What channels do you want off Freeview in 2013?
 

I think:

All shopping channels
All adult channels
Community Channel (is that still there?)
VIVA and 4Music (should be replaced with channels that actually play music)
All text services
All dating channels
All +1s

Should go. There would be more space for decent channels then.

I would not wish to dictate the removal of a channel just because I don't like it, others my like it so that would be unfair to them.

If I don't like a channel I delete it from the EPG; job done.

Very true point but I think some people feel cheated with plus 1 channels and home shopping and want them gone so that in theory other 'real' channels replace them. Or at least that is my understanding

Here's why I like some of those channels.

Community Channel has a BSL Zone. and Community Channel is the UK's only digital television station dedicated to highlighting issues from the community, voluntary and charitable sector, both locally and internationally. Compare BBC Red Button page 1050.[/b]

PSB text services are the only non-subtitle screen text services availabe to households without internet access: my brother checked the BBC Red Button Travel Pages pages for me before I left his place on 2nd January to come home: it was instant, there when we wanted it and saved making a phone call.

All +1s serve a purpose for those in residential care whose mealtimes coincide with their desiered live viewing.

So all three of these categories have a function for those who do not inhabit the www and Player/ PVR worlds.

I'd rather them gone so we can have a better picture quality than the crap we've got now on Freeview. It's appalling.

Anyway, my wishes and the OP's wishes wont come true so it's a bit of a pointless thread really.

I don't care how many shopping and adult channels there are as long as we could have about 20 HD CHANNELS.

Seems a fair trade off.

It would still be utter crap if all those HD channels were taken with shopping channels though.

Anyway, given freeviews costs I doubt there'll be too many commercial entertainment channels going HD anytime soon sadly.

The shopping, adult and dating channels are clogging up a lot of bandwidth. And what about all the channels that are only on for a few hours a day? Couldn't the remaining hours be used for timesharing with another channel? It's one thing having all the shopping channels on satellite as there's more space but they have no place on Freeview where bandwidth is limited.

You could try asking the DTT License holders for channels on your personal delete list how profitable their services are. http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/tv-bro...ent-licensees: after all they wouldn't apply to have their licenses renewed if they weren't economically viable.

They do timeshare. Otherwise they would be paying for a 24 hour slot for no good reason.

The commercial multiplexes cram in as many channels as they can into the available bandwidth. Obviously they can get more income from selling 13 streams than they could from selling 8 or 9 higher resolution streams. That brings in more cash for the multiplex operator. Assuming that the multiplex operators are setting the price at a level that covers their operating cost, if they were to sell higher resolution streams instead, the cost to the broadcaster would be higher. It's probably safe to assume that the broadcasters don't actually want to pay more.

Removing red button dating channels would only release enough bandwidth to add other red button services or maybe audio streams.

Adult channels are using the bandwidth nobody else wants. Many broadcasters now have teleshopping overnight, there just aren't any quality broadcasters lining up to take this space. It doesn't make sense to remove these channels, they contribute to multiplex costs. If they are removed the daytime broadcasters would be forced to buy 24 hour slots to cover the operating costs of the multiplex operator, the daytime broadcaster may not be able to afford the additional costs and have to stop using freeview.

Just think of these services as subsidising the services you actually want to see on freeview, that is what they are doing. If you don't want the channels to show up, delete them.

Indeed. I think it's easy for people to get confused by the way timesharing is organised these days. It was easier to see the timeshares when they actually shared the same video and audio streams as the BBC still do with their timeshares.

Yes, I'm fully aware of the reasons for such sub standard and appalling picture quality on the Com muxes, but I certainly don't have to like it. :)

I think everyone would prefer better picture quality. It's unlikely to happen in 2013. :p

Will it happen in 2014?

Hear! Hear!

1 or 2 new HD muxes may launch covering 63% of the population.
With regards the COM Muxes, they will shoot themselves in the foot if they continue to squeeze more services in. On the otherhand, with 700 MHz clearance looming later in the decade, perhaps they're trying to make as much money as they can now...

I'd go for the removal of the shopping, gambling and slapper channels plus the Putin propaganda channel (Russia Today).

Not on the existing multiplexes but, as mentioned by a516, there may be additional multiplexes to promote the use of DVB-T2. This will mean more HD channels and possibly additional SD channels. The problem is that when the majority of the population has been persuaded to convert to DVB-T2, 700 MHz band clearance will mean fewer UHF channels are available, so fewer multiplexes. If the existing channels are all crammed onto fewer multiplexes running DVB-T2, the picture quality will be back to how it is now.

Progress. :rolleyes:

True, but they also don't want the competition, hence why the terrestrials took as many slots as they could, they were trying to limit the competition.

Though I'm guessing they are not too worried about the competition anymore, since it is nothing but shopping and sofa-tart channels.

Do the people who bash Russia today actually watch it? It offers news from a different perspective, which is a good thing.

It's also worth checking out for the kiesr report.

Probably true that the legacy analogue broadcasters would prefer to limit the competition but other broadcasters such as BSkyB, UKTV and Discovery also probably don't want to pay more. If they were willing to pay more for carriage on DTT they could have outbid the shopping channels. The dial-a-slapper channels are slightly different in that they just mop up timeslots not particularly attractive to the mainstream broadcasters.

As for legacy broadcasters not wanting competition, ITV could find a better use for their CITV timeshare than "The Zone" teleshopping. Even if they used it for, say, a part-time version of ITV3 +1.

I watched it quite a lot in December, it was like reading an old edition of The Weekly World News. Extraterrestrials working in league with the US Government? Yeah ok, that's a perspective I don't really need.

No; it'll mean the same number of multiplexes, squashed into less channels. This might mean the robustness (and therefore capacity) of the muxes is increased, but that will be likely to be matched with a switch to DVB-T2, so overall there will be more capacity on those muxes, not less.