SKY Channels, etc; ..Week # 29.1

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  Radio Ruderham Posts: 13,776

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  17/07/06 - 12:12 #2

  * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
  [highlight] Bits of Radio news[/highlight]

  
  1. If you are one of those Techy people who like new stuff then there is an Advanced car radio claimed to improve reception in critical signal conditions (MediaNetwork)
  
  2. Ofcom have set out its approach for the second round of community radio licensing. Community radio licences, provided on a not-for-profit basis, cover small geographical areas and focus on the delivery of specific social benefits. The Community Radio Order 2004 paved the way for Ofcom to make these new kinds of radio licences available in the UK. During the first round of community radio licensing Ofcom awarded 107 licences from a total of 194 applications. Ofcom has received 184 letters of intent to apply for a community radio licence in the second round of licensing. (merrymedia.co.uk)
  
  3. Ofcom proposes to legalise the use of low power FM transmitters (which are currently unauthorised for use in the UK and Europe because of the potential to cause interference to broadcast services) can be used to connect MP3 players and other personal audio devices wirelessly to radios and in-car entertainment systems. Ofcom says it’s responding to growing consumer demand for the use of these devices and has led negotiations in Europe to develop a harmonised approach to their use by late autumn 2006. Also Ofcom proposes Deregulation of CB radio services, allowing around 20,000 licensees to use short range transmitters for hobby and leisure purposes without the administrative and cost burden of an Ofcom licence. Ofcom says the deregulation of Citizens’ Band services could also support the growth of Community Audio Distribution Systems (CADs), simple and inexpensive wireless public address systems which are used to transmit local community services. (Medianetwork)

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  [highlight] Newsie Bits [/highlight]

  
  1. There might be some good news for long term subscribers See this (castle)
  
  2. From Sky Programme Information :- With a wealth of live sport now produced in High Definition, Sky Sports will launch a second HD service on July 31. Sky Sports HD2 will be broadcast on channel 409 and will simulcast one Sky Sports channel’s schedule each day. Listings are now available for Sky Sports HD2. All live Barclays Premiership matches, Coca-Cola League games, Guinness Premiership rugby union and domestic county and international cricket are now produced in HD.( Ian Cleverly)
  
  3. DS Contributer TVDX has contacted National Geographic regarding widescreen broadcasting and here was the response he got: Hello, Thanks for taking the time to write into us. We are expecting National Geographic Channel to be going widescreen at some point in September. Please do write back nearer the time for confirmation. Regards, Natgeoweb. The Thread
  
  4. A survey of Which? magazine subscribers suggests good reliability of digital set-top boxes, with an average of 89% up to four years old still functioning perfectly. But digital TV recorders seem to be less reliable, with one device in six requiring a repair over the past two years.More [url=www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?class=countries&subclass=0&id=1801Here[/url]
  
  5. Treasures TV to Close Published: Friday 14th July 2006. Treasures TV will soon be closing it's doors for the very last time. The channel launched in November 2005 suffered due to Sky originally placing the channel at postion 781. Only recently the channel was moved to it's more shopping friendy location of Sky 674. From Shopping Telly. Quite a few shopping channels have been closing lately: We Deliver TV, 2Shop TV, Star Bazaar TV and now Treasures TV. In addition, OneTV and GDTV might be closing as well...(skyisthebest)
  
  6. Channel Five will launch its digital channel, Five US, in the autumn with the popular CSI: Crime Scene Investigation drama franchise after securing a secondary rights deal with the show's distributor, Alliance Atlantis.
  
  7. Disgruntled licensees are urging pubs to kick out Sky as a response to the satellite operators latest price hike. Licensees have contacted The Publican to vent their anger at Sky's 13 per cent annual increase for pubs, coming into effect on August 1. One publican is even proposing to launch a national media campaign calling for pubs to boycott Sky. (Thanks keith99)
  
  8. Standby buttons on digital TVs, set-top boxes and digital TV recorders could be phased out under the Government's energy review, due to be published this week. The Sunday Times have reported that ministers want to "do away" with standby buttons after being told that household heating, lighting and entertainment accounts for 27% of the UK's energy usage—and that a sixth of that is taken up by consumer electronics items. (dtg.org.uk)
  
  9. ITV are expected to tell staff it is closing its in-house children's production units with the loss of around 30 jobs, in what could be the first step in a withdrawal from children's programming. Full Story Sub Required, Meanwhile is ITV2+1 just around the corner? Quite a few folk think so. (Skyisthebest)
  
  
  10. UK media regulator Ofcom has helped secure international backing for the country's plan to switch to digital television transmissions by 2012.Because broadcast signals from the UK can interfere with those in neighbouring countries (and vice versa) it is necessary for nations to agree on international frequency plans to limit such interference. Led by Ofcom, the UK delegation to the International Telecommunication Union's Regional Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva achieved all its objectives to secure a transition from analogue broadcasting to digital that will be free from international constraints, coming to agreements with France, the Netherlands, Belgium and the Republic of Ireland, among many others. {url=www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?class=countries&subclass=0&id=1770] Key outcomes, Click Here.[/url]
  
  11. Digital terrestrial television has overtaken analogue for the first time, and it could overtake Sky’s pay-TV service on digital satellite by the end of the year. Ofcom's latest digital progress report shows that digital television was viewed by 72.5% (18.2m) UK television households—up from 69.5% at the end of 2005. Ofcom said digital take-up is growing faster than expected: its previous quarterly update forecast an extra 1.7m homes would take up digital television in 2006. By the end of March almost 800,000 extra households had already done so. According to Ofcom, the number of free-to-view digital households (Freeview plus free-to-view satellite) is estimated to have grown by 9.7% from January to March to over 7.7m. (DTG/Ofcom)
  
  12. The Film Four Saga, Geoff274544 has had a letter from Sky concerning Film Four, stating that; FilmFour will be free to customers from 20th July 2006. The existing service will stop on the 19th, then on the 20th, FilmFour launches their new (as letter claims) Free to Air service. It also states if you have any FilmFour Recordings on Sky+ to watch them by 19th July. Current subscribers will be able to record FilmFour as usual from the 23rd July, 3 days after the final payment. More on this from Skyisthebest The final night/early morning of the 'old' FilmFour will be Wed 19th/Thur 20th July. Then there will be a gap of a few days where 'Previews' of the 'new' FilmFour will be shown. Then, the free films will start on Sunday 23rd July. MediaGaurdian is reporting that Film 4's big opening night premiere, the Oscar-winning Lost in Translation, may have one of the most ambiguous endings in recent film history, but the broadcaster is hoping for a more traditionally Hollywood conclusion to its plans to launch a free movie channel.
  
  13. Cartoon Network is to become the latest broadcaster to launch its own broadband TV service. The Turner Broadcasting network has signed a two-year deal with Premium TV, best known for its work with the Football League, to launch the service branded SuperCartoonNetwork.co.uk. The service will be regularly updated with shows from the Cartoon Network library including Xiaolin Showdown, Ben 10 and Foster's Home and will be gradually rolled out across Europe. Taken from Broadband TV News (Ian Cleverly)
  
  14. Slingboxes—convergent media devices allowing consumers to watch their living room TV programming from wherever they are via a broadband connection—have gone on sale in the UK. More on this here.
  
  15. Hit Entertainment has confirmed plans to launch a new kids channel but has decided against entering the UK market according to this. (Dr Amore)
  
  16. Our intrepid Magazine trawler Analoguesat has found this, The French government officially launched the French International News Network (CFII), known as "French CNN," and promised to make it operational by the end of 2006. The idea of the channel, advocated by French President Jacques Chirac since February 2002, aims to rival Britain's public broadcaster, the BBC, and the United States television network, CNN. The Site
  
  17. SES-Astra have announced that, starting next year, they will be transmitting all their digital satellite services with “basic encryption”. This plan was set out in statement by the company in February 2006 made jointly with the commercial TV broadcasters in the RTL-Group and the Pro7/SAT1 networks. Germany’s public service broadcasters strongly reject the plans for “basic encryption” being pursued by the satellite operator SES-Astra (Media Network) I think this may only apply to Astra positions,1 & 3. (RR.)
  

  [highlight] HD SECTION (HiDef) [/highlight]

  
  1. Sky may be forced to re-programme thousands of high-definition (HD) set-top boxes following problems with the technology that are understood to be affecting 30% of subscribers. According to a report in Scotland's Sunday Herald newspaper, the dominant UK pay-television provider may have to reset up to 10,000 boxes for customers who are complaining of their HD pictures freezing and of hearing unexplained background noise. The article claims that the problem could take several months to resolve. It is believed that the high-definition TVs affected are mainly Pioneer models, though other brands are also under scrutiny—and at least three out of every ten sets are causing problems. This may lead to both Sky and the TV manufacturers in question having to re-engineer their technology's software. Sky would most likely do this via an upgrade downloaded to customers' homes.
  
  2. Toshiba's president says the Japanese consumer electronics giant still favours a unified format for the next generation of DVDs, despite the recently launched format war between the Toshiba-backed HD-DVD and Blu-ray standard promoted by rival Sony. Toshiba and Sony attempted to collaborate last year on a unified standard, but talks broke down when each party insisted that their format was the only reasonable way forward. (DTG.org)
  
  3. ITV has announced it is to team up with the BBC, Channel 4 and five for the technical trial of high definition (HD) television in London. The BBC will conduct a London trial of high-definition television (HDTV) on the digital terrestrial platform. and on both cable systems.
  
  

  [highlight]Other Stuff [/highlight]
  Further to the Wannat category, I found this; Panasonic is to start selling super-sized plasma television screens measuring 103-inches diagonally by early 2007. The plasma screens (the largest available in the world) are expected to be snapped up in the US to be used as electronic billboards and giant studio monitors. More Here
  *****
  For those of you who are interested in FTA only transmissions
  I’ve included this link
  Want to know about Regional TV for your area? Here is a map.
  A full line-up of Sky’s EPG can be found here
  
  Some sites of further interest
  SES Astra website.
  Eutelsat
  Everything analogue
  More Satellite News Here
  You can always try this site for more info!
  Get Free Digital TV Here
  Sky’s HD site includes jargon buster information on buying an H.D.-ready TV.
  If you are thinking about an HD set, or, if you want to know more about WideScreen,
  then This site is a must.
  ~~~~~
  [highlight] Here are the credits;[/highlight]
  I’d like to give my thanks to the regular contributors of this thread,
  making what I do much easier.
  In no particular order they are,
  Analoguesat, DigiMan, Skyisthebest, Sky Fan, James Vertigan, swine1, Paddy C, Clacton Crew, lynam, simax, astra19E, Anthony Haines, Classics TV, Ian Cleverly, digitalsatman, bendolino, Craigsteele2001, 2fabiola, Lunar, TV Duniya, matwood , TV Ideas, i am not here, djrich, Disco, robcole2004, milktrolley, D.Sky D.

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  [Deleted User] Posts: 2,169

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  17/07/06 - 12:28 #3

  Mr Ruderham, can I just say, keep up the good work.
  
  Now I have a question, when did ESPN Classic start on ch 442?
  
  I tell you, you turn away from the tele for 5 minutes!
  
  JC

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  daniel99 Posts: 12,119

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  17/07/06 - 12:30 #4

  It started a few months ago mate!

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  [Deleted User] Posts: 2,169

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  17/07/06 - 12:36 #5

  daniel99 wrote:

  It started a few months ago mate!

  
  I guess that's what happens when you don't go to the sports section often!
  
  Cheers daniel
  
  JC

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  petestan Posts: 3,548

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  17/07/06 - 12:53 #6

  Hi Radio Ruderham is there supposed to be a link to the story about the reliability of digital set top boxes, (newsie bits no. 4), if so it's not there, sorry.

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  Radio Ruderham Posts: 13,776

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  17/07/06 - 14:17 #7

  tough_ref wrote:

  Mr Ruderham, can I just say, keep up the good work.

  
  Thank you for your kind words, but then, you'd need to thank every-one else who contribute to this thread.
  So on behalf of them Thanks again.
  
  

  petestan wrote:

  Hi Radio Ruderham is there supposed to be a link to the story about the reliability of digital set top boxes, (newsie bits no. 4), if so it's not there, sorry.

  
  
  Sorry there's a wee glitch that's been sorted for Thursday,
  it should read;
  
  4. A survey of Which? magazine subscribers suggests good reliability of digital set-top boxes, with an average of 89% up to four years old still functioning perfectly. But digital TV recorders seem to be less reliable, with one device in six requiring a repair over the past two years.More Here
  
  5. Treasures TV to Close Published: Friday 14th July 2006. Treasures TV will soon be closing it's doors for the very last time. The channel launched in November 2005 suffered due to Sky originally placing the channel at postion 781. Only recently the channel was moved to it's more shopping friendy location of Sky 674. From Shopping Telly. Quite a few shopping channels have been closing lately: We Deliver TV, 2Shop TV, Star Bazaar TV and now Treasures TV. In addition, OneTV and GDTV might be closing as well...(skyisthebest)

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  [Deleted User] Posts: 2,169

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  17/07/06 - 14:19 #8

  Radio Ruderham wrote:

  Thank you for your kind words, but then, you'd need to thank every-one else who contribute to this thread.
  So on behalf of them Thanks again.

  
  My bad!
  
  Guys, between you, you all do a great job. Keep it coming.
  
  JC

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  [Deleted User] Posts: 21

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  17/07/06 - 19:10 #9

  Honey TV on your list is already on the EPG (959)

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  [Deleted User] Posts: 5,258

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  18/07/06 - 03:20 #10

  What was new this week (and last..) I been away for 2 weeks working.. so been out of the loop

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  System Posts: 2,096,970

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  18/07/06 - 10:13 #11

  No channels have launched this week as far as I can see unless you count "All in Sport" on 844 (?) which was changed from The Poker Channel yesterday.

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  Radio Ruderham Posts: 13,776

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  18/07/06 - 10:23 #12

  Have A Nice Day wrote:

  No channels have launched this week as far as I can see unless you count "All in Sport" on 844 (?) which was changed from The Poker Channel yesterday.

  
  
  ...............and may, or may not be moved to the sport section.
  It was showing :yawn: fishing :yawn: this morning, when I looked!

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  Radio Ruderham Posts: 13,776

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  18/07/06 - 11:09 #13

  Sky has turned its big guns on the UK's broadband service providers amongst them BT and NTL, by offering its 8m digital television subscribers free internet access at 2 Mbps, whatever TV package they take. Sky opened advanced registrations for its broadband service today, and kicked off a multi-million pound advertising campaign featuring the strapline 'uploads, downloads, save loads'. The full service will be launched in August. More Info and here is the Offer

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  skyisthebest Posts: 4,384

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  18/07/06 - 12:40 #14

  The Ofcom list has been updated:
  
  New Licences:
  
  1404 Baby First TV
  1405 Ariana International
  1406 Nobok Television
  1407 MAVTV
  1408 Countryside TV
  1409 All In Sports
  
  Anyone good at spotting renames?
  'Monte Carlo TV' looks like a rename from something else.

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  Radio Ruderham Posts: 13,776

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  18/07/06 - 13:13 #15

  skyisthebest wrote:

  The Ofcom list has been updated:
  
  New Licences:
  
  1404 Baby First TV
  1405 Ariana International
  1406 Nobok Television
  1407 MAVTV
  1408 Countryside TV
  1409 All In Sports
  
  Anyone good at spotting renames?
  'Monte Carlo TV' looks like a rename from something else.

  
  
  YO! Dude, any web linx before I list 'em For Thursday

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  skyisthebest Posts: 4,384

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  18/07/06 - 13:24 #16

  Radio Ruderham wrote:

  YO! Dude, any web linx before I list 'em For Thursday

  
  Only:
  
  Nobok Television: www.nobok.com (licence might not be intended for UK - ie for other satellites).
  
  All In Sports is already broadcasting so dont need a web link for that. The licence lists the Poker Channel website - but the actual website is www.allinsport.co.uk

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  speculator Posts: 2,427

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  18/07/06 - 13:51 #17

  This is a new radio licence
  

  Top 40 on 40
  Service will be known as Top 40 on 40. Service is a music channel dedicated to playing the Top 40 pop chart hits in a countdown form. The list changes each week based on the weekly charts.
  
  ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 12/07/06
  LICENCE EXPIRY DATE: 12/07/2100
  
  www.worldspace.com

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  [Deleted User] Posts: 4,940

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  18/07/06 - 13:56 #18

  Worldspace - its for their L-band subscription radio service, not Sky I'd guess.

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  GrahamBCFC Posts: 506

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  18/07/06 - 14:08 #19

  skyisthebest wrote:

  
  Anyone good at spotting renames?
  'Monte Carlo TV' looks like a rename from something else.

  
  Renames
  #1271 Monte Carlo TV (was Quiz Nation)
  #910 Sky Vegas 845 (was Sky Vegas Live)
  #1102 Sky Vegas 846 (was Sky Vegas Live 2)
  
  Removed
  #1045 Channel 6
  #1115 Diet & Fitness TV
  #1345 Poker Channel +1

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  GrahamBCFC Posts: 506

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  18/07/06 - 14:08 #20

  skyisthebest wrote:

  
  Anyone good at spotting renames?
  'Monte Carlo TV' looks like a rename from something else.

  
  Renames
  #1271 Monte Carlo TV (was Quiz Nation)
  #910 Sky Vegas 845 (was Sky Vegas Live)
  #1102 Sky Vegas 846 (was Sky Vegas Live 2)
  
  Removed
  #1045 Channel 6
  #1115 Diet & Fitness TV
  #1345 Poker Channel +1

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  [Deleted User] Posts: 4,940

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  18/07/06 - 14:14 #21

  Channel 6 moving solely to their Irish licence then, clearly.

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  Ian Cleverly Posts: 10,706

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  18/07/06 - 16:20 #22

  Radio Ruderham wrote:

  11.642 V
  50925_____Showing True Movies [Txp move, or test for new Chart Show channel?] (Skyisthebest)

  
  Changed to BT Media Test Slide Thingy.

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  Radio Ruderham Posts: 13,776

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  18/07/06 - 23:01 #23

  In late September I may have to bring the postings to a weekly event.
  Either Monday or Thursday.
  I am involved with the launching of a [highlight]Brand New [/highlight] Community Radio Station for Midlothian, called,
  Black Diamond FM.
  Which hopefully should be on Air, Late Sept/Early October.
  I will let you know long beforehand and on the Update banner on the top of the page.
  Just so you know, I haven't dissappeared for days on end.
  Fun times await us all. :rolleyes: :cool:

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  System Posts: 2,096,970

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  18/07/06 - 23:42 #24

  Will it be on Sky ? LOL
  
  Good luck with it, thats a great name for a radio station.
  
  Anyway, wiill it be a rock music station? or just commercial pop from the charts? OR is it a chat station? You don't say/

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  skyisthebest Posts: 4,384

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  19/07/06 - 01:35 #25

  Whilest flicking through the channels, i noticed that OneTV (667) is no longer showing the promo on a loop. The channel is now showing 'PNC Mobile' programming (selling mobile phones).
  
  I guess that either the PNC Mobile programming is just being used to fill the time until OneTV returns OR PNC Mobile has bought the channel slot from OneTV.....
  
  Meanwhile, GDTV (672) is still showing the OneTV promo on a loop....

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  digitalsatman Posts: 7,057

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  19/07/06 - 05:25 #26

  [HIGHLIGHT]BREAKING NEWS[/HIGHLIGHT]
  
  Pace PVR3 Sky+ boxes have now recieved EPG Software version 4.10.c. Any repots of hard drive failures?

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