Loading ...Freesat will today release the following press info in relation to the regional channels added yesterday. We’ve been given the information ahead of the media, for you guys to read (although for the most part we blogged about this yesterday).
Freesat, the UK’s free-to-air digital satellite TV service, today announced the addition of 22 ITV and BBC regional variations to the broadcasters’ line-up of channels which complement those available at launch.
The channels, which carry locally regional variations of ITV and BBC TV services including regional news and weather, will be available to Freesat viewers from Wednesday 16 July.
The channels will be uploaded automatically therefore Freesat viewers will not need to retune to find their regional variant – it will appear automatically as their default for BBC1 (Freesat channel 101) or ITV1 (Freesat channel 103).
Commenting on the channel launches, Emma Scott, MD of Freesat said, “We’re extremely pleased to be completing the roll out of BBC and ITV regional services on Freesat. These services are hugely popular with viewers and compliment an already strong channel line-up. We look forward to welcoming more channels onto Freesat in the month.”
Now obviously there are a few discrepancies, the regional channels became available at 2pm yesterday, not today; and also that not all Freesat boxes will automatically add the correct regions, some require a re-scan. Putting this aside though, its great news to have all the regions now available, so we can move on to the next most important developments.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Emma Scott was on BBC Essex radio this morning talking about this, I thought she conveyed all the relevant info (dish required, hd & sd versions etc) very well.
The regional update is most welcome, despite the news broadcasters for look east being slightly annoying.
July 17th, 2008 at 9:47 am
I have a Goodmans SD box, Emma Scott says the updates will come automatically, mine did with two 103 ITV programmes West and Central, 101 BBC1 London disappeared and was replaced by 950 BB1 London when I should have received BBC1 West. The introduction of Freesat is almost the T5 problem again. The world must laugh at us.
July 17th, 2008 at 10:59 am
John,
My Goodmans box updated automatically and was spot on. I think it may be a problem at your end and not a T5 problem.
July 17th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Still nothing on channel 103 on my Foxsat. Beeb stuff OK. What action is recommended, please?
July 28th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
I’m looking in to buying freesat SD and moving to a HD box maybe next year. What puzzles me atm is how does the freesat box ‘know’ which regional channel you should receive since the signal is coming via satellite and not via a ground based transponder. The concern for me is that I wish to receive the correct regional channel. I see there’s an EPG list where you can all the regional variation channel numbers are listed. For example if I want BBC 1 Wales could I go to channel 964 in the EPG (BBC 1 Wales) if it didn’t appear correctly on channel 101 (BBC 1)? Or would I have to manually add the channel. It appears that many of the boxes seem to require a hack to manually add channels. A lot of questions I know, if anyone could help then thanks
July 28th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Phil - Very simple answer, on setup you are prompted to enter your postcode, which then determines the region of BBC and ITV you receive on the default channels of 101 and 103. More BBC regions can be found in the late 9xx channel series, whilst ITV regions need adding using the manual tune option, which is now available on all boxes without a hack.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:03 am
That’s good news, thanks for the prompt answer