According to Shopping Telly.com LCN40 Rocks & Co are taking over the Al Jazeera slot from today 1/12/11 to increase its hours to 1300-2300. It is already on air with those hours on satellite.

http://www.shoppingtelly.com/

I guess in turn Al Jazeera is also expanding!

I hope AJE is still on Freeview in some form instead of more jewellery rubbish.

I did notice parts of the Al Jazeera EPG data were blank from 1st or 2nd Dec a few weeks back (along with Food Network), so I thought it might be changing. Perhaps it is going to be using the new capacity freed up by the FEC change? It getting a 24hr stream would replicate what happened to RT.

Sounds like there might be quite a few changes today!

The text on ShoppingTelly.com says:

Could the bit I highlighted bold indicate a pre-DSO/post-DSO variation?

Ooh, good spot, quite possibly!

I thought that initially but I don't believe Arqiva would sell off a slot post DSO only making it harder to sell off the rest. I think the text just refers to 90% COM coverage and Al Jazeera would be expected to go 24/7 perhaps on post DSO only.

For the record, the EPG and MHEG screen have been changed to reflect the new hours of Rocks and Co.

That's post-DSO, isn't it?

I would check when I get home, but it'll be on-air by then...

Yes, I'm post-DSO.

Rocks and Co confirm on their website (the video that loads on the homepage www.rocksandco.com) that the extended hours are in post-DSO regions only.

Transcript:
The video shows a map of the UK with the post-Digital Switchover regions lighting up. The caption on the right states "Digital Switchover Regions. Do you live in one of these regions?"

Although did I see the Channel Islands incorrectly light up in that video? (COM muxes not being available in the Channel Islands).


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Can anyone in a pre-DSO region (London, Meridian, Tyne Tees and Ulster) confirm that their EPG shows 1pm-6pm and the MHEG off-air screen shows 1pm-6pm, or has it been changed there as well.

With Rocks & Co being live from 1pm to 11pm on Arqiva B in post-switchover regions, Al Jazeera English could of course extend to 1pm to 11pm without any problem on Arqiva B.

In pre-switchover regions both channels would remain five hours a day in their existing slots.

I would be surprised if Rocks & Co remained in that extended slot for long, I suspect a shopping channel nicely fills a bit of empty capacity for Arqiva. Once London switches, the post-DSO only capacity becomes more interesting to established broadcasters.

Al Jazeera would just go 24 hours post-DSO, surely?

In London R&C caption does indeed show old hours 1pm - 6pm. This is really crazy unless R&C use is temporary only.

The EPG shows extended hours

Thanks for confirming.

The 6pm-11pm slot extending Rocks & Co on Arq B is using therefore the extra capacity created by the FEC change. So we can expect that all post DSO Arq B transmitters have been converted now. All for a shopping channel

I'd be surprised if its not temporary for the Xmas shopping period. Perhaps come late January/early February another channel will be ready to fill the slot full time (or April when London switches).

I think people are missing the main point of this, that AJE is probably going 24/7, and Rocks & Co is just expanding to fill the space it no longer needs. That's my guess, anyway. Of couse, the ex-AJE slot might be replaced again by something else post-DSO.

If Al Jazeera went 24/7 on Arq B instead, it would not retain 100% UK coverage until Oct 2012 and the SE until June 2012.

It could use the matched capacity now to do that!

I think this is a seasonal thing maybe for 1 month only.

Also the EPG changes noticed earlier suggest that Food Network may be doing the same thing as soon as Arq A has been all FEC'd up! Is Arq A available everywhere in post DSO land now?

No, I mean, AJE will remain in its current slot pre-DSO, but will use Arq B to go 24/7. Is my guess.

There's no indication on the EPG or MHEG caption that there are any imminent changes to Al Jazeera English in post-DSO areas.

Ha! Got a blank screen on Rocks and Co now on channel 40, Sutton Coldfield TX/post-DSO.

EDIT: crashed on-air at 1:02pm

That would knock Rocks & Co off Arq B then? Unless there are two extra streams created by the FEC change. So this may only happen in January? I still think that matched capacity is more attractive.

Arqiva are hopeless these days. They made a mess of recent D1 DAB changes. What a shambles.

Anyway that must mean that the whole programme will be on an 11th stream from 1pm-11pm.

Confused... why would there need to be two extra streams?


* AJE vacates its current stream, goes into the new 24-hour stream
* Rocks & Co 1 fills its old space.

With Big Deal suddenly filling the extra space created by the FEC change on Arqiva B, things change a bit.
Both Rocks and Co and Big Deal have been known to use temporary slots in the past, so I think all extra services on Arqiva B are temporary until enough of the UK is switched over to make a viable for another broadcaster to take it on as a full time slot.

I would guess that an adult station will occupy some of the overnight additional capacity - these stations also use temporary capacity: a convenient and quick solution for Arqiva to quickly fill a slot, possibly on a rolling month contract, and possibly through a broker like Canis Media.