM

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: 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 Id like to assure you that we value your feedback highly.
Kind Regards
James Kelly
BBC Audience Services
www.bbc.co.uk/reception"

Regards Kev

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Kev's 14 posts GB flag
R
R Pallister
4:10 PM

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.

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R Pallister's 2 posts GB flag
J
Jonathan Currah
4:25 PM
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?

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Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:32 PM

R Pallister, Jonathan Currah: There was an "update" which said that only a few channels would move slots:

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.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
M
michael
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:46 PM

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?



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michael's 869 posts GB flag
Sunday, 23 September 2012
R
Ron Pallister
12:09 PM
Polegate

Thank you Dave. We await the (maybe!!), the final retune.

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Ron's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:17 PM

Ron Pallister: Final until the next time.

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