Two national radio stations vanish this month

Two national radio stations broadcasting on DAB are shutting down this week:

Speech-based radio station OneWord is to shut down on 12th January 2008. The station started back in 2000. Owners UBC Media laid off staff back in December, and the station will fall silent in a couple of days.

Music station Core, owned by GCap, is also set to close on Friday the 11th of January.

Sky HD price dropped

Sky has just annouced a drop in price for their HD set-top box. Their combined Sky HD / Sky + box is now £249 (was £299). If you take out Sky's High Definition service with Sky's Broadband, home phone service and Sky Multiroom, the price drops to £199. Details of Sky's HD service can be found on our Sky HD page.

BT Vision coming to X-Box

BT Total Broadband customers will soon be able to get TV, movies and high-definition gaming on an Xbox 360.It's been announced that the BT Vision TV-on-demand service is expected to be available on X-box 360 consoles from mid-2008, according to an announcement by Bill Gates on the 6th of January.

Existing BT Vision set-top boxes are running Microsoft's IPTV software. The new partnership between BT and Microsoft brings some potential new opportunties to both parties - A large collection of TV shows and movies available on demand, plus access to Xbox LIVE® on one box. Available services will include voice chat, sending and receiving text and voice messages, as well as access to Xbox LIVE Marketplace, all while watching TV. The quoted example of such integration is that of a footy fan wating a live match on BT Vision Sport having a voice chat abot the game over XBox Live, then playing FIFA Soccer with his friend after the match.

The service will be available to existing and future Xbox 360 owners from the middle of 2008, and it's expected that BT will be selling the Xbox consoles pre-loaded with BT Vision. No pricing has been announced as yet.

More on BT Vision: http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/btvision.html.

Show 22 of our Digital TV podcast now online

To welcome in the New Year, our podcast team has just released a new FrequencyCast show.

FrequencyCast Show 22, our first TV and Tech podcast of 2008, covers the following topics:

• News Updates: Updates planned to Freeview Playback, two new HD channels, news of two new DAB radios, delays to Channel 4's DAB service, free films from BT and a patch to the Home Hub.


• TV accessories: Carl and Pete look at a wide range of accessories available to enhance your TV viewing, including flashy remotes, AV sender, surround sound, Apple TV, TV-B-Gone, SCART switchers and surge protectors.


• SatNav New Stuff: A quick look at one of the new TomTom devices - take a listen to what's on offer from today's satnav devices.


• Your Questions: Listeners questions on iPod Jailbreaking, Freeview Playback, FreeSat, DVD connectivity and Ex-pats TV.

You can download Show 22 direct to your MP3 player, listen online, or view the show notes at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/cast22.html