UKTV have announced that they are rebranding some of their channels with effect from 7/10/08:

• UKTV Gold becomes GOLD.
• UKTV Gold +1 becomes Watch.
• UKTV Drama becomes Alibi.

The press release doesn't mention what's happening with UKTV Drama +1, but I'd have to assume it becomes Alibi +1.

This will affect both Virgin & Sky lineups. I don't think any of those channels are on Freeview or Freesat.

The press release from UKTV confirming all this is here: http://uktv.co.uk/uktv/item/aid/603804

It'd be good if the EPG could be set to change at the right time. There's nearly three months to get it organised!

Mark

 

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MCE2005 (Reluctantly decided not to upgrade to TV Pack - will see if 7MC fixes the issues) | AMD64X2 3600+ | 1Gb Ram | 3x500Gb SATA | Hauppauge PVR150 | nVidia 7300LE silent GPU | Pig ugly big black case | Virgin Media cable | Xbox 360 wired extender

Hi mark1234

Thanks for the heads up.  I have notified the content provider for your region.  They are aware of this issue and are taking the necessary steps to complete this in a timely manner.

Thanks

J

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Please can you also forward the errors in the uk epg for uk/ireland sky/cable as in other posting.

csise:

Hi mark1234

Thanks for the heads up.  I have notified the content provider for your region.  They are aware of this issue and are taking the necessary steps to complete this in a timely manner.

Thanks

J

Thanks.

Mark

 

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MCE2005 (Reluctantly decided not to upgrade to TV Pack - will see if 7MC fixes the issues) | AMD64X2 3600+ | 1Gb Ram | 3x500Gb SATA | Hauppauge PVR150 | nVidia 7300LE silent GPU | Pig ugly big black case | Virgin Media cable | Xbox 360 wired extender

Hoggy:

Please can you also forward the errors in the uk epg for uk/ireland sky/cable as in other posting.

Got you covered Hoggy.  Same content provider.

J

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Update to this. Although there is no update announcement on the UKTV website, and a call to them didn't elicit any further info either, it looks like they have modified their original plans.

According to AGB Neilson, who gather audience share statistics, UKTV Gold +1 is now becoming GOLD +1. Watch (and Watch +1) are being launched as completely new channels. I don't know what the channel numbers on either Virgin or Sky will be.

See http://www.agbnielsen.co.uk/agb/index.php and in the bottom right it lists recent channel change announcements.

Hopefully BDS are already on the case and know exactly what's what, and are ready to start providing data on time. Still a month to go - plenty of advance notice!

 

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MCE2005 (Reluctantly decided not to upgrade to TV Pack - will see if 7MC fixes the issues) | AMD64X2 3600+ | 1Gb Ram | 3x500Gb SATA | Hauppauge PVR150 | nVidia 7300LE silent GPU | Pig ugly big black case | Virgin Media cable | Xbox 360 wired extender

Looked further on the UKTV website and found that they are already providing programme listings for Watch and Watch +1 from 7/10 (week 41). See http://uktv.co.uk/press/tv.

They are still listing UKTV Gold +1 beyond 7/10 as well. So looks like AGB are correct and Watch is being launched as a new channel.

Given that the listing data is already available (and downloadable from the UKTV site!) and given that BDS should have the inside track that I lack on channel numbers for Virgin and Sky, and given the plenty of advance notice given, I can't see any good reason why Watch (+1) won't show up in the EPG from the 24/9 update (as there will be one day of data that can be shown), and that UKTV Gold and Drama (and +1s) will be renamed appropriately on the 7/10 update.

Can you confirm again that BDS are still on the ball and will get this all sorted on time?

 

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MCE2005 (Reluctantly decided not to upgrade to TV Pack - will see if 7MC fixes the issues) | AMD64X2 3600+ | 1Gb Ram | 3x500Gb SATA | Hauppauge PVR150 | nVidia 7300LE silent GPU | Pig ugly big black case | Virgin Media cable | Xbox 360 wired extender

sounds like a tall order Mark but I will do my best.

J

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

More info from UKTV now:

To fit in two extra channels Virgin are shuffling things around a little. So, from 7/10 the following will change:

• 124 UKTV Gold becomes 126 G.O.L.D.
• 125 UKTV Gold +1 becomes 127 G.O.L.D. +1
• 126 Dave moves to 128
• 127 Dave +1 moves to 129
• 129 UKTV Drama becomes 130 Alibi
• 130 UKTV Drama +1 becomes 131 Alibi +1
• Watch starts new on 124
• Watch +1 starts new on 125

On Sky the following changes will happen:

• 109 UKTV Gold becomes 110 G.O.L.D. (not sure what's happening with G.O.L.D. +1)
• 132 UKTV Drama is renamed to Alibi
• 133 UKTV Drama +1 is renamed to Alibi +1
• Watch starts new on 109 (not sure what's happening with Watch +1)

As existing channels are moving around it's obviously important that BDS get the channel numbers changed on time, even if they can't manage anything else.

Various sources for this: http://justwatch.co.uk/, http://www.theperfectalibi.co.uk/, http://www.laughdaily.co.uk/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_channels_on_Virgin_TV, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_channels_on_Sky_Digital_in_the_UK_and_Ireland.

Given that people on TGB do part of BDS' work for them, when do we start getting paid?

 

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MCE2005 (Reluctantly decided not to upgrade to TV Pack - will see if 7MC fixes the issues) | AMD64X2 3600+ | 1Gb Ram | 3x500Gb SATA | Hauppauge PVR150 | nVidia 7300LE silent GPU | Pig ugly big black case | Virgin Media cable | Xbox 360 wired extender

Hey Mark,

I hope you're not expecting miracles - 3 months to get it sorted, yeah like that's gonna happen

Tony

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AMD64X2 6000+ | 3Gb Ram | 750Gb Maxtor SATA | 200Gb Samsung Spinpoint for Vista | ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe | FloppyDTV + Dragon CAM | Pinnacle 7010ix | XFX 8600GT Silent Video Card | LG Blu-ray/HD DVD Drive | Xbox 360 | Arcsoft Total Theatre

Tony_Park:

I hope you're not expecting miracles

Good grief, no. I've been raising EPG issues for far to long to expect that! Before issues could be reported through TGB I even tried contacting BDS directly, and still didn't get any success. It was interesting to hear their side of the relationship with Microsoft though.

The most likely scenerio is that nothing changes. Second most likely is that the channels get renamed, as they've had three months notice - though probably incorrectly as UKTV have changed their original plan and kept all the existing +1 channels. The channel numbers will be changed, though not on time. I'm not holding out much hope for getting EPG data for Watch.

 

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MCE2005 (Reluctantly decided not to upgrade to TV Pack - will see if 7MC fixes the issues) | AMD64X2 3600+ | 1Gb Ram | 3x500Gb SATA | Hauppauge PVR150 | nVidia 7300LE silent GPU | Pig ugly big black case | Virgin Media cable | Xbox 360 wired extender

So, my pessimism wasn't wholly deserved.

Yesterday the channels were renamed in the EPG, but not renumbered. Fortunately that can be corrected manually through the MCE GUI, so I did so.

Today the renumbering looks like it's come through and Watch (+1) has appeared. I had to assign the channel numbers to Watch (+1) manually. Not sure if that's down to the data provided, or a "feature" that followed on from me renumbering the existing channels myself yesterday.

Also noticed that UKTV History +1 & UKTV Documentary +1 have been correctly removed from the EPG. No idea why Virgin have seen fit to remove those channels, given that they 50% own them, and they're still available on Sky. Oh well... (and not an MS issue anyway)

Thanks for getting this lot done.

However, no actual data for Watch (+1) is coming through. Will this magically appear tomorrow, or are these channels destined to be permanently empty like Movies 24+ ?

 

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MCE2005 (Reluctantly decided not to upgrade to TV Pack - will see if 7MC fixes the issues) | AMD64X2 3600+ | 1Gb Ram | 3x500Gb SATA | Hauppauge PVR150 | nVidia 7300LE silent GPU | Pig ugly big black case | Virgin Media cable | Xbox 360 wired extender

Hi Mark

Watch +1 is not on the list so the outlook for data is bleak.

J

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

What about for Watch itself (not Watch +1)?

 

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MCE2005 (Reluctantly decided not to upgrade to TV Pack - will see if 7MC fixes the issues) | AMD64X2 3600+ | 1Gb Ram | 3x500Gb SATA | Hauppauge PVR150 | nVidia 7300LE silent GPU | Pig ugly big black case | Virgin Media cable | Xbox 360 wired extender

When I checked on this last night, on my MC, its still showing as UKTV Gold - and no sign of Watch in the EPG channel listing options.

Tony

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AMD64X2 6000+ | 3Gb Ram | 750Gb Maxtor SATA | 200Gb Samsung Spinpoint for Vista | ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe | FloppyDTV + Dragon CAM | Pinnacle 7010ix | XFX 8600GT Silent Video Card | LG Blu-ray/HD DVD Drive | Xbox 360 | Arcsoft Total Theatre