The channel promises to show best of British drama from the last 40 years, including popular UK drama series such as Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Lovejoy, The Bill, Taggart, Cranford, Lark Rise to Candleford, Jonathan Creek, Pride & Prejudice and Sharpe. There’s also comedy in the form of Birds of a Feather and Morecambe & Wise.

The channel, part of the UKTV network, is now available on the following channels:

• Freeview Channel 20
• Sky Channel 291

Emma Tennant is the controller for UKTV, and here’s what she had to say about the launch of the new channel:

“Drama is targeted at a different audience demographic than our other highly successful free-to-air channels, Dave, Yesterday and Really. The channel is aimed at people who simply love drama and want to watch critically-acclaimed shows that have absolutely defined the landscape of British television.”

On Freeview, there has been a small channel renumber, with GOLD and Home (part of Top Up TV’s meager offering), having to move to further down the Freeview programme guide.

The TV version of the laminated book of dreams started broadcasting in 2011, showcasing hundreds of products found in Argos catalogues in their high street stores across the county. The channel formerly broadcast 24 hours a day. The reason for the station’s closure is cited as being that the channel no longer formed part of the Argos strategy to target affluent customers, and could be seen as a “barrier to widening the brand appeal”

The last Argos TV show was broadcast on the 12th of May 2013. Until today, the channel was available on Sky, Freesat and Freeview.

Fans of Argos TV might like to take a look at the following YouTube clip, which shows some of the funnier moments Argos TV’s programming.

Argos TV channel Bloopers

Going to miss this shopping channel? Please add a comment in the box below.

Until today, the channel was labelled Big Deal, but has today has become Movie Mix

The channel seems to have something of a split personality. What we understand is that the channel does the following:

• Runs the Bid Plus TV shopping channel from 9am to 8pm
• Runs Speed Auction from 8pm to midnight (for the first time on Freeview)
• Runs generic Teleshopping from midnight to 3am
• Runs one movie from 3am to 5am
• Runs Teleshopping from 5am to 9am

That gives us 22 hours a day of shopping, and one movie between 3 and 5 in the morning – presumably meaning that it’s there so that people can set their Freeview or YouView PVRs to record the movie overnight and watch it the next day.

Films shown as coming up on Movie Mix in the next few days, according to the Freeview EPG are as follows:

• The Borrowers
• From Hell to Borneo
• The Hoax
• The Brothers O’Toole
• Cry of the Innocent
• Ginger in the Morning

A bizarre time to offer a movie service, and a little cheeky to list this as a movie channel when it’s 22 hours of shopping and one movie a day at silly-o-clock.

There’s some discussion of this in our Freeview Help and Advice forum

Playboy Chat off-air

We’ve also heard that the Playboy Chat channel is apparently off-air at the moment.  Freeview channel 178 still shows the name “Playboy”, and normally transmits Playboy Chat from midnight to 6am. The EPG still shows a listing, but we’ve not been motivated enough to try watching after midnight. Any info…? Let us know.

Various announcements over the last few weeks have show that BT has been putting in a lot of legwork to increase the number of TV channels available to its customers. The recent deals aren’t just for catch-up and on-demand content, they’re for the actual TV channels, which will be delivered over broadband to a BT Vision or BT YouView box.

TV channel provider Discovery Networks is the latest to add their channels to the line-up, meaning that BT customers will get the following three channels soon:

• Discovery Channel
• Discovery Animal Planet
• Discovery Real Time

Other channels on the way from include:

• British Eurosport
• British Eurosport 2
• GOLD
• Watch
• Alibi
• FX
• National Geographic
• National Geographic Wild

Also, it’s planned that Sky Sports channels will be available on the YouView platform for BT customers from 2013.

YouView from BT

This is the new service launched by BT in October, and offers the perks of the new YouView TV service, such as catch-up TV and access to Sky’s movie service Now TV. BT’s deal for YouView is pretty good and worth a look if you’re after getting a TV service that offers more than the standard Freeview channels, without a massive increase on your monthly bills.

Here are the highlights of what BT’s new YouView offering is all about:

• Free Humax 500GB YouView recorder (saving £299)
• Watch and record Freeview HD
• Catch-up from BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5
• Movies and TV shows from BT Vision and NOW TV
• Broadband and calls package with free calls for a year and £25 Sainsburys Gift Card (special offer for a limited time!)
• TV Essentials pack is just £4 a month, rising to £5 a month in January

For more information on this service from BT, or the Humax DTR-T1000 YouView box, see our YouView on BT section, or for the full story, go to youview.bt.com

You might also be interested in the interview our podcast team recorded with team at BT about the new YoyView from BT offering: FrequencyCast BT YouView Interview

Two text channels have moved from the PSB2 to the COM4 multiplex, meaning that if you’re a dedicated follower of either of these channels, you’ll need to do a rescan:

• Channel 202 – Rabbit
• Channel 203 – Gay Rabbit

IN case you’re not familair with either of these channels, they let you chat and flirt by SMS text message at a cost of 60p plus network operator rate per text, and the results look something like this…

We’ve yet to hear from anyone who watches (or texts) these channels, but for the silent minority out there frantically hunting for their rabbit today, you’ll need to rescan your Freeview box or TV set to re-instate these vital Freeview channels.

Into Rabbit? Do let us know via the comments box below, and let us know you’ve found the channel’s new warren?…

The Freeview HD channels moved to channels 100 to channels 105

The Al Jazeera news channel has been removed from channel 84

The Adult channels moved to further now the channel list. They’re now numbered from 171 to 178

These changes will need you to re-scan your Freeview TV or set-top box.

Freeview viewers may remember that this re-tune is hot on the heels of a Freeview retune in September. Originally it was planned that today’s changes would be part of September’s retune. Sky and one of the adult TV content providers lodged complaints about plans to change channel numbers, which resulted in an appeal. The appeal wasn’t successful, and the planned changes eventually went ahead today.

We can expect a further re-scan at some point in the future… Children’s channels will move to numbers starting with 121, and news channels will move to channel number starting from 131. No date has yet been set.

This marks the end of 15 years of the TV text-based holiday breaks service. Until recently, the service was operated by the Daily Mail. The owners made the following statement recently:

“Teletext Holidays has been a television platform for over 15 years, and will continue this trend within digital only platforms developing apps and platforms for Smart or connected TVs, but has decided to relinquish its Freeview 101 channels at the end of September 2012.

The channel, on Freeview channel 201 has been renamed “Holidays TV”, and will apparently continue to offer holiday information and offers, but under new ownership. As of the 1st of October, channel 201 points to a message that “this page is not in use”

The original Teletext service launched in 1993, competing with the BBC’s Ceefax service. It stayed on-air until 2010, before shutting down all but the Holidays service, which was available on the digital platforms.

Vanished Channels

The following two channels have disappeared:

• Channel 62 – TV Stars
  Channel 90 – TV News

These two channels have always been something of a mystery. These channels appear to be registered in the name of “Cellcast Group”, and appeared as part of the Freeview Channel List in April 2012. We’ve been told that channels that fail to launch within a set period of time lose their place in the Freeview lineup, and their removal either indicates that the service isn’t now expected to launch any time soon, or is ahead of the big Freeview channel reshuffle set for the 19th of September.

Moved Channel

For some unknown reason, Al Jazeera English has moved from channel 89 to channel 84, putting it ahead of Russia Today, instead of behind it. Odd, but there you go.

New channels:

• Channel 113 has been renamed from “Connect 1 to “Christian“. This is an Internet TV service from Connect TV
• Channel 115 has been renamed from Connect 3 to “Vision 2“. This is a part of the Vision Network and offers 19 channels of Arabic and Muslin content. Content will be free-to-air for the first two months. This is an Internet TV service from Connect TV
• Channel 119 has appeared, labelled as “Connect 4” – Nothing to do with the counter-based game, we assume!
• Channel 120, labelled “God TV” has appeared. This is an Internet TV service from Connect TV
• Channel 121, labelled “Sony SAB” has appeared. This is an Internet TV service from Connect TV

We’ll keep you updated with any more information as we get it.

Here is a summary of the changes:

• Channel 8:  (England and Northern Ireland) will become the slot for “local TV”. We can expect up to 21 local TV services in the UK. In Wales and Scotland, the “local tv” channel number will be 45
• Channel 100: Will become a Freeview information page
• Channels 101 to 120: The Freeview HD channels. There are only 4 on Freeview at the moment, but there are now slots available for up to 20
• Channels 121-130: Children’s channels
• Channels 131 to 150: News channels
• Channels 171 to 198: Adult channels
• Channels 200 to 224: The Text-based channels
• Channels 225 to 299: MHEG content services
• Channels 400 to 499: Channesl for Internet-enabled TV sets

Channels used for services like Top Up TV (300+) and radio (700+_ won’t change )

In general, the changes seem to make sense, and at least give some kind of structure to the numbering.

The changes, announced by DMOL (the organisation responsible for the allocation of Freeview channel numbers), follows a consultation with key players in the digital TV market. The changes are apparently: “designed to create extra capacity for new services and make the guide easier to navigate.”

The Freeview channel number changes, set to roll out across the UK on the 19th of September, will of course require another mass Freeview channel retune

4seven essentially runs re-broadcasts of very recent shows, for those that missed a Channel 4 show. Given that many of us now have a PVR hard disk recorder (such as Sky+ or Freeview+), recording shows and series is now pretty easy – and for those that missed a show, we of course have the on-demand service 4oD. So why do we need a repeats channel?

Well, according to Channel 4, there are lots of viewers out there without a PVR, or who don’t want to access shows they missed over the Internet. Channel 4’s being pretty clever about how it picks what to show again too, making the channel potentially very useful. What gets shown during peak viewing hours on 4seven is based on viewer feedback, according to what’s being said in the press, and on social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. It offers another way to watch popular content that viewers may have missed.

If you want to watch a mashed-up mix of what’s been shown by Channel 4, the new channel 4seven is available now, on the following channels:

• Freeview channel 47 ( Only available in areas that have completed the Digital Switchover.)
  
• Freesat channel 127
• Sky channel 140
• Virgin channel 195

4seven also has a free iPhone and iPad app, available in the iTunes App Store.

The channel is operating from the 1st of May to the 31st of October 2012 only, and is an experimental service managed by the Arts Council in partnership with the BBC.

The channel has been made possible through £3.5 million of lottery funding to showcase 53 new art commissions. The Space is apparently designed to encourage experimentation, innovation, and provide an opportunity to learn more about how to connect audiences with arts and culture using digital technologies. This experimental service will be available on computers, smartphones tablets and Internet-enabled TVs and set-top boxes.

You can find more information on this new channel  at www.thespace.org

The Connect TV service appears to have now launched on the Freeview platform, offering an extra 45 channels of TV.

Connect TV has had a number of placeholder channels active between channels 110 and 116 for a while, and some of the services switched on February. It seems that the initial offering has been finalised, and some of the initial launch channels are now live. Available at the moment:

• Channel 110 – Vision TV Network: A portal for a number of international TV channels (see below)
• Channel 111 – CCTV: China Central Television
• Channel 112 – Sports Tonight Live
• Channel 116 – Racing UK: Subscription horseracing service

There are also placeholders on Freeview for Connect 1, Connect 2 and Connect 3, and channels 113, 114 and 115 – presumably to be used for more of the planned 45 channels.

International Channels

The Vision TV network on Freeview channel appears to be aimed at expats looking to catch up with TV from home. The number of channels on this service is set to expand, and currently offers Greek, Polish, Turkish and French TV channels.

At the time of writing the services on the Vision TV Network are: Hellenic TV (£11 a month), Polska Plus TV (£8.99 a month), TeleTurk (£6.99 a month) and TeleFrance (£4.99 a month)

How to watch Connect TV

The Connect TV service uses the Internet to get these new channels, and effectively, the channels you see on Freeview are used by your Freeview receiver to open a connection to the Internet to let you access the channel.

This means that you will need a Broadband Internet connection to watch these channels on your TV, and you’ll also need a compatible Internet-enabled TV or set-top box. The Connect TV service refers to needing “Freeview HD”, but in fact what it means is an Internet-enabled Freeview box. As the Freeview HD standard mandates an Internet connection, it’s assumed all Freeview HD hardware can access the Internet.

At the moment, we understand that it’s only Sony and Panasonic Freeview HD TV sets, plus three  TVonics boxes that can access the new channels offered by Connect TV. There’s a list of compatible hardware here: visiontvnetwork.co.uk/home/devices.

Crowded Market

We’ve seen similar Freeview + Internet TV offerings in the past, most recently Fetch TV (which went into administration in January), and services such as BT Vision, Virgin and Sky’s new Sky Anytime+ service all offer additional content via an Internet connection. That’s in addition to services such as Apple TV, Netflix and Lovefilm, which offer on-demand TV and movies.

We’re all patiently waiting for the much-delayed YouView service, which will also combine live Freeview TV with a mix of catchup TV and on-demand content from the Internet. 2012 is going to be an interesting, and busy, year for online TV services…

• Racing UK (Channel 116)

At the moment, the channel is just a placeholder, but here’s what we know so far:

The channel appears to be part of the Internet TV services planned by IP Vision. We’re assuming that when this service launches, it will enable Freeview set-top boxes and Freeview TV sets that have an Internet connection, to be able to access the subscription channel Racing UK.

Thanks to one of our forum regulars for spotting the following note on the Racing TV website, under the site’s IPTV section:

“We’re working on a service at the moment to make it even easier for you to subscribe without an additional Sky or Cable subscription and this will be ready before March 2012.”

Joining the dots, we may see the Racing TV service available on the Freeview platform for those with Internet-enabled devices later this month.

Racing TV is currently available on Sky channel 432 and Virgin channel 536. For £20 a month, you can watch live horseracing from 30 racecourses in the UK. The channel shows an estimated 4000 races a year, with most of the races exclusive to Racing UK subscribers.

We’ll add more details when we have them.

Channel 5 HD to launch on Freeview

In the recent bidding for the fifth HD channel on the Freeview platform, only one channel submitted a bid, and that was Channel 5. It appears that regulator OfCom has granted Channel 5 the licence, and we can expect Channel 5 HD to appear on Freeview at some point in the future.

We understand that Channel 5 HD may not be available to all parts of the UK when it launches.

The Zone to launch on Freeview

Freeview Channel 39 sees the addition of “The Zone”. This is a channel owned by ITV, and currently has a caption stating “”The Zone – the place to shop & play”.

We can infer from this that The Zone will be a combined shopping channel / gaming channel. It will launch on Freeview Multiplex A, and apparently timeshare with kids channel CITV.

No idea as yet on a launch date for this new ITV service.

Channel 5 + 1 coming soon to Freeview

We understand that Channel 5 + 1 is set to join the Freeview channel list shortly, with the date of the 6th of December 2011 being suggested by one of our site visitors.

The BBC HD service launched as a trial service in 2006, and was the first free-to-view HD channel in the UK. As part of the BBC’s cost-cutting proposal “Delivering Quality First”, the HD channel is set to be scrapped and replaced by an HD version of BBC2.

The BBC HD channel differs from the newer BBC One HD channel, in that it can broadcast a pool of programmes from across the BBC’s output, including shows from BBC Three and BBC Four. The channel’s replacement, BBC Two HD, will presumably be limited to an HD simulcast of the main BBC  Two channel’s shows, meaning less scope for showing exciting HD content from Auntie Beeb’s other channels.

Other BBC Cuts

As mentioned above, the closure of BBC HD  is just one of the cost-cutting measures proposed as part of the BBC’s newly-published “Delivering Quality First” document, which will see a shakeup of the BBC to achieve savings of over £650 million a year.

Other changes announced as part of the BBC’s planned cost savings include:

• 15% reduction in purchases of rights for sporting events
• More repeats on BBC2
• A reduction of around 2,000 jobs over a five-year period
• More parts of the BBC, including BBC3, to move from London to Salford
• Less local programming and more networking on BBC local radio stations
• Spending cuts for BBC Radio 3 and the Asian Network

You can find more information on the BBC proposals here: Media Guardian – BBC to axe 2000 jobs

• Channel 110 – Vision
• Channel 111 – Connect
• Channel 112 – Stream

The on-screen caption reports that these are new channels coming soon to Freeview HD. At first glance, the idea of three new HD channels coming to Freeview seems too good to be true, and required some further investigation.

We’d like to thank Steve, one of our contributors for pulling together various facts (and rumours) on what these three channels may be about.

Vision (Freeview Channel 110)

This channel has a website, and at the time of writing, this states that Vision is coming to Freeview soon, and that it’s “not just a  channel… a world of channels”. By clever use of the Red, Yellow, Green and Blue buttons, it’s possible to get to a screen that asks for a six digit code. Some users have also reported that their Freeview receiver attempts to make an Internet connection when tuned to this channel.

Accordingly, it seems likely that Vision will offer access to various overseas foreign language TV channels (perhaps like the old Jump TV web-based service). Access will presumably use an Internet connection, and some kind of PIN-based subscription. The Vision website makes reference to subscription and free-to-view channels.

Connect (Channel 111)

Not much info on this one, other than that the OfCom licence states “Lifestyle, Health, Cook and Travel”. Operated by the same company, Internet-based subscription makes sense.

Stream (Channel 112)

Not a lot here either yet, although the OfCom licence lists this as “Sport”. Could this channel offer some kind of Internet-based sports content on a subscription basis? We’ll have to wait and see…

Are these new HD channels?

Well, we think not. These channels are not on the HD Multiplex with the other HD channels, they’re on a Standard Definition Multiplex. It’s believed that these services will require an Internet connection and something known as MHEG technology.

As part of the specification for all Freeview HD  TV sets and set-top boxes, the hardware is required to support MHEG and have Internet capability, so it’s a fair bet that these new Internet-based services may only work on Freeview HD equipment.

Who’s behind these channels?

The provider is Reach TV. Little is known about this company. Their address shows them based on HMS President, a Royal Navel vessel moored in the Thames off Victoria Embankment. The Vision channel appears to be operated by Vision IPTV Ltd.

Tell me more?

No news as yet on any proposed launch date, costs, or content. We’ll be keeping an eye on developments, and let you know as soon as we have any more information on what the expect from Vision, Connect and Stream.

Any speculation? Please add a comment below…

The Food Network is based in the US, and is owned by Scripps Networks and Tribune Company, and is currently available on Sky and Freesat.

Content on the Food Network includes various instructional cooking shows, plus shows on healthy eating, reality food shows and something oddly called “food entertainment”. Show titles include Shows on Food Network include Barefoot Contessa, Ace of Cakes, the Great Food rick Race, Nigella Express, Healthy Appetite and the Next Food Network Star.

Original reports into us here at Radio and Telly showed that the channels was set to launch on Freeview from 6pm on Thursday the 7th of July 2011. This was briefly confirmed on the Freeview website, but the announcement appears to have been removed. The channel number assigned to Food Network UK is apparently channel 49.

We’re sure that the channel is coming to Freeview, but it’s not clear whether or not the channel will actually appear on July the 7th. Watch this space for any updates as we get them.

If food it your thing, check out the channel’s site at www.foodnetwork.co.uk

Bon Appetite Freeview viewers!

The station, which launched in 2008, has previously been available to Sky and Virgin viewers, is now available from Freeview transmitters in Scotland, and can be found on Freeview Channel 8. The channel’s normal broadcasting hours are 5pm to midnight.

There is some controversy over the launch of BBC Alba on Freeview, however. There was not enough space on the BBC’s Freeview allocation to add BBC Alba, and something has to be removed in Scotland to make way for TV channel. What’s had to go, are some of the radio stations. 13 BBC radio stations operate on Freeview, and ten of these are switched off when Alba goes on air in the evening.

Between 5pm and midnight on weekdays, 4pm and 1am Saturdays, and 4pm to midnight on Sundays, Freeview viewers in Scotland now no longer can listen the following:

• BBC Radio 1
• BBC Radio 2
• BBC Radio 3
• BBC Radio 4
• BBC Radio 4 Extra
• BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra
• BBC Radio Scotland
• BBC World Service
• BBC Asian Network
• BBC Radio nan Gàidheal

The BBC’s decision to remove these national stations from Freeview in Scotland has caused some upset . Niko from our forum has said:

“I feel highly aggrieved and even, to some extent insulted… I am absolutely furious and consider the BBC’s behaviour in this to be entirely unsatisfactory and without any respect whatsoever to its listeners.”

There’s discussion about this in our forum – See BBC Radio Stations Missing From Freeview

If you’re affected by the BBC’s removal of these services, or alternatively, pleased that BBC Alba is now available on your Freeview box, please add your comment below.

Thanks to Ray Cathode for the updates

TV company UKTV already offers Dave and Yesterday on Freeview, and it has just announced that it will soon be adding ‘Really‘ to the lineup.

Really will join the Freeview lineup from the 2nd of August 2011 on Freeview Channel 20, replacing Dave Ja Vue.

If you’re not familiar with the TV channel Really, it’s been broadcasting on the Sky and Virgin platforms for a while. It’s billed as a “lifestyle channel”, and according to the blurb, the station is aimed at predominately young women (so more of a Davina than a Dave?). The channel claims to offer honest, outrageous and fun programming, with a mix of UK TV series and imported American shows, including a high percentage of reality / real-life TV shows. Really’s slogan? “You couldn’t make it up”!

A look at recent shows on the channel reveals that Really offers the likes of Tough Love, Bizarre ER, Snog Marry Avoid, Faking it, How to Find a Husband, Medical Emergency, Bridezilla, Truth at Ten and Spendaholics.

You can expect to see Really replacing the timeshift channel Dave Ja Vue from the beginning of August 2011.

The channel, a shopping channel, has appeared on Freeview channel 48, and broadcasts from 8am to 1pm daily, sharing the slot with Rocks & Co 1, Babestation, Al Jazeera English and TV News.

QVC Beauty is not the mysterious “TBA channel” that continues to the the cause of speculation.