Netplay TV should be appearing on Freeview Channel 48 from the 8th of January 2009.

This is an interactive games channel offering casino and live bingo.

Price-Drop TV is to vanish from Freeview in January 2009.

From their website on 1st January: “As a valued customer of our channels, I wanted to personally inform you that our price-drop tv Freeview contract expireson 5th January 2009. However, you can still catch price-drop on Sky 645, Virgin TV 741, Freesat 801 and online at www.price-drop.tv. As a Freeview customer, you will be able to continue receiving fantastic value on all our products at prices well below the High Street on bid tv channel 23 hosted by your favourite presenters.”

Got HD and home cinema at home? The BBC has just released a high-definition version of its test card to allow users to calibrate their screen. The test card lasts 90 seconds and is in the BBC HD preview two hour loop that runs when there’s no HD programming being offered.

Full details on the BBC Internet Blog

Due out in May 2009, this is a must-see for any radio enthusiast.

From the makers of Four Weddings, Notting Hill and Love Actually, this is a comedy set on a Rusty Ship – a 1960′s pirate radio station moored off the UK coast.

Clearly based on Radio Caroline, the station’s called Radio Rock, and has an all-star cast. Bound to be a hoot. There’s a clip on YouYube for your enjoyment… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnQc3lO4JDs

The Humax FOXSAT-HDR is now available. This is a high-definition Freesat PVR with a 320 gig hard drive, for recording up to 200 hours of subscription-free TV.

The FOXSAT-HDR supports series link (including radio series), pause/rewind of live TV, plus an 8-day Electronic Programme Guide.

Stocks appear to be quite limited but you can buy online at Comet and John Lewis

We’ve created a page on this new high-spec Freesat recorder: Humax Foxsat-HDR

Disney’s Cinemagic movie channel is set to go HD from December on Sky. Disney Cinemagic HD will be showing premiers of Ratatouille and Tinkerbell over the Christmas period, as well as The Incredibles and Sleeping Beauty in HD from early 2009.

More: Sky HD

Freesat’s channel lineup had one important omission, until this week. Five is finally available on Freesat, on channel 105. No news on Fiver or Five US yet.

More on Freesat

It’s been confirmed that Five will finally be added to the Freesat lineup from 18th November 2008.

Radio station Mojo is to be removed from the Freeview lineup on 30th November 2008.

The Digital Switchover has started in earnest. On the 6th of November 2008, analogue services from the Selkirk transmitter were switched off.

According to The Scotsman, 52,000 households are served by the transmitter, and 97% of them were ready.

Close to the Switch? See Digital Switchover Help

Good news for Virgin customers – Sky channels will be available once again.

In the Spring of 2007, a bunch of Sky Digital channels vanished from Virgin’s platform as a result of a protracted dispute between Virgin Media and BSkyB.

Well, it’s all over, and the Sky channels are set to return – it’ll be possible to view the following channels from the 13th of November 2008:

Sky 1, Sky 2, Sky 3, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Arts and Sky Real Lives.

Good news for Virgin Media customers!

Tonight’s BBC Watchdog programme featured a news story that we’ve been running here at Radio & Telly for a number of months.

In July and August 2008, around 250,000 Freeview boxes stopped working – older boxes with a chip from defunct company SetPal couldn’t cope with the larger number of channels now on Freeview, and a transmitter update started killing the boxes.

The affected Freeview receivers are: Bush IDVCR01, Daewoo DS608P, Daewoo SV900, Labgear DTT100, Portland DP100 and Triax DVB2000T

Well done to Watchdog for finally bringing this to a wider audience. On our podcast, FrequencyCast, we’ve been pushing this story for a while. For more on the story, go to FrequencyCast’s Freeview Box Landfill page, where we explore faulty Freeview boxes in more details.

If you’ve not tried our free online radio show, give us a try – listen online or download our shows as a podcast, and stay up-to-date with the latest Freeview news.

We’ve just released another in our series of tech and TV podcasts.

In FrequencyCast Show 32, Carl and Pete talk about the future of Shortwave, review Tiscali TV, recharge with a Power Chimp and celebrate Blue Peter’s 50th. In the news, we look at Freeview HD, and a Freesat PVR, plus new HD channels and the demise of Channel 4 radio.

Download Show 32 direct to your MP3 player, or listen online at www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html

Got an iPod or iPhone? Get new shows and updates first by signing up via http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=142899029

Share and enjoy!

BT Vision customers with kids in the house will be pleased to know that a deal’s been done with Disney to make shows and movies from the Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney available on BT’s TV service. Users can view shows on a pay-per-view basis, or as part of the BT Vision Kids Pack.

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

Lad’s channel Nuts TV is set to lose its Freeview slot early next year.

It’s reported that channel owner Turner Broadcasting plans to replace Nuts TV with News channel CNN International. The Nuts TV slot is only a four hour slot, from 9pm to 1am

Nuts TV’s 9pm to 1am slot on Freeview is set to be replaced by four hours of the news channel CNN, according to Turner Broadcasting. Expect Nuts TV to vanish early in 2009.

Last chance to pick up a Sky+ High Definition box for just £75.

Sky’s top offer of a half-price Sky+ HD box is set to end on Friday the 31st of October 2008. You can also get a £15 credit when ordered online at packages.sky.com/see/EquipmentSkyHD.aspx.

Two new channels will be added in November, bringing the total to 26. Here’s the list:

• Channel 4 HD
• BBC HD
• Sky1 HD
• FX HD
• Sky Arts HD
• Luxe TV HD
• Sky Real Live HD
• Sky Premier HD
• Sky Screen 1 HD
• Sky Screen 2 HD
• Sky Comedy HD
• Sky Action HD
• Sky Family HD
• Sky Drama HD
• Sky Movies Sci-Fi & Horror HD
• Sky Modern Greats HD
• Sky Sports 1 HD
• Sky Sports 2 HD
• Sky Sports 3 HD
• Eurosport HD
• Rush HD
• Discovery HD
• National Geographic HD
• History HD
• Crime & Investigation HD
• Biography HD

More at http://packages.sky.com/see/EquipmentSkyHD.aspx, or on our Sky HD page

The first Freesat hard-disk recorder will be on the market from mid-November 2008.

The Humax FOXSAT-HDR is a high-definition Freesat PVR with a 320gig hard drive (for up to 200 hours of TV content).

The FOXSAT-HDR supports series link (including radio series), pause/rewind of live TV, plus an 8-day Electronic Programme Guide

We’ve created a page on this new high-spec Freesat recorder: Humax Foxsat-HDR

From mid-October 2008, BT Vision boxes started being automatically updated to a new version of software.

The new version, v1.2.14642.556, includes the following improvements:

• 5 minutes will be automatically added to the end of any new recordings you set up
• Clearer information will be provided about recording clashes, or when you try to watch a channel while recording two other channels
• Some user interface and stability improvements

A channel slot opened up on Freeview recently, and in October 2008, it’s been confirmed that a channel from the Discovery stable will be coming to Freeview in early 2009. The channel won’t be branded as Discovery, and will be free-to-view.