The new Gaelic TV channel from the BBC will launch on cable and Sky on the 19th September and will be available throughout the country on those services. The channel will also be available on Freeview in Scotland only once digital switchover is completed and if the BBC Trust gives the go ahead for it to launch on Freeview in Scotland. BBC Alba will show entertainment programmes, documentaries, sport, kids programmes, news, dramas and more.
Tag Archive for 'Freeview'
Freeview
The Olympics opening ceremony is this Friday on the BBC. Olympics coverage has been expanded on the Freeview platform. As previously mentioned, BBC Parliament will be used to provide an additional video feed (BBC Parliament can be used because parliament is in recess for the summer anyway). It has also now been announced the Community Channel will be off-air for the duration of the Olympics. There will be no Community Channel from the 9th to the 25th August. The space from the Community Channel will be used by the BBC to provide additional video services for the Olympics. The channel will return to air after this date in its normal timeslot. The BBC website says - “Freeview viewers will have access to at least two extra streams in addition to the offerings on BBC ONE and BBC TWO. Olympics Interactive will be a 24-hour service offering a huge choice of sports as well as a medals table, news stories and schedule. Between 0200 and 1800 BST Interactive will show the best of the day’s action, much of it live, and after that replay the major events of the day to allow viewers to catch up on any sports they may have missed”.
Virgin Media
Viewers will be able to press their red button and get up to six channels of Olympics coverage, 24 hours a day. The BBC says - “Our interactive air time will be upped from 1,000 hours of coverage at the Athens Olympics to 2,450 hours in China giving you the chance to watch uninterrupted coverage of your favourite sports”. Please note that BBC Parliament will remain on-air on the Virgin Media cable platform - it is only being taken off air on Freeview for the duration of the Olympics - not on cable or Sky.
Online
The BBC website will be providing streaming video of the Olympics. The BBC website says - “UK users of the website will be able to watch live video of all the key action. You will be able to choose from up to seven video streams showing simulcast coverage from BBC TV and BBC interactive”.
Radio
BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra will be providing coverage of the Olympics - keeping you up to date with all the news and results. These BBC radio stations can be streamed on the BBC website. Other BBC radio stations will also provide Olympics news and results.
Read more about the BBC’s Olympics 2008 coverage - click here for the BBC website.
Gems TV have extended their hours on Freeview by two additional hours - but on a separate channel name and number. The new slot is called Gems TV1 and their existing Gems TV slot also remains. This means Gems TV will broadcast on channel 43 from 9.45am to 12.45pm and on channel 44 from 7pm to 9pm. The space Gems TV are now using 7pm-9pm looks like it came from the space freed up when The Jewellery Channel left Freeview earlier this year.
The Hits will be relaunched as 4music in August, and will be available on Freeview, cable and Sky.
At GetMeMedia.com they say “the launch will take place in late summer and the 4music channel will feature a must see mix of Channel 4’s unrivalled music programming, including intimate documentaries, unmissable live performances and a range of music entertainment series”.
The sports section on the Freeview BBC interactive service has been improved. When you press red from any BBC channel, you can now select Sport Home which takes you to a new and improved section. The section now links to the BBCi video streams for Interactive video services and tells you what’s on now so you can easily switch to the relevant stream you want to watch. The new Sport section also has a brand new easy-to-use menu at the bottom.
The Virgin Media owned TV channels (commonly known as the VMTV channels) are now widescreen. The channels had always been 4:3 but have finally made the leap into 16:9 format. VMTV channels include Virgin 1, Challenge, Living and Bravo. UKTV channels made the switch to widescreen a few months ago. This change also affects other platforms, including Freeview which has Virgin 1.
The Jewellery Channel on Freeview channel 44 has ceased broadcasting. It had been available on Freeview for the past six months. Channel 44 is now just a placeholder. It’s not known what (if anything) will replace the channel. One popular view is that Nuts TV could take the additional space and start broadcasting at 7pm every evening. The Jewellery Channel remains broadcasting as normal on other platforms and is also available on Five US in the mornings.
The new interactive dating & chat service from Teletext - ‘Rabbit’ - has launched on Freeview channel 102. The channel used to be home to Teletext Cars but was renamed to ‘Rabbit’ on the EPG recently. The ‘Rabbit’ service has now launched. The service enables viewers to text in and get their messages put on-screen and also allows them to send in pictures of themselves & have them displayed on the channel. ‘Rabbit’ is very much like one of those Sky dating channels. It’s all done using MHEG technology so it’s quite impressive what features it has when you think it’s only an MHEG application.
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