Film 4+1 has been added today on BBC B mux.

On a SD TV, a Digital UK MHEG message appears that the old Film 4+1 slot on ARQ B is to be removed on next Thursday, 20th November.

The full MHEG message says:

The MHEG message continues on two further pages for retuning information.

My BT Youview box has added Film4+1 on BBC B to LCN 45 and positioned Film4+1 on ARQ B on LCN 790.

Dave ja Vu has now moved to ARQ B and on its former slot on SDN the off-air MHEG message says: (love the humour )


Whereas, after retuning, Dave ja Vu on ARQ B off-air MHEG message says:

So, let's discuss here what's going on.

1) A SD channel on BBC B - another push to drive people to buy more 'Freeview HD' spec boxes? The null packets on BBC B varies from 7.9Mbps to 18.4Mbps. Are we anticipating more SD channels on this mux? Capacity for another HD channel is possible too.

2) A Channel 4 and UKTV help out? Film 4+1 theoretically increases its audience reach by having the channel on a multiplex that is available on all transmitters including relays although not to those households that have just Freeview SD devices. Meanwhile, UKTV can now run a 24 hour slot, currently a timeshift channel of Dave from 1st December - but could another UKTV channel to appear on Freeview?

3) Releases spare capacity on SDN at night - 2am to 5am and potentially until 8am - or is Drama to broadcast 24 hours?

Unexpected move... so a commercial +1 channel gets a slot on the BBC B mux with 98.5% UK coverage but the BBC's own channels BBC Four HD, BBC News HD and Cbeebies HD are all still stuck on the COM 7 mux with 70% UK coverage. Seems a shame that rather than filling the spare capacity on BBC B mux with another BBC HD channel (if there was enough room) or another BBC Red Button SD channel, they have put a commercial SD channel there instead.

In my opinion, if the BBC add a new HD stream they will be using 2/3s of the space on the multiplex. That's 6.67% more than the 60% are entitled to.

ITV and Channel 4 can claim that space, about 2.7Mb/s in total, which can accommodate 2 SD MPEG4 channels.

This mux was divided up by Ofcom allowing certain channels to be carried. There is AFAIK nothing in the mux licence which relates to percentage capacity.

It may well be that assuming they are using the same encoders as COM7, there is now space for three SD channels and Ofcom have allowed the BBC to do what they like with this capacity (Ofcom's interest is in using this mux for PSB HD channels). The new HD stream will most likely be offered out by Ofcom before the BBC can get their hands on it.

Well for me it adds nothing so thankfully I wont need to do yet another retune.

Dave is rubbish enough without there being a need for a +1 of a repeats channel so I wont bother with that, and I've already deleted Film4+1 due to it being 544x576, which is a bad enough resolution for normal programming, but for a film channel it's just abysmal.

It's sad that even with the benefit of DVB-T2, broadcasters are still pushing 544x576 as a viable SD widescreen resolution.

The only thing I'd care about is if BBC4-HD moved onto the mux, then I could ditch crappy Com7 for good, turn my aerial back round and go back to having full power on all the other muxes I receive. Fingers crossed.

But it's pointless really as freeview Lite viewers can already get Film4 (and in better resolution).

It would have been more beneficial if Dave Ja Vu had gone on there as at least then they'd get a channel they hadn't been able to see before. Something like Quest+1 would be a good fit for a move to the BBC-B mux imo, assuming the mux is being setup like Con7.

I wonder if UKTV are planning on eventually using this slot for another new channel. C4 sell UKTV's advertising so it's in their best interests to have a new channel available to as large an audience as possible.

There will be no collusion between UKTV and Channel 4 regarding this slot, as slots have to be offered on a Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRND) basis. Collusion would be seen as anti-competitive. However I agree that at first glance, it does seem that UKTV could be preparing to launch another channel on Freeview at some point in the future, and would explain why they have kept Dave Ja Vu for three hours a night on channel 25 for so long.

In August, Arqiva advertised slots that would become available around now; it was clear that following September's changes, there wasn't "new" capacity to fit in more channels, so attention moved to what could be moving/closing to make way.

It appears that after 9 years Channel 4 have ended their carriage agreement with Arqiva. It's reported they paid £12 million a year for that slot originally - first used for More4+1, then Film4, then Film4+1. The slot in question first became available on 25th November 2005.

UKTV appear to have secured the slot under the competitive bidding process outlined in Arqiva's advertisement in August.

However the advertisement for Freeview capacity mentioned "slots", so there's potential for further changes and surprises.

As Think TV has highlighted, Film4+1 ends 20th November, but Dave Ja Vu doesn't start until 1st December. Is there another piece in the jigsaw that hasn't yet been revealed? Could we be seeing ITVBe+1 (recently licenced to broadcast on Freeview; and a placeholder for the channel is reportedly live on Virgin Media)? Interesting times.

Returning to point 1 on my third post in this thread, regarding BBC B capacity and the previous public consultations and bidding from Ofcom was to reject Channel 5 HD twice over. However, how come Film 4+1 has arrived with no public statement from Ofcom, BBC or Arqiva (or even Channel 4)? Is BBC B/PSB3 multiplex now setup like a commercial multiplex, like COM7? Digital UK has registered the change on their industry page listings.

Slight off-topic, but two points about commercial multiplexes vs. PSB muxes - COM muxes can run a SD resolution of 544 x 576 but BBCA with exception to BBC Parliament and BBC Red Button run at 704 x 576 and ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 run at 720 x 576; surely for a PSB mux Film 4+1 should be running at least 704 x 576 like BBC One?

If so, with Film 4+1 having a maximum bitrate of 3.9Mbps @ 544 x 576, MPEG4, DVB-T2, and not stat muxed with the rest of the multiplex's stream, how many more slots can be possibly be launched on BBC B? I'm going to suggest like COM7 three more SD channels and 1 more HD channels (24 hours long) to achieve eventual null packets of around 0.5Mbps from the current when there is no harsh content on screen of 12-17Mbps null packets including running Film4+1.

On the other hand, with a series of 544 x 576 as shown on COM7 alongside HD channels, and despite the picture quality, the multiplex can squeeze more channels on its payload. I think I may have asked this question before, but I can't quite remember the answer - does FEC alter the amount of streams available on a individual mux? It has done for COM4, 5 and 6 for the change from 2/3 to 3/4. Should PSB1/BBCA and PSB2/D3+4 change FEC?

The second point, is when is COM8 going to re-illuminated after running the HEVC tests earlier this year? Not long until 2018 for 600MHz temporary licences to be revoked. Has today shown that there is still appetite to launch more linear FTA channels on DTT even SD ones although DVB-T2, MPEG4 coded?

I just had a thought that ITVBe+1 could launch on the new downtime of Drama (2am to 5am, or until 8am) on SDN? Like ITV4+1 on Freeview, just teleshopping ...

Not correct.

Channel 5 applied for (and was granted) a HD slot on multiplex B (against Film4 HD), but then failed to meet the requirements of Ofcom to launch and had it's slot withdrawn.

The slot was then re-advertised. Channel 5 applied for a second time (and was granted) a HD slot on multiplex B, but then decided to abandon launch not long after they launched Channel 5 HD on Sky.

After this point Ofcom said the BBC were free to use the extra capacity either for themselves or for other broadcasters as suited them. This resulted in BBC One HD launching!

http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?id=4273

Yes it does (the FEC is error correction the more you have the less capacity) however it also reduces signal robustness.

When the digital transition happened the COM4-6 multiplexes were running at lower powers than originally planned (presumably to gauge what this coverage was like in the real world without the analogue signal being around) - at some point it was judged that the coverage was acceptable and the FEC was then changed along with a power boost to compensate for the loss of coverage the FEC change would otherwise have caused.

If you were to change the FECs on PSB1-3 there isn't the headroom (either in the international agreements or UK planning/infrastructure) to do a power increase so there would be some loss of coverage.

COM8 is an interesting one, presumably the costs of adding it (alongside COM7) are insignificant* enough to have allowed it to be idle for so long. Perhaps it's being left for HEVC services to give the DVB-T/2 platform a better argument for keeping it's spectrum in the future (or at least until the outcome of the WRC which will decide the future of the bands next year).

* The transmitters themselves are from pre-DSO Freeview (quite a few of Walthams are being reused IIRC!) and there would only be a single multiplexor required, which presumably Arqiva have a few spare for the main multiplexes anyway so if it's unused it could just be used for that in the future - ditto the DVB-T2 modulators.

This does seem to squash the idea that the BBC would use the spare capacity to move their HD channels off MUX7 onto this MUX.

Film4+1 is not a "qualifying service", therefore there is no requirement to broadcast at a higher resolution.

There have been rumblings that Ofcom intends to simplify the technical code, which could remove any stipulations that certain services need to meet minimum bitrate/resolution requirements.

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/bin...an-2014-15.pdf (section 9.15)

The movement of COM7 services to the BBC-B multiplex is part of the emerging plans for the future of DTT, as per recent Ofcom documents. It might be 2018 before all pieces of the jigsaw come together*. In the meantime, it's an added revenue stream for the BBC.

*Some of the BBC HD nations and regions may not come online until 2018. With the current LF settlement ending in 2016, the Corporation is holding back on some projects. Obviously once there's clarity as to funding beyond 2016, they can choose to invest to speed up the process. Changes will occur in conjunction with wider changes to the digital terrestrial television service between 2018 and 2020.

Im surprised that it is another channel 4 owned channel coming to freeview lite as I would have thought itv would have wanted to launch Itv 3 or 4 to give them a wider audience

It's not "Freeview Lite," it's Freeview HD/DVB-T2. Film4+1 is coming off "Freeview Lite."

Edit: I realise now that second part of the above statement is untrue as it was never on Freeview Lite (I got my weights mixed up), but I'll leave it there to make sense of subsequent posts.

For viewers with the reduced Freeview line-up and a Freeview HD device, it's a new service. Film4+1 wasn't on "Freeview Lite" or basic line-up of channels before.

No it's not. It was never on freeview lite, but it will now be available to freeview lite viewers with a DVB-T2 capable box, although as I've already mentioned it's pretty pointless when Film4 was already available to those viewers anyway.

Sorry, obviously you are right, my mistake.

Your right if Channel 4 had to provide a channel would it not have made more sense to put 4seven on bbc b mux

A +1 channel on BBC-B is the 'least impact' move you can make.

Those without Freeview HD/YouView continue to be able to receive the main Film4 channel: No-one loses complete access to a service.

Those living in areas with the basic Freeview service with Freeview HD/YouView gain an extra channel.

Whereas moving ITV3 or 4 or even 4seven would dramatically reduce the number of people able to access the service. The increase in technical coverage from 90 to 98.5% of households would not be enough to offset the loss.

But then you risk losing the 'full freeview' viewership that don't have dvb-t2 boxes. I don't know how popular 4seven is, but they probably weighed up how much they risked losing/gaining viewers by taking it off a commercial dvb-t mux onto a dvb-t2 only one.