Vintage TV is now live on Sky and Freesat. The channel, which launched on the 1st of September 2010,  is dedicated to the music, culture and fashions from 1940 to 1989.

Vintage TV promises an eclectic mix of music, classic and original programming and must-watch shows includes Me and Mrs Jones, a new take on the talk-show format fronted by veteran rock journalist Lesley-Ann Jones.  The channel also offers unique access to some incredible archive footage licensed from the BBC and Getty Images which will be incorporated into 500 brand-new music videos for songs which were recorded prior to the arrival of the video era.

An impressive line-up of famous faces will front the channel, led by legendary broadcaster and music expert Paul Gambaccini.  He is joined by David ‘Kid’ Jensen, YES keyboardist Rick Wakeman and Eighties pop singer Kim Wilde, as well as by Tony Blackburn and David Hamilton. See the Vintage TV website at www.vintage-tv.tv for details on their programming.

David Pick, former EMI executive and founder of Vintage TV said:  “Our content has been created using the latest tapeless technology.  There is consequently a wonderful back-to-the-future quality and feel to our programming which gives it a fresh, contemporary style.  The music we celebrate, from the fifty-year so-called ‘Golden Age’, was never intended to be here-today, gone-tomorrow entertainment.  Such music was crafted by some of the most legendary artists in history, and was made to last.  Their recordings have stood the test of time because people all over the world still want to listen to them.  They also set the impressively high standards for music being created today.  Thanks to Vintage TV, viewers will now be able to enjoy all the visual memories too.”

Vintage TV is available on Sky channel 369 and Freesat channel 515.

On the 3rd of September, free-to-view channel Virgin 1 gets a new name… Channel One.

The reason for the name change is that Sky recently acquired a number of Virgin Media-owned TV channels, including Living, Bravo and Virgin 1. Obviously, they have to lose their Virginity, and just as Virgin Radio became “Absolute Radio” when it was sold, Sky’s had to find a new name.

Channel One, under Sky’s ownership, will continue to run a similar mix of mostly US shows. One new addition to the programme lineup, is the recent re-make of the classic hamster-eating alien saga that was “V”. It’s already been shown on the subscription service SyFy, but will soon be free-to-air on Channel One too.

Sky Sports News will be leaving the Freeview lineup on Monday 23rd August 2010.

From this date, the Sky Sports News channel will be a subscription-only channel.

Sky Sports News HD also launches on Sky on 23rd August

The slot on Freeview will be replaced by Sky 3 + 1

With the 2010/11 football season fast approaching, BT Vision has just announced pricing for their Sky Sports service.

Ofcom recently ruled that Sky has to offer their sports content to other TV services at reasonable prices, and this has allowed BT Vision to be able to offer the most popular sports packages at prices significantly lower than Sky’s.

If you’re happy to get your phone and Internet from BT, you could get Sky Sports from just £6.99 a month.

BT’s price announcement comes on the same day as Sky announced that Sky customers will now have to pay an extra £3 a month for the full sporting package – something that will make the BT Vision option all the more appealing to those looking to get footy at a lower price.

There’s another value offer to BT Vision customers – free ESPN when you sign up to a Vision pack (saving £10 a month).

OK – With Sky Sports on BT Vision, you won’t get Sky Sports in HD or the Sky Sports News (due to be removed from Freeview soon), but you will be able to watch all of the football action at lower costs than you’d pay to Sky, and you get access to hundreds of hours of on-demand TV, plus catch up TV from BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five.

If you’ve discounted the BT Vision option in the past, now is definitely the time to take a fresh look, and we can help:

Our podcast team released a full 15 minute review of BT Vision on the 1st of July – Listen to our BT Vision Review

Also, check out the new BT Vision pricing for Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2 and ESPN at btvision.bt.com

A TV channel aimed squarely at the over 50′s is set to launch on Sky and Freesat in September.

The new TV channel, Vintage TV, will launch on the 1st of September 2010 offering unique content focussing on music and popular culture from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. The station will be fronted my music man and former Radio 1 star Paul Gambaccini.

Vintage TV plans to offer content from a number of TV company archives, as well as some home-grown content. Vintage TV will also broadcast new music videos for number of classic tracks that were recorded before the days of the music video.

Expect Vintage TV from 1st of September.

We’ve just had reports that Sky is planning to pull Sky Sports News from the Freeview lineup. The sports channel will be replaced by a “+1″ timeshifted version of the Sky Three channel.

The removal of Sky Sports News from Freeview is expected to occur later in 2010 (exact date not confirmed)

Customers of the Virgin Media TV service will soon be offered Sky Sports 1 HD, Sky Sports 2 HD and Sky Movies  HD.

Virgin’s HD channel lineup needs a boost, and the addition of Sky’s premium sport and movies channels is something that Virgin’s customers have been calling for, for a while.

The deal between Sky and Virgin for the HD content forms part of a deal that sees Virgin selling off their TV channels Bravo, Virgin 1, Living and Challenge to Sky.

No news as yet on when these channels will be coming to Virgin customers, of how much extra Virgin customers will have to pay for Sky’s HD content. Sky customers currently pay a £10 a month premium to watch the 40 Sky HD channels.

We’ll update you here, and on our digital TV podcast when we have more.

In order to allow Virgin Media to concentrate on its cable broadband operation, it has sold off its TV channels to Sky.

In a deal worth £160 million, Virgin has sold the following channels to satellite operator BSkyB:

• Virgin 1
• Bravo and Bravo 2
• LIVING and LIVINGit
• Challenge and Challenge Jackpot

Sky’s announced that Virgin 1 will change to a Sky brand in due course.

The deal also brings good news for Virgin Media customers, as Sky will be offering Sky Sports HD and Sky Movies HD, which have preiously only been available to satellite customers.

The Chief Exec of BSkyB, Jeremy Darroch,  said: “We are pleased that, through commercial negotiation, we have been able to ensure wide distribution of our channels to a growing pay TV universe.”

The deal is still subject to regulator approval.

Sky is about to launch the UK’s first 3D news channel.

Sky News HD will bring the total of Sky’s HD channels to 40, and they’re still planning to get to 50 by the end of the year.

More on Sky HD: Sky HD Explored

In the coming months, you’ll be able to get premium Sky content on Freeview HD boxes.

Sadly, this doesn’t mean that a bunch of Sky channels will actually be coming to Freeview (the Sky “Picnic” proposal), Sky content will be delivered to Freeview HD set-top boxes made by Humax in the form of Sky’s online service, Sky Player.

The Sky Player service is already available on the PC and Mac, and Sky’s keen to expand this service to games consoles and Internet-enabled TV hardware. Deals are already in place with Fetch TV and the 3View box, but the new deal between Sky and the leading Freeview HD box manufacturer Humax is a great step forward for getting Sky’s premium channels out there. It’s likely that the Humax Fox T2 Freeview HD box (pictured) will be getting a software update in the next couple of months to enable it to access Sky Player

Griff Parry from Sky says: “In providing both new and existing customers with more choice and control over how they access Sky content, we continue to harness secure and high-quality distribution platforms like Humax. We know that many Sky homes also have Freeview in other rooms, and this provides a great way for them to enjoy Sky away from their Sky box. And for new customers, particularly those in Freeview homes, it provides an innovative new access point to Sky’s high-quality pay TV content.”

Sky Player content is delivered via Broadband, and you’ll need to connect your Humax Freeview HD box to your Broadband router to get Sky’s content on your telly.

The service is set to become available “within months”, according to Sky.

ITV’s HD channel, ITV 1 HD, is finally available on Sky Digital and Virgin Media.

ITV HD launched in June 2008 as an exclusive to Freesat, but now is available to a wider audience.

The ITV 1 HD  channel has recently become available on Freeview HD, and as of the 2nd of April 2010, ITV 1 HD is available on Channel 178 of Sky, and on channel 113 on Virgin Media.

ITV 1 HD also gets its own channel on Freesat, channel 119, after previously only being available via the Freesat red button.

The channel Men and Motors will cease to broadcast, to free up resources for the ITV1 HD channel.

ITV 1 HD in Scotland and Northern Ireland: ITV does not have a licence to broadcast in Scotland or Northern Ireland -The companies STV and UTV hold the Channel 3 licences for those regions (respectively). STV will apparently be launching their own HD channel in the future. As a result, ITV 1 HD is not available on Freesat Channel 118 in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The workaround appears to be to put in an English postcode into your Freesat receiver (postcodes decide which regions you’ll be assigned). You’ll lose regional programmes, but gain ITV 1 HD.

Manly channel Men and Motors has closed today.

The channel which originally launched in 1996, has closed to make way for ITV1 HD on Sky and Virgin.

The station was on Freeview for a while, but was pulled in April 2006. At the time, this site, and our podcast FrequencyCast, were inundated with complaints about the station’s demise, and petitions were set up to keep Men and Motors station alive. No complaints as yet – maybe no-one’s noticed…

Miss the mix of cars, girls and lad content? Add a comment below…

Until today, Men & Motors, owned by ITV, was available on Sky Digital Channel 178, Virgin Media Channel 280 and Freesat channel 450.

Prices for Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 are set to fall following a ruling by UK TV regulator Ofcom.

Sky has enjoyed a virtual monopoly on sporting content for years, and have now been forced to reduce the wholesale price of their to premium sports channels, to allow other TV providers to offer the channels to their customers.

Sky customers currently pay around £35 a month for access to these Sky Sports packages (£17 for the basic service and an extra £18 a month for Sport).

One of Sky’s key rivals, BT Vision, has already announced plans to offer Sky Sports to its customers at a lower price than Sky, and we can expect Top Up TV to offer Sky Sports on their services. This could mean that UK customers will be able to get Sky Sports via a TV aerial before the 2010/11 football season starts.

BSkyB is not happy with the ruling, and will reportedly be appealing against the decision.

Expect upcoming announcements about cheaper Sky Sports packages in the near future.

Good news for Sky and Virgin HD customers – ITV appears to have bowed to pressure and agreed to let their HD service be shown on the pay platforms.

ITV 1 HD is currently available on Freesat (via the red button), and to the lucky few who can get Freeview HD, but from the 2nd of April, ITV 1 HD will be available as a dedicated channel on Sky and Virgin. It also looks likely that ITV 1 will be come its own channel on Freesat, and not hidden behind the red button.

The move means that ITV’s HD coverage of the World Cup will now be available to a greater HD audience.

Sky Digital has just upped the sign-up offer to new customers. As well as the free Sky offer, new customers can now get a £50 Marks and Spencer voucher by signing up online.

You’ll need to sign up by 25th March 2010 to get the voucher. The voucher will be sent within 45 days of activating your viewing. Only available for new customers. One voucher per household and only available for online subscriptions.

Details at www.sky.com/shop/tv

Sky is now offering a one Terabyte Sky+ HD box. This increases storage space for TV shows by four times.

The new Sky+ HD 1TB box offers all of the features of the normal  Sky+HD box (including Sky Anytime), but with much recording space – up to  240 hours of HD programming.

The 1 Terabtye Sky+ HD box is available now for £249. Full details at sky.com/1TB

Just a reminder that Sky is currently offering the standard Sky+ HD box for free, with a £25 M & S voucher for a limited time. A great time to get the HD box even if you don’t sign to the HD pack yet. Details on our Sky+ HD page or at Sky’s HD site.

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…

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.

It’s been announced that from ‘early 2010′, a number of Sky channels will be available on Freeview… soft of.

You may remember “Sky Picnic”, which was Sky’s proposed way of getting their pay-TV channels available to Freeview users. Picnic died about a year ago after trouble with the UK regulators.

Now, Sky over Freeview is back on the table, but this time through a link-up with UK firm IP Vision.

IP Vision are the firm behind the TV-over-Internet service Fetch TV. Their Smartbox 8000 (pictured) is a Freeview PVR that has an Internet connection. Fetch TV already offers a small selection of on-demand content, including content from the BBC iPlayer, and this week’s announcement will see Sky add their content to the Fetch TV offering.

Fetch TV 8000 Smartbox

According to Sky, Sky Player will be a standalone service on the Fetch TV box, offering a range of live TV channels (including Sky Movies, Sky Sport and entertainment channels). Existing Sky TV customers will be able to access a range of content for no extra cost based on their core subscription, whilst non-Sky customers will be able to sign up to a choice of TV packages via a monthly subscription paid directly to Sky.

More on Fetch TV on our Fetch TV section.

From 3rd August 2009, Virgin Media will be carrying the ESPN channel, which will show the 2009/10 Premier League matches originally intended to be shown by Setanta.

Earlier this month, ESPN came to an agreement with Sky to carry the Premier League matches on a new ESPN channel – now Virgin has signed up too. Both Virgin and Sky will also offer HD coverage of Premier League matches.

ESPN will be free to those on the Virgin Media TV XL package. It’s also available to ‘M’ and ‘L’ package customers for £10 (or £8 if you also subscribe to Sky Sports).

More information on our ESPN UK page