Mentioned on the change log and speculation on this subject can be found on the thread about the 3rd September changes. Basically, nobody knows yet, other than that it will be obviously be a News genre channel.
Didn't that start off in the News genre and later get moved to the general section? Thankfully I can't remember!
You might be thinking of TV Stars, which had a placeholder, but never launched. At one point there were two TV Newses - on 89 & 90 if I remember correctly.
Or could it be CNN making a return to Freeview - perhaps in a 24 hour slot this time? CNN in HD would be good. But as it's available as part of the 'pay bouquet' of VuTV on LCN 238, maybe not.
France 24 is available as a free channel on the IPTV service TV Player on LCN 241, but I suppose it could still appear as a broadcast channel too.
Likewise, CCTV News, CCTV 4 and CCTV 9 are all available as IPTV channels on LCN 226, but again I suppose this doesn't preclude them opting for a radiated broadcast channel, as opposed to streamed.
.....or could it be a return for the ITN News Channel (or it's more recent incarnation, the ITV News Channel)?
Possibly The Weather Channel? News and Weather Together! ;-)
Looks like we'll just have to stay, as they say, tooned!
Is there any likelyhood of Com 8 being fired up and being brought into service or have plans been dropped. It seems that they are trying to avoid using it. Anyway how much capacity is there left on Freeview. All this business of dozens of placeholders, data services and bits and pieces of channels being broadcast one hour here and two hours there is totally misleading and a complete nonsense.
Is there any likelyhood of Com 8 being fired up and being brought into service or have plans been dropped. It seems that they are trying to avoid using it. Anyway how much capacity is there left on Freeview. All this business of dozens of placeholders, data services and bits and pieces of channels being broadcast one hour here and two hours there is totally misleading and a complete nonsense.
Of course they are trying to avoid using it - it will cost them money to fire it up.
Squeezing more channels out of COM7 on the other hand is money for old rope.
Is there any likelyhood of Com 8 being fired up and being brought into service or have plans been dropped. It seems that they are trying to avoid using it. Anyway how much capacity is there left on Freeview. All this business of dozens of placeholders, data services and bits and pieces of channels being broadcast one hour here and two hours there is totally misleading and a complete nonsense.
If you are receiving "dozens" of placeholders, then something is not quite right with your set-up.
Viewers with newer Freeview HD devices and YouView boxes may disagree with your comment about data services (in the event you are referring to ch.225-299), as they provide free-to-view access to channels otherwise only available on satellite, and for whom carriage costs for a 24/7 linear channel on Freeview would be too prohibitive.
It is also commonplace on Sky for channels to reserve an EPG slot by broadcasting for a couple of hours a day, just like ITV are doing with ITV4+1 on Freeview. With fewer channels, the practice is more noticeable on Freeview. Elsewhere, it is the free market dictating supply and demand, with channels reducing carriage costs by making their overnight/early morning downtimes available to other channels and channels wanting cheap carriage electing for a reduced hours slot.
COM8 equipment is already available to use at transmitter sites and was used for an experimental service in the summer. Until remaining Freeview capacity is used, it would make no business sense to power the multiplex up again, and I would presume COM8's frequencies would be a useful asset during 700 MHz clearance at the end of the decade.
- There is one SD slot available on COM7. Currently null packets.
- A timeshared slot with Motors TV on COM7 (according to Motors TV, it will have part-time hours on weekdays from sometime soon - reduces carriage costs).
- A slot that BT Sport 2 will free-up on ArqB/COM6 (according to the letter BT sent to customers stating BT Sport 2 will end in January, with BT Sport 1 following mid-2015).
Arise News is the TBA channel. Arqiva confirmed this morning that it's launching on Freeview 136. Not yet configured but bound to be imminent.
Commenting on the launch, Nduka Obaigbena, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief at Arise News said:
“Today, we reach yet another milestone as we launch on Freeview. Arise News is committed to covering issues of the day and world events that matter from an uncommon perspective, engaging citizens of the world in an emerging new global order truly representing the experiences of the under-served communities often ignored by conventional media."
Interestingly it still shows the two Sky LCN's when there was standard and HD versions of the channel, that was before it was pulled for a period of time.
Comments
Arqiva are cramming nothing in. The bandwidth for another service on COM7 has been sitting dormant (null packets) for months.
Around 20% of COM7 capacity not being used at the moment.
You might be thinking of TV Stars, which had a placeholder, but never launched. At one point there were two TV Newses - on 89 & 90 if I remember correctly.
Or could it be CNN making a return to Freeview - perhaps in a 24 hour slot this time? CNN in HD would be good. But as it's available as part of the 'pay bouquet' of VuTV on LCN 238, maybe not.
France 24 is available as a free channel on the IPTV service TV Player on LCN 241, but I suppose it could still appear as a broadcast channel too.
Likewise, CCTV News, CCTV 4 and CCTV 9 are all available as IPTV channels on LCN 226, but again I suppose this doesn't preclude them opting for a radiated broadcast channel, as opposed to streamed.
.....or could it be a return for the ITN News Channel (or it's more recent incarnation, the ITV News Channel)?
Possibly The Weather Channel? News and Weather Together! ;-)
Looks like we'll just have to stay, as they say, tooned!
It's not a HD channel. There's not enough space, and it would have an LCN in the HD genre.
Of course they are trying to avoid using it - it will cost them money to fire it up.
Squeezing more channels out of COM7 on the other hand is money for old rope.
Viewers with newer Freeview HD devices and YouView boxes may disagree with your comment about data services (in the event you are referring to ch.225-299), as they provide free-to-view access to channels otherwise only available on satellite, and for whom carriage costs for a 24/7 linear channel on Freeview would be too prohibitive.
It is also commonplace on Sky for channels to reserve an EPG slot by broadcasting for a couple of hours a day, just like ITV are doing with ITV4+1 on Freeview. With fewer channels, the practice is more noticeable on Freeview. Elsewhere, it is the free market dictating supply and demand, with channels reducing carriage costs by making their overnight/early morning downtimes available to other channels and channels wanting cheap carriage electing for a reduced hours slot.
COM8 equipment is already available to use at transmitter sites and was used for an experimental service in the summer. Until remaining Freeview capacity is used, it would make no business sense to power the multiplex up again, and I would presume COM8's frequencies would be a useful asset during 700 MHz clearance at the end of the decade.
- There is one SD slot available on COM7. Currently null packets.
- A timeshared slot with Motors TV on COM7 (according to Motors TV, it will have part-time hours on weekdays from sometime soon - reduces carriage costs).
- A slot that BT Sport 2 will free-up on ArqB/COM6 (according to the letter BT sent to customers stating BT Sport 2 will end in January, with BT Sport 1 following mid-2015).
Commenting on the launch, Nduka Obaigbena, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief at Arise News said:
Interestingly it still shows the two Sky LCN's when there was standard and HD versions of the channel, that was before it was pulled for a period of time.