How about Sky being able to specify which postcodes are able to receive a specific channel that is NOT in the clear?

None of the ITV regions are on the Sky epg outside their target areas but they can be tuned in manually on 'other channels'. According to the 'Lyngsat' site, ITV East is on:

11053 H
22000
5/6

I've done a bit more research on this and found an interesting document on the Ofcom site written by Sky:

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/bin...ocaltv/Sky.PDF

It doesn't clear up the question of whether local TV will be transmitted on Sky in the clear or with soft encryption (although I'd assume they'd encrypt), but it does state that they will be primarily transmitted within 'regional bouquets'.

They admit however that as these are larger than the Freeview regions, chances are that more than one local channel will be receivable on Sky and these will all be listed in the epg. The order will be on a first come first served basis, with the channels earliest to air getting higher epg slots.

They also state that local channels are free to transmit on other regional bouquets outside their primary areas, and if so they will appear on the epg where they are receivable.

Therefore I infer from this that there will be no need to fiddle around with 'other channels' as all receivable local stations will be listed on the epg anyway.

Presumably it's this regional bouquet facility, and the ability to encrypt, that makes Sky more suitable than Freesat for local broadcasts.

Very interesting. Thanks for that (and the link).

But London Live isn't going to be broadcast in the clear like BBC Scotland HD and STV HD, it's going to be encrypted in some way.

Not if it's appropriately encrypted you won't. One consideration here is that any encryption of the channel and restriction of access to the London area is partly because London Live is relying to some extent on acquired programmes. Presumably the acquisition cost of that programming is related to geographical availability. If London Live were available across the whole of the UK presumably they would have to pay more for acquired programmes even if their intended audience was only in London. Also clearly the powers that be don't want a service like London Live which is intended as a local service becoming a de facto national channel which would happen if it were available to view anywhere on freesat (or Sky).

Sky Movies Drama and Romance to turn into Sky Movies Valentines on February 1st to February 17th
(from post on Virgin Media website http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...1609700/page/3)

Sky Movies Oscars is set to launch at some point as well as Sky Movies Superheroes. My guess is that Valentines will turn into Superheroes then into Oscars before returning back to Drama and Romance.

I loved Fireball XL5 when I was a kid

Me too! I loved all the Gerry Anderson series but Fireball was my favourite.

All together now.........

♪ ♫ ♪
♫ ♪
I wish I was a spaceman, the fastest guy alive......
♫ ♪ ♫
♫

^^ Haha. I've actually got the 45rpm single of that very song, bought for me as a birthday present!

Anything regarding bringing Fox News HD to Sky?

'Box Nation HD' has been added to the Sky EPG.

On sky channel 449 will start broadcasts on 15th February according to their website http://www.boxnation.com/hd/

Digiguide today added for me channel 175 as Channel 5 + 24.

I assume this is taking over from 5 USA +1 sometime shortly.

This channel was added on the 4th Feb. 5* +1 was removed and replaced with Channel 5 +24.

ch174 - 5 USA
ch175 - 5 +24
ch176 - 5*
ch177 - 5 +1
ch219 - 5 USA +1

'ITV' to launch 'ITVBe' later this year, details here- http://www.a516digital.com/2014/02/i...-for.html#more

And ITV Encore - a new Pay TV channel only for Sky customers
See here http://corporate.sky.com/media/press..._launch_on_sky
and here http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press...y#.UvvHIimkO70

That's old news as it's been discussed for quite awhile on Digital Spy.
Ian.

'Hum TV' launches on the 3rd March, details here- http://www.media247.co.uk/bizasia/ex...f-hum-tv-in-uk

'Hum TV' now launching on the 10th March, details here- http://www.media247.co.uk/bizasia/hu...ck-by-one-week

I find there is no quick way to access the +1 channels so I wonder why they cannot put them in the 200 series as below

BBC1 101 201 (proposed)
BBC2 102
ITV1 103 203
Channel 4 104 204
Channel 5 105 205
Sky 1 106 206
Sky Living 107 207
Sky Atlantic 108 208

continue through all the plus one channels. it would use up 200 -250. 251 onwards could be used for HD

Because those slots are owned by other broadcasters.

What would be better is for say all SD HD and +1s ect to be under one LCN

so for example

101 BBC 1 SD (your region)
----- BBC 1 HD (You nation and English region when launched)
----- BBC 1 + 1 (when it launches
102 BBC 2 SD (your nation)
------ BBC 2 HD
------ (BBC 2 + 1 (if they decide to launch one))
103 ITV SD (your region)
------ ITV HD (your closest region)
------ ITV +1 (your closest region)
104 Channel 4 SD (your region)
------ Channel 4 HD
------ Channel 4 + 1(your region)
105 Channel 5 SD (your region)
------ Channel 5 HD
------ Channel 5 + 1
and so on and so forth...

This would make things a lot cleaner and seeing as the SD and HD channels carry the exact same programs there is only one set of info in the EPG and the +1 just time slips the info in the EPG software, meaning only one version of the info gets sent to the box.

It would also clean up the EPG too, Sky could still charge per channel to be on the EPG so they dont loose out and on SD boxes the HD channel just wouldn't exist.

The old HD and +1 slots wouldnt exist and channels could be pushed up the EPG in a shuffle up, also the HD swap would be redundant.

But there again, if you could programme your own Sky box to put channels where you want them, we could all have the EPG we ALL want. Just like I do with the Freeview EPG on my new TV, ie.

1 - BBC1HD,
2 - BBC2HD,
3 - ITVHD
4 - C4HD
5 - C5
6 - BBC3HD
7 - BBC4HD
8 - ITV2
9 - ITV3
10 - ITV4
11 - ITV+1
12 - ITV2+1
13 - ITV3+1
etc, etc.

Just the way I want them.