A tweet from Oliver Varney @olivervarney, News editor at AJE in London.

First tweet about it was

Why do some channels which broadcast 24 hours a day on Sky have reduced time on Freeview ? AJ has been 24 hours on Sky since it started. And why are some Freeview channels only on the air for two or three hours a day (or even less) and some seem not to be broadcasting at all

There is more demand for capacity on digital terrestrial television than is available. Multiplex capacity is expensive, so some channels decide to have limited broadcast hours as they feel that some time on-air is better than no time on-air. Those that can afford a 24/7 slot like AJE have to buy in to whatever they can (which is why they have been part time for a while), and then wait for a 24/7 slot to become available.

Satellite capacity is a lot cheaper and more plentiful, which is why many channels are 24/7 on satellite and not DTT.

In this case DSO is a factor to get sufficient capacity. Al Jazeera will either replace an existing Arq B service like Big Deal or take a vacant stream on Arq A. Pre-DSO (NI) will remain as it is now.

That's good news. One less Freeview-only time share.

I wonder what the purpose of Al Jazeera 6-8 is for then?

Just to wind up Russia Today,

This is great news as we only have the BBC/Sky should it will be nice to get a different viewpoint on the news. Sorry Russia today doesn't count as that should be CNN or Bloomberg

What about the news on ITV, Channel 4, and Five?

Indeed, Kremlin Today needs to disappear. CNN 24/7 would be ace.

I agree 100%.

I'm only taking about the 24/7 news channels, If ITN wants to launch one they should take Russia Today's slot

ITN had one but it bit the dust a few years back.

Which ITV took over, made part of ITN's ITV News contract, reduced to a part time service on Freeview to squeeze ITV4 in at the time and then closed as they couldn't make it viable.

Luckily for AJE, they have a pot of money to subsidise the loss making channel like Russia Today and Sky News.

This is good news because Al Jazeera English offers a different viewpoint but has high standards of journalism and reporting. Indeed, Al Jazeera English justifiably won the Royal Television Society's News Channel of the Year award in February.



Indeed, guys. This channel is nothing more that the Putin Propaganda Service what with its permanent anti-Western bias and bitching. It's a travesty of a news channel and I've deleted it from both my Freeview and Freesat EPGs.

Al Jazeera English shows that you can give that different viewpoint but be highly professional about it at the same time.

Didn't they also curtail it for football coverage as required?

Yes they did.

France 24, EuroNews, CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN. Any of them would be better than Kremlin Today!

Not Fox though.

Indeed, krooney, and it is literally unwatchable. The other day, even CCTV China showed a news conference in full critical of the Syrian regime but that's something that Russia Today would never do.

The final straw occurred a few days ago when I came across a highly sycophantic interview conducted by Kevin Owen (ex HTV West & Wales) with Vladimir Putin which placed 100% of the blame for the Syrian crisis on "Western supported terrorists" and 0% on the Assad regime itself. That ensured the channel's deletion on two platforms!

Hate it or love it, Russia Today isn't going anywhere and they have plans to launch UK specific content/advertising.. http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...53&postcount=8

Great news about Al Jazeera; a very polished, professional channel which has really played to its strengths over the past two years with superb coverage of the Arab Spring. It deservedly beat both Sky and the BBC to RTS News Channel of the Year 2012.

Russia Today can do as many live outside broadcasts from Ye Olde Village of Pisswick as they like but that still won't change the fact that this channel is a truly dire, fourth rate propaganda channel.

What a waste of space:yawn:

Sky have a channel called eNCA which seems to be a 24-hour news channel originating from South Africa. It has some interesting coverage of parts of the world we don't usually hear from.

It's a new FTA satellite channel - alas a bit too South Africa centric to be of major value on Freeview (unlike Al-Jazeera which covers a lot of international news). The weather forecast the other day was funny as they had a weather warning due to lows of 10'C

Of all the channels FTA at 28.2'E only Al Jazeera really seams to do news well, the others spend too much time on other things (although NHK can be interesting at times).

I've just found out Aljazeera is going 24 hours from their off-air notice page and I'm delighted. I'm often disappointed that what sounds like an interesting or informative programme coming soon is to be shown during their Freeview closed period - so I'll be watching more.

I also like RT, though I hold some of their opinionated stuff at arms length. Sometimes it's hard to know whether they're just broadcasting truth but from a different POV to what we hear from other sources or whether they are biased any worse than others. I have no problem with them showing the nasty side of the US attempts to dominate everywhere with UK and others tagging along and helping out - if it's the truth. I don't take everything RT says without question.

But 'Aljazeera 24' - great news!