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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
Wednesday, 19 September 2012
M
michael
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:17 PM

Store ARGOS, delete all non-shopping channels :-)

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michael's 869 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:19 PM

Mark: Try doing a manual tune on UHF channel 58. For some receivers the user needs to tell them which mode is being used.

DVB-T is what standard definition is in and DVB-T2 are HD broadcasts so if there is such a setting for the manual tuning function, then make sure it is set to the latter before scanning on C58.

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

10:22 PM

Mark: Dave is, of course, right. I am in
flippant mode, as you will have surmised ...

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michael's 869 posts GB flag
T
Tricia Mowat Slater
10:25 PM

Just done what I was told tonight and did an automatic search to update my Freeview channels (19 Sept). I have now lost all recordings that are waiting to be viewed someday. How do I get them back. They are listed but I only get a black screen. I have an HDMI box.

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Tricia Mowat Slater's 1 post GB flag
M
Mark
10:39 PM

Mike - I was about to devote my life to QVC, the £700 vacuum cleaner was calling my name!

Dave - thanks for this. I have tried manually adding C58 but no joy. Cannot find an option to change the mode though, so will find the manual and see if this is possible

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Mark's 2 posts GB flag
Thursday, 20 September 2012
J
Jon Browne
12:26 PM
Coalville

I have lost Film4 since the retune.

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Jon Browne's 2 posts GB flag
Jon's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
B
bernard hunt
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:27 PM

Does anyone know why SKY is delaying the allocation of 101-199 on the new freeview epg ? Or are they just being 'bloody-minded' and their appeal will fail anyway after delaying the inevitable ?

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bernard hunt's 25 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

12:39 PM

bernard hunt: According to report, Sky are unhappy that the new channel will require three digits, rather than two to enter directly.

IMHO this is a bit rich, given that Sky News (and indeed all TV channels) is three digits on Sky - 501 - and Sky still have not put their news channel on Freesat (or indeed Challenge and PICK TV which are transmitted free-to-air on satellite).

DMOL point out that if you use CH+ and CH- the order of the channels remains the same with the new numbering scheme.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
C
Charles Pottins
3:35 PM

Just discovered today that I cannot access some of the channels I used to view and their numbers are declared invalid. Having trouble finding the new numbers if they have been allocated. Brilliant. Screw the viewing public seems to be your motto.

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Charles Pottins's 1 post GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

3:55 PM

Charles Pottins: if you do a "first time" install (sometimes called factory settings) you will find everything where it is supposed to be.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
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