Radio and Telly UK Digital TV News

As we reported in December 2009, the digital text service from Teletext vanished from our screens. The owners, Associated Newspapers, stated that the service had been making a loss and that there was no longer a viable business model under which the service could continue. The service finally switched off on the 16th of December 2009.

That’s not the end of the story though, as some teletext services from Teletext Ltd are still being broadcast, notably Teletext Holidays (which presumably is still able to generate some cash) and some services for Channel 4.

A couple of days ago, Ofcom, the UK regulators, announced that it has revoked Teletext Ltd’s licence to provide a public teletext service. The reason? Teletext is no longer providing news and regional content. Ofcom contacted Teletext Ltd, and on the 26th January, Teletext wrote back, stating that they’d not be reinstating the news and regional content. Accordingly, OfCom had no choice by to revoke Teletext Ltd’s licence.

As far as we can tell, the revocation applies to the public service licence for analogue TV and Freeview – which means that commercial services are probably not affected, and services on other platforms, such as Sky, need not be affected either.

At this time, it’s not clear to us what services will continue to be offered by Teletext Ltd. A service (of sorts) is still available on Freeview channel 101, and other text services in the 100 number range are still operating. We’re not sure whether any of these are set to cease as a result of the revocation, or whether the licence now gets open to a potential new licensee (although in this current climate, we suspect this is unlikely). We’ve been told that subtitles service on page 888 won’t be affected.

Anyone out there actually using any of the various text-based red button services out there? Would you miss any of the services if they were switched off?

Show 48 of the UK’s TV and Tech podcast, FrequencyCast is out today.

Brought to you with a little help from Radio & Telly, the show takes a look at ways to get more from your telly and gets hands-on with two media players. We also run down the latest tech and TV news, and answer listener’s questions. If you ‘ve bot yet given the show a try, please do – you might just like it…

You can download Show 48 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html.

If you have an iPod or iPhone, get shows faster by signing up via iTunes.

Comments on the show, subject suggestions, and your questions, are always welcomed!

Share and Enjoy,

The FrequencyCast team
www.frequencycast.co.uk

Sky has today updated its offers, and there have been some odd changes.

For a start, the traditional Sky+ box seems to have vanished from the box lineup. Also, you can now only get the basic Sky box as a “multi-room” second box.

This means that the only box open to new customers, is Sky’s top-of-the-range Sky+ HD box (pictured).

You can get the Sky+ HD box for free, provided you sign to Sky’s £10-a-month HD service. Otherwise, take the Sky+ HD box without the HD channels for a one-off £49.

The intention here is clear – by withdrawing all but the HD box, it’s a push to get Sky HD boxes in as many homes as possible, hoping that as more of us get an HD-ready telly, we’ll want to get some HD programming on our tellies.

Still – while Sky’s doing this, it’s good news for new customers who get a top-end box that’s HD-enabled and with the new-style programme guide for nothing – making now a great time to sign up.

Details of Sky’s latest offer: Free Sky+ HD box. There’s also a £25 Marks and sparks voucher on offer too…

Remember Project Kangaroo? The service that was set to be a little like the BBC iPlayer but combining TV content from BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4. It was canned in 2009 after a review by the Competition Commission.

Well, it’s back. Now known as SeeSaw and with a slightly different offering, this is due to launch within the next few months offering TV content from a number of suppliers, most notably BBC Worldwide, on either a free, ad funded or pay-to-view model.

SeeSaw has just entered a public beta test phase, and if you’d be interested in trying out SeeSaw ahead of its public launch later this year, go to www.seesaw.com

We’ve created a new page, outlining what we know about see saw so far: SeeSaw Explored

From tomorrow, Friday the 22nd of January, until this coming Sunday, sports channel ESPN will be free-to-view.

The weekend’ sporting action will be free on Sky, Virgin, BT Vision, Top Up TV, TalkTalk TV and Freeview.

The lead event that will be shown free is the Inter vs AC Milan, live on Sunday night from 7pm (David Beckham). Other freebiews include Motherwell vs St Mirren, Juventus vs Roma, UFC Best of 2009, LA Lakers at NY Knicks, and more.

For details of how to watch ESPN, see our ESPN Sports page.

We’ve just completed our updated review of the Western Digital TV HD Media Player.

What is the WD TV HD Media Player? It’s a tiny box that lives next to your TV. Into this, plug a memory stick or a USB hard drive, then playback your video clips, music and audio files, or browse through your collection of photos and images.

It’s not one of those expensive media plays, and it’s not a PVR – It just does a simple job – plug in some media and show it on your TV… in HD. It has two USB sockets, an HDMI connector, digital audio out and a composite AV out.

Easy to use, and on special at one retailer for a little over £60.

See our updated review of the WD TV HD, with screenshots and photos, at radioandtelly.co.uk/wdtvhdmediaplayer.html

On the 7th of January 2010, the Tiscali TV service switched brands to “TalkTalk TV”.

This follows last year’s acquision of Tiscali by the Carphone Warehouse.

The Tiscali TV offering continues under the TalkTalk brand with no noticable changes, but at this time, we’re not clear on what Carphone Warehouse has in store for its new digital TV service.

More on TalkTalk TV

It’s been possible to get the BBC iPlayer on some Freesat boxes for a few days now, but you may need some help.

We’ve had emails from a number of visitors asking for help on getting access to the BBC’s catch-up iPlayer service on the Freesat platform, so we’ve put together a step-by-step guide.

Please go to www.radioandtelly.co.uk/freesatiplayer.html for full instructions.

Unhappy with the quality of the BBC HD channel? Tell the PM.

As we reported recently, various changes to the BBC HD channel bitrate have angered many HD viewers. The change has resulted in a 40% reduction in bitrate, although the BBC deny that this will have any noticeable affect on the viewing experience. That’s not how many viewers see it.

If you’re an HD viewer and are not happy with the reduction. There’s now a petition to ask the UK Government to apply a little pressure on the Beeb to restore the HD bitrate to its former 16Mbps rate.

If you want to sign, the petition is on the Number 10 website.

Proposed Internet TV service codenamed Project Canvas has been given the provisional go-ahead by the BBC Trust.

If you’re not familiar with Project Canvas, this is a venture between the players BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, BT and TalkTalk, to offer TV and Internet content on your TV over Broadband. Essentially a combination of a Freeview-like TV service and the BBC iPlayer.

Project Canvas will be an open platform offering catch-up TV services, on-demand TV content, Internet services and HD programming over Broadband.

Canvas set-top boxes could be available as early as December 2010. Cost is likely to be £200 for a Canvas box, but this may be subsidised by Broadband providers, to make the costs accessible to potential users.

Good news for DAB radio listeners – another DAB station has joined the national commercial channel – NME Radio.

According to Sammy Jacob, NME Radio’s Managing and Programming Director, “NME Radio is extremely passionate about the music it plays, especially the promotion of great new acts. Being able to share that passion with a wider audience will make it all the more worthwhile.”

The station went live on the national commercial DAB multiplex on 22nd December 2009 – you may need to perform a channel scan / auto-tune to get this new station.

Our podcast lads have been hard at work again, and a new audio podcast has just been released.

Catch up on the latest with Freeview HD, the new BT Vision box, more HD channels, some Freesat updates, plus your latest email feedback.

Listen online or download the update from www.frequencycast.co.uk/update.html. Or, if you have an iPod or iPhone, get us from the FrequencyCast Podcast page on iTunes.

Today sees the launch of another HD channel on Sky, bringing the total to 37 HD channels.

This new movies channel features a back catalogue of MGM movies that have been re-mastered into the HD format. The channel runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

MGM HD launched on Sky channel 345 today, the 14th December 2009.

To watch MGM HD, you will need to subscribe to both Sky Movies and Sky HD. If you don’t want to sign to Sky Movies, you can get MGM HD as a premium service for £5 a month.

See the updated Sky HD Channel Lineup.

From today, 14th December 2009, E4 goes HD.

The entertainment channel from Channel 4 will be broadcasting high definition content on Sky channel 215, bringing the total number of HD channels on Sky to 36.

E4 HD uses the 1080i HD format, and the channel is included in the Sky+ HD subscription package.

See the updated Sky HD Channel Lineup.

BT Vision has updated its BT Vision V+ set-top box

The new-style box now comes in shiny black, to match the BT Home Hub.

So, what’s new with this new box? Sadly, it doesn’t offer any new whizzy functionality. Some were expecting the new Vision box to support DVB-T2 (needed for Freeview HD), but this one doesn’t. What is does offer is a slight re-design, a new colour, and some changes to the components to make the box a reported 12% more energy efficient. In 2008, BT announced that Motorola would replace Philips as manufacturer of the Vision boxes, so this new box may by a Motorola – we can’t confirm that at this stage.

The new BT Vision V+ box is available for free until January 15th 2010 to new customers and so customers can pick up signing up to any of the BT Vision viewing packs. Full details of the BT Vision offer on BT Vision’s site.

The new-style box is not available to existing BT Vision customers.

More on BT Vision

Two new channels have just been added to the Freeview line-up, to co-incide with today’s launch of Freeview HD:

• BBC HD – Channel 50
• ITV1 HD – Channel 51

These channels have been added to the lineup for Crystal Palace, London. We also expect these to be added to Winter Hill (Manchester/Granada) shortly.

As a reminder, there are no Freeview HD receivers on the market in the UK capable of watching Freeview HD. Freeview HD will only be available in the London and Granada areas initially, and ITV1 HD is not set to launch until early next year.

More on Freeview HD on our Freeview HD section.

Our latest free podcast is out – Take a listen to our December edition of FrequencyCast.

FrequencyCast covers Digital TV in the UK, and in this show we look atthe upcoming launch of Freeview HD, an update on Freesat and the iPlayer and other TV and tech news.

In this new show, also look at wireless hotspots, a new kind of magical TV remote control, and a desktop Chumby. We also answer listeners emails, texts and podline calls.

If you’ve not tried FrequencyCast yet, please give us a try. Our shows are free – you can listen online, or download shows to your iPod, MP3 player or desktop computer.

The latest show is available now from http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html

Got iTunes? Add FrequencyCast to iTunes.

We hope you enjoy our Decemeber show!

Setanta Sports used to offer subscription to those with a Freeview TV or set-top box. Those with a Freeview TV needed something called a CAM, which is a metal card that slides into the TV set and accepts a subscription card.

Setanta used to sell these cards to customers. When Setanta ceased to offer their service in the UK, ESPN took over to offer a sports service to the UK, but they didn’t offer a CAM to customers. This left many potential ESPN subscribers scouring the net for old Setanta Sports CAMs

Until recently, viewers had to resort to EBay to get an old Setanta CAM, but a month or so back it became possible to get a suitable CAM direct from Top Up TV, who manage the UK ESPN subscriptions.

Now, ESPN CAMs are much easier to find, and you can pick one up quite cheaply online from Laskys.co.uk. These kits come with a CAM and subscription card (plus a month’s free ESPN).

For more details on getting a CAM for your Freeview TV, see our ESPN CAM page.

Nintendo Wii users will find a nice little present today – The BBC iPlayer channel.

Catch up with TV and radio from the last seven days streamed to your Wii console.

TV channels available are BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC News, BBC Parliament and BBC Alba.

Initial tests by the team here show the the service works well – and the picture quality is a huge improvement over the previous method of watching BBC iPlayer via the Wii’s web browser application.

The BBC iPlayer channel is free, and available from today on the Wii Shopping channel.

More on the BBC iPlayer

The BBC has just released their official timetable for the rollout of Freeview HD.

Manchester and London will be getting Freeview HD at the start of December, as the Winter Hill and Crystal Palace transmitters get the upgrade – although there are unlikely to be any set-top boxes available on the market at the time of launch.

The Freeview HD rollout has been accelerated with an advance network to allow Freeview viewers in London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Bradford and Birmingham to get Freeview HD by the end of March 2010, with 50% of the UK able to get HD by the end of June 2010.

Freeview’s Managing Director, Ilse Howling, said: “This is great news for the millions of Freeview homes and viewers who are looking forward to getting high definition with no subscription next year.”

For the full Freeview HD timetable, see our Freeview HD Information section.