BBC3, BBC4 etc on EPG?

corm500

Hi There

According to the Sunday Times NTL Digital in Ireland is adding BBC3,BBC4,Cbeebies etc to their package wheras us sky digital subscribers can only access them through the other channels route. Another case of SKY not being arsed to spend a few bob to keep Irish customers happy.

Corm500

celticfc

The BBC Channels were added to ntl Digital a couple of weeks ago.

See here and here

corm500

oops. Musta missed that one.Looks like meself and the Sunday Times are behind the times. Even still I must have missed out on the palpable sense of outrage that there would have been on this forum.......there was outrage...wasn't there ?:(


corm500
(belatedly palpably outraged)

JDxtra

I emailed Sky and BBC Worldwide regarding the lack of BBC3, BBC4 etc on the EPG. They both just sent me round in loops saying I should contact the other and it was nothing to do with them.

Eventually somebody from Sky rang me and tried to explain the situation, which basically boiled down to "maybe in the future". Not very promising.

ShaneOC

Not outrage as such.

In fairness I was delighted to see that the extra BBC channels are on the NTL EPG. It means that the BBC are not against them being on "foreign" platforms. Hopefully Sky will now push a bit to get them on our EPG too.

I am planning on sending a nice letter to them to ask when we will get them (as well as ITV and Channel4).

DMC

Not much, it would be nice, I think some folk are used to the Other channels to get to the BBC channels. For me, News 24 is the same amount of keystokes on the remote as any channel number (Services, Other Channels, Select. Its at the top of my other channels list) 5 Live is one more.

For the Sky+ folk, though, they do not have the ability to record BBC channels other than BBC 1 or 2. It wont let them record from channels saved in other channels.

But NTL have trumped Sky, fair play, for once its Sky who have to equalise.....

corm500

The problem that I am finding with Other Channels is the Now/Next banner does simply that. There is no function to search the listings. Also having a Grundig box I find if you store anything over about 15 channels you can end up losing them.

I really like BBC3/BBC4 . This is what Digital TV should be about not TV shop +1 or whatever. I think I will drop a line to SKY myself, ask them why they are fumbling the ball in regards to NTL.

Corm500

DMC

Digiguide usually sorts that issue out for me.

Owenw

IMO the ball rests in the BBC's court since they decide whether or not to list their channels on the EPG (Sky charge about GB £8000 per channel per year if memory serves).

It would, however, be in Sky's interest to push them to add the channels to the Irish EPG to give them an excuse for the next price increases.

Of course if Sky enabled manual recording of Other Channels for Sky+ users that would be a step in the right direction. I can't see them doing this somehow.

ShaneOC

The BBC don't care about listing the channels on the Irish EPG. I think it is more up to Sky to arrange carriage with BBC Worldwide (the commercial arm of the BBC) in the same way that they did for BBC1 and BBC2. I would imagine that this is what NTL did.

Koyaanisqatsi

I'm sure its a bummer for people hoping to get a Sky+ Box in Ireland.
The BBC channels are still the most watchable (and most recordable)
on UK satellite.
You would have thought Sky, in their quest to have all viewers replace their
Digiboxes with Sky+ boxes would persuade the Beeb to do this.