[linkinpark875]

I don't use Freeview these days as I have asks however amazing that it's still only cheap shopping channels launching.

Unreal there's no ITV2 HD yet or niche channels like Travel Channel and Chart Show TV.

You would think now there will be space for more channels they could have some quality control of what new channels launch?

[technologist]

who is THEY ??

As you know Freeview is a marketing company ... and has no EPG.
The platform is technically managed by DMOL who provide an EPG
The boxes are made by any one - and the freeview Tick is awarded to by the government to boxes which are been found compliant by DTG testing to a Spec written by the industry and published by DTG.

So who puts channels on - the answer is the mux operators of which there are 5
- and they know that they are in a sellers market as many more people want to get on the platform than they have space ... but at the moment two PSB muxes are full with PSB programs - one PSB mux carries 3 PSB Channels only (and carries 7 non PSB channels) one Com mux is owned by ITV and the other 2 by Arqiva ...
and whilst technically the whole platform could go DVB-T2 - giving say another 100 Mbps (40+ SD or 12 HD channels) it would mean the signal is unavailable to all SD boxes- of which there are a mere 80+million out there. - and is on the main TV set in half the house holds (and the majority of TV sets )

But if you are a channel that thinks that advertising can cover the £6 per bit per year market price - talk to the mux operators - that price alone is a disincentive.... and may not drop much in the future

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally Posted by linkinpark875

I don't use Freeview these days as I have asks however amazing that it's still only cheap shopping channels launching.

Unreal there's no ITV2 HD yet or niche channels like Travel Channel and Chart Show TV.

You would think now there will be space for more channels they could have some quality control of what new channels launch?

There isn't space for new channels - why would you think there was?.

And how do you think such new channels would find the massive sums of money required to launch on Freeview (particularly on HD).

[a516]

There's a slot available on the SDN multiplex (except Wales) and there's at least two spare 24 slots on Arqiva A. If any of these channels wanted to launch on Freeview and could afford it, they would do. Niche channels are more likely to want to launch on Arqiva's Connect TV platform, once it becomes available on more devices.

[technologist]

but it will be a lot cheaper to launch channels on Youview - but that comes with all that is involved with wires and the internet... but can give that expansion and interest alongside all that Freeeiw gives very cost effectively to all homes across the UK.

[DragonQ]

Originally Posted by a516

There's a slot available on the SDN multiplex (except Wales) and there's at least two spare 24 slots on Arqiva A. If any of these channels wanted to launch on Freeview and could afford it, they would do. Niche channels are more likely to want to launch on Arqiva's Connect TV platform, once it becomes available on more devices.

True but I personally can't see how people watch the channels on the COM muxes, the quality is so poor.

If you want decent quality TV, Freesat is your best bet. If Freesat had Dave I would have no use for Freeview.

[reslfj]

Originally Posted by technologist

..... and whilst technically the whole platform could go DVB-T2 - giving say another 100 Mbps ....

While it is very true that all MPEG-2 boxes would be useless in an all DVB-T2 world, the extra 100 Mbit/s is not a fair calculation. With DVB-T2 MPEG-4 compression is available and used. MPEG-4 is often quoted as only needing needing a 50% bitrate og MPEG-2 - for the same video quality.

If we - more on the very safe side - assume a 2/3 (67%) bitrate for MPEG-4 compared to MPEG-2, the calculations will be like this.

NOW: 5 x 24 Mbps = 120 Mbps

DVB-T2 5 x 40 Mbps = 200 Mbps (+80 Mbps)

DVB-T2 + MPEG-4 = 200 Mbps * 3/2 ~ 300 Mbps (~ 180 Mbps higher bitrate).

The effect of 5 muxes converted to DVB-T2 will be like a 2.5 times the capacity - even by a conservative estimate. The operation costs for DVB-T2 muxes are the same or even a little lower than for the DVB-T muxes and the amount and cost of new equipment needed is rather limited.
So the effective cost of bitrate/year would be like 40-50% of the present cost (provided all the extra bitrate will be used).

Converting all 5 muxes to DVB-T2 will not happen overnight, but will happen over al least some years.
DVB-T2 may however be a 'must', if DTT-SFN operation is adopted in the UK in order to allow the 700MHz band to be reallocated for mobile broadband (in the 2020 time frame).

Lars