Discovery +1.5

byte

I've just noticed Discovery +1.5 on Sky 549. It runs 90 mins behind the main channel

I find it odd, considering they already have a +1 timeshift channel.

Will this cause a new wave of further +1.5 channels, I wonder...

steveon

I think +1 is a good idea, but id rather more channels than the option of 90 minute delay

byte

If this was to become a new trend, would we see more channels being squeezed onto a transponder, making picture quality even worse with over compression? Hell, some channels are bad enough as it is. Perhaps a ploy to make SkyHD look even better!

Tonio

Most +1 channels are a total waste IMO. I realise a relatively small % of people have sky+ but channels such as UK Gold and Discovery repeat programmes so often that I would have thought there is little need for +1 channels

byte

I use the +1 channels on occasion with Sky+ if there happens to be 2 things I want to record at the same time (thus I can watch something else).

aidan_walsh

Nah, I reckon +1 channels are a great idea, especially if two shows that you want to watch happen to be scheduled at the same time, or you lose track of time and miss the original broadcast (as often happens with me and Heroes).

Not sure that +1.5 really works in the same way, IMO, unless you're talking about a movie channel. Most regular TV shows don't fit neatly into a 90 minute slot, unlike +1 channels.

Ranicand

Will that new channel bee on my new sky telly?

dulpit

I quite like the +1 channels, what i find is that an awful lot of the time is that there'll be a program on at half past the hour, clashing with something that started on the hour, so i'd watch the 1st half hour of program 1, then switch over & watch the 2nd program, then go to the +1 to get the last half hour of the 1st program...

Will these channels start to become redundant though? With the growing prevalence of Sky+ I mean...

willg

Can't see this Discovery +1.5 channel being a permanent fixture, I think it's a placeholder for some future channel revamp by Discovery. The +1/+2 channels are a good addition and I find them very useful. Having a +1 & +1.5 offset for the same channel seems pointless and a waste of transponder bandwidth IMHO.

JohnDigital

The main reason behind these time shift versions is to draw more viewership to those stations so that they get more advertising revenue. It has been seen in the UK that +1 version of stations can help to grow a stations audience significantly, often to the tune of 20%-30%. The cost of broadcasting a time shift version to the UK with its massive viewership potential is rather insignificant by comparison to Ireland.

The cost of providing a time shift for Irish Stations on Sky or NTL Digital would probably be cost prohibitive given the fact that we are talking about a rather small number of digital homes in Ireland vs. high costs of entry for EPG and uplink. So I don’t think we will see any +1’s from our terrestrial stations in the near future.

Channel 4 is soon to launch a +1 version of their main terrestrial station on all Digital platforms in the UK. No news as yet whether that will extend to the versions that we get in ROI or not.

legend99

But I thought bloody Discovery got rid of Discovery Kids (devastation in our house) as they needed room for more channels...but now they have enough room to broadcast 2 time delayed fecking channels...muppets.