Channel name change day...

icdg

Not specific to UPC really, but if you're looking to know where your favourite channel has gone today...welcome to UKTV, the home of silly channel names...

~120 UKTV Gold becomes GOLD
~121 UKTV Gold+1 becomes GOLD+1
~151 UKTV Drama becomes Alibi.

Also in non UKTV changes, ~511 Mainstreet (nee Performance) is now Rock-on-TV, but that came last week.

mike65

I'm being upgraded as we speak, I had spotted that Rick Wakeman had been on Mainstreet rather alot, thats now explained.

Mike

BendiBus

And the DOGs are fecking huge and bright and colourful. I can't concentrate on anything else. And they're set for 4:3 so they appear almost in the middle of the screen on a widescreen display :mad:

celticfc

Tell them your dislike for the DOG's

A LOT of people have done already.

Alun

icdg wrote: »

~120 UKTV Gold becomes GOLD
~121 UKTV Gold+1 becomes GOLD+1

Worse than that they've actually been renamed G.O.L.D. and G.O.L.D.+1 (at least on UPC they have).

d8player

icdg,

Can you rename this thread to something like "UPC channel changes" and make it a sticky? They change often enough to make it useful. It was only on here that I heard about Bravo being at 508.

D8player

CO19

Alun wrote: »

Worse than that they've actually been renamed G.O.L.D. and G.O.L.D.+1 (at least on UPC they have).

True,by them putting it this way it kind of makes it sound like each letter stands for a word.

Alun

CO19 wrote: »

True,by them putting it this way it kind of makes it sound like each letter stands for a word.

Googled it, and apparently it does ... Go On Laugh Daily. Give me strength :rolleyes:

http://uktv.co.uk/gold/homepage/sid/5001

CO19

Alun wrote: »

Googled it, and apparently it does ... Go On Laugh Daily. Give me strength :rolleyes:

http://uktv.co.uk/gold/homepage/sid/5001

They're giving their channels such cheesey images by giving them all these stupid names :rolleyes: and I hope UPC put the channel 'Watch' on their line up

Infoanon

CO19 wrote: »

They're giving their channels such cheesey images by giving them all these stupid names :rolleyes: and I hope UPC put the channel 'Watch' on their line up

Something tells me UPC will not be adding 'Watch' anytime soon....unless its offered by uktv for free.....

Sadly long term UPC will only be reducing the number of channels available and replacing them with 'free for them' stations like 'buzz' and 'sports exchange'

They are putting all their efforts into broadband - they (publicly) have accepted they cannot beat Sky on TV.
Their strategy does make sense...unfortunately for anyone who wants more TV channels..

icdg

d8player wrote: »

icdg,

Can you rename this thread to something like "UPC channel changes" and make it a sticky? They change often enough to make it useful. It was only on here that I heard about Bravo being at 508.

D8player

If people are generally in favour of this, I'd be happy to. The only thing making me hesitate is that there was recently a complaint there were too many stickies on this board.

What do people think?

As for UKTV...they've become the home of silly names alright. Time was when a UKTV channel's name did what it said on the tin - Documentary, Drama, Gold, Gardens, UKTVG2...OK maybe not the last one. In fact UKTVG2 was where the silly names started. Dave was only slightly less silly by virtue of the fact that you can pronounce it. As for Alibi, and Go On Laugh Daily...well, they don't have the "bleedin obviousness" of Watch. For goodness sake, what else are you going to do to a TV channel???

Watch would be nice to have - a lot of the better programmes from Gold seem to have moved there. Given that we waited what, nearly ten years for UK Gold on Cablelink/NTL, I wouldn't hold my breath...

CO19

Infoanon wrote: »

They are putting all their efforts into broadband - they (publicly) have accepted they cannot beat Sky on TV.
Their strategy does make sense...unfortunately for anyone who wants more TV channels..

They know that this is where their weak area is so they should be trying to at least make it a bit better,look at Virgin they've a great lie up so there's no reason why UPC can't get like them.

copacetic

the bug on gold is annoying alright, on watch it is nicely placed, well out of the way.

byte

Watch's new Richard and Judy programme pulled in a weak 100,000 viewers on launch night!

Personally, not much on Watch I'd actually uhm... watch!

CO19

icdg wrote: »

If people are generally in favour of this, I'd be happy to. The only thing making me hesitate is that there was recently a complaint there were too many stickies on this board.

What do people think?

Think it's a good idea I'd remove some of the many stickies about the illegal boxes though, one is enough I think

CO19

byte wrote: »

Watch's new Richard and Judy programme pulled in a weak 100,000 viewers on launch night!

Personally, not much on Watch I'd actually uhm... watch!

Not much to watch on Watch then

mike65

Is Watch on UPCs radar?

Mike

paulm17781

Infoanon wrote: »

They are putting all their efforts into broadband - they (publicly) have accepted they cannot beat Sky on TV.

Do you have any links / reference for this? I've never seen this said by UPC.

CO19

mike65 wrote: »

Is Watch on UPCs radar?

Mike

Doesn't seem to be at the moment cause that would mean adding another proper channel and we know UPC don't do things like that

d8player

icdg wrote: »

If people are generally in favour of this, I'd be happy to. The only thing making me hesitate is that there was recently a complaint there were too many stickies on this board.

What do people think?
:
:
:

Hi icdg,

It was actually me who complained about the amount of stickies but my major grumble there was that 5 out of 8 stickies at the time were about illegal tv reception/dodgy boxes.

The reason I asked for this topic to be a sticky is I usually end up finding about UPC channel lineup changes by stumbling accidentally over them. Would be nice if we could use this forum to inform each other when this happens. If you used the favourites feature you would never find them.

Thanks
D8Player

Rosser

Infoanon wrote: »

Sadly long term UPC will only be reducing the number of channels available and replacing them with 'free for them' stations like 'buzz' and 'sports exchange'

They are putting all their efforts into broadband - they (publicly) have accepted they cannot beat Sky on TV.
Their strategy does make sense...unfortunately for anyone who wants more TV channels..

Interesting observation, you realise these are the same channels with different names?

As for their strategy and public declaration where would we go about reading this?

Kensington

Infoanon wrote: »

Something tells me UPC will not be adding 'Watch' anytime soon....unless its offered by uktv for free.....

Sadly long term UPC will only be reducing the number of channels available and replacing them with 'free for them' stations like 'buzz' and 'sports exchange'

They are putting all their efforts into broadband - they (publicly) have accepted they cannot beat Sky on TV.
Their strategy does make sense...unfortunately for anyone who wants more TV channels..

I would imagine the lack of channels is down to a combination between lack of bandwidth (due to analogue channels still present and the old legacy cables still in some areas) and the fact their encryption system is in absolute tatters at present. Once they get these two issues sorted, I could see them adding a considerable amount more channels.

Granted though, Broadband and phone, and (when it eventually launches) Video On Demand will propably be their selling points, as opposed to television services. Still, wouldn't think they've given up on TV completely though...

barnicles

Oh
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=28006540&postcount=51

Infoanon

Kensington wrote: »

I would imagine the lack of channels is down to a combination between lack of bandwidth (due to analogue channels still present and the old legacy cables still in some areas) and the fact their encryption system is in absolute tatters at present. Once they get these two issues sorted, I could see them adding a considerable amount more channels.

As far as i know there is sufficient bandwidth to add additional channels - certainly to add UKTVs new channel 'Watch'.

Just count the number of channels that have been dropped over the last year! and clearly a lot of new channels could be added.

Also re analogue - in Dublin there are a number of blank carriers and the duplication of CH4,E4 & Discovery - So plenty of scope to make space for new channels,
Alas these services want to get paid a fee ! - something which is not on UPC's agenda....I would love to be proved wrong and had hoped that there was a reason why paramount 2 is on 134 ie leaving 132 & 133 free.......

Rosser

Yeah and where is that public statement from UPC giving up on TV?

MAJJ

The really annoying thing is that recordings under the old channel name won't play as it says I'm no longer subscribed!

jack24

I had that problem too, s'pose the channels they are though mean whatever you've recorded will likely be repeated at least another 150 times...

murpho999

So Gold is an acronym for Go On Laugh Daily.

That really is painful.

Does that mean that Alibi is:

A Little Interesting But Insipid

and Watch is

We Always Transmit Cheap Horsesh*t

murpho999

This has got me thinking of more:

UPC

Undervaluing Potential Customers

NTL

No Television Lately?

or

Never Too Late ...(For Appointments)

Chorus

Can't Honestly Offer Reliability - Use Sky

Infoanon

Rosser wrote: »

Yeah and where is that public statement from UPC giving up on TV?

Rosser - Its UPC strategy - its not a criticism, Irish Times interview earlier this year also possibly in the business post.

Look at the pages on this forum - the only thing UPC get any praise for is the broadband - so you base your future on your product leader - they can't beat Sky on TV but they can beat Sky & Eircom on TV/Broadband/Phone combined.

Getting back to the thread - Don't think we will see Watch anytime soon on UPC

copacetic

Infoanon wrote: »

Rosser - Its UPC strategy - its not a criticism, Irish Times interview earlier this year also possibly in the business post.

I think his point is you have made claims more than once now, abour UPCs publicly stating they have been beaten by Sky and now that their strategy is to move away from TV but you haven't produced the data.

Both the times and the sbp are online so I'm sure you can find it and post it.

Infoanon

copacetic wrote: »

I think his point is you have made claims more than once now, abour UPCs publicly stating they have been beaten by Sky and now that their strategy is to move away from TV but you haven't produced the data.

Copacetic - Are you connected to UPC - your posting came amazingly quickly on a site that does not tend to be busy on a Saturday night....

To clarrify the words used where cannot beat Sky on TV - no one mentioned moving away from TV or been beaten by Sky - but hey latest figures show that is about to happen.

Don't want to break any board rules thus if you google the obvious words you will get UPCs strategy for the future and commentary etc

But still there is no Watch.......or FX...ITV2/3/4....C5....Bravo 2.......etc etc

copacetic

Infoanon wrote: »

Copacetic - Are you connected to UPC - your posting came amazingly quickly on a site that does not tend to be busy on a Saturday night....

To clarrify the words used where cannot beat Sky on TV - no one mentioned moving away from TV or been beaten by Sky - but hey latest figures show that is about to happen.

And still there is no Watch.......

so basically you are now saying that this claim you made

Infoanon wrote:

they (publicly) have accepted they cannot beat Sky on TV........

isn't true

they've publically stated that they cannot beat sky, but no-one mentioned being beaten by sky? not really making much sense there.

and resorting to accusing someone of being a shill is the first sign that you are not cut out for the interweb my friend.

Infoanon

Beat Vs Beaten - there is a difference in perception - the difference in businss of admitting defeat to a competitor and deciding to diversify to compete

UPC have a strategy that will emphasis their strength - broadband - the 'triple play' - Don't think I am stating anything that is not well known

Irishdudedave

C'mon guys...lets drop this argument/discussion.... This thread is titled "Channel Name Change Day" so any other topics belong in their own thread...

Solair

There's no reason why UPC wouldn't have access to UKTV's products, Sky has no control over them.

UKTV is a joint venture between Virgin Media and BBC Commercial Enterprises while the former flextech channels i.e. Bravo etc are now Virgin Media Television.

I don't really see how Sky could be any barrier to UPC getting access to these channels. Virgin Media don't operate in the Republic of Ireland and they would be quite open to UPC's business.

These channels are carried on other platforms like freeview, BT Vision etc

In fact, as Virgin Media shakes things up in the UK it's going to open up new opportunities for the likes of UPC in Ireland who until recently had very little option but to deal with Sky for content.

Same goes for Channel 4 and BBC content there's absolutely no love lost between them and Sky.

UPC's line up has improved in leaps and bounds since they've taken over.

There's also content from channels like Discovery Networks, etc..

The suggestion that they're somehow 'giving up' on television is ludicrous.

icdg

Guys, back on topic please. I'd split the thread, but there doesn't seem to be the option to do that any more.

Solair

Sorry for going O.T. there.

The UKTV channels new names are terrible in my opinion. But, I suppose in the crazy world of 400+ channels it's important to have something memorable.

The on-screen logos are dire though.

At least UPC seems to have upgraded the details on their EPG fairly quickly this time. There used to be quite a lag between Chorus EPG changes and channel name changes in the past.

Dave wouldn't be the first channel with a silly name though. There's been a channel called "Canal Jimmy" in France since 1991 on cable and satellite...

Infoanon

UK Gold was one of the strongest brands and it did what it said on the can - G.O.L.D. does not...same for watch , I think UKTV got carried away with the success of 'Dave'.

In my opinion the success of 'Dave' had more to do with improved programming and in the UK better distribution (added to Freeview) not the unusual name.

Alibi at least sums up the nature of the programming.

Another name change since October 1st is performance mainstreet now named ' Rock-on TV ' although theres not a lot of Rock just a lot of Rick - Rick Wakeman

Finally on name changes - Channel 6 - will TV3 rename it and if so any suggestions...TV3 2 anybody?