Yesterday TV evening service

Gerry Wicklow

I notice that Yesterday TV is extending its evening service (post 18:00) to the Welsh muxes from June 1st. Presumably something else is getting bumped off, Virgin+1 perhaps?

Rick_

Yes, Virgin 1+1 is leaving Freeview and Yesterday will get additional evening hours from next week.

Virgin 1 may also be leaving Freeview if Sky end up buying Virgins channels, the result of the sale is to be announced next week. Expect big changes for Freeview if Sky do get their hands on it. The number of free channels will go down quite a bit as Sky will no doubt be looking to launch their recently approved "Picnic" service, so goodbye to Sky News, Sky 3, Sky Sports News and Virgin 1 from Freeview so Sky Sports 1 and 2 amongst others can launch as pay channels on DTT.

Digifriendly

Eternal Wonderer wrote: »

Yes, Virgin 1+1 is leaving Freeview and Yesterday will get additional evening hours from next week.

Virgin 1 may also be leaving Freeview if Sky end up buying Virgins channels, the result of the sale is to be announced next week. Expect big changes for Freeview if Sky do get their hands on it. The number of free channels will go down quite a bit as Sky will no doubt be looking to launch their recently approved "Picnic" service, so goodbye to Sky News, Sky 3, Sky Sports News and Virgin 1 from Freeview so Sky Sports 1 and 2 amongst others can launch as pay channels on DTT

Why Sky News and Sky 3 since they're free on satellite as well?

Rick_

They are on Sky's gifted space on DTT which they are free to do with whatever they want. If they want to launch their pay service on DTT they're gonna need the space from somewhere... Just replacing Virgin 1 with a channel isn't enough for their pay service, so other channels have to go. They don't want to give you anything for free, so Sky 3 would probably be the first channel they want to get rid of on DTT.

They don't HAVE to give Sky 3 for free on DTT. It's FTV on satellite so a card is required which costs money whether it's a flat out FTV card or an ex-subscription card so you're not getting it for free anyway. Sky News may be encrypting soon if Murdoch's plans go ahead. Sky News HD is already pay only and his newspapers are going to start charging for their content online soon too. The SD version of Sky News is soon to follow. Whether it also becomes FTV or included in the News Mix is yet to be revealed.

Digifriendly

Eternal Wonderer wrote: »

They are on Sky's gifted space on DTT which they are free to do with whatever they want. If they want to launch their pay service on DTT they're gonna need the space from somewhere... Just replacing Virgin 1 with a channel isn't enough for their pay service, so other channels have to go. They don't want to give you anything for free, so Sky 3 would probably be the first channel they want to get rid of on DTT.

They don't HAVE to give Sky 3 for free on DTT. It's FTV on satellite so a card is required which costs money whether it's a flat out FTV card or an ex-subscription card so you're not getting it for free anyway. Sky News may be encrypting soon if Murdoch's plans go ahead. Sky News HD is already pay only and his newspapers are going to start charging for their content online soon too. The SD version of Sky News is soon to follow. Whether it also becomes FTV or included in the News Mix is yet to be revealed.

Thanks for excellent and very informative post. Think if this happens Freeview will begin to look pretty poor fare compared to other platforms.

Gerry Wicklow

Digifriendly wrote: »

Think if this happens Freeview will begin to look pretty poor fare compared to other platforms.

Then again the clue is in the name, FREEview. It's still a far better choice than we are offered over here from Montrose.