ITV finally gets something right.

Today, I noticed that finally, ITV1+1 shows the correct region. Until recently, in the South West of England, you couldn't guarantee that every programme that aired on ITV1, would air 1 hour later on ITV1+1. That was because whilst our ITV1 region is Westcountry West, our ITV1+1 region was Wales, and there were several notable differences. Regional news was different and there were minor variations in the schedule.

Now, we have the right region on ITV1+1, Westcountry West, on both Freeview and Sky. Knowing ITV's past history as well as I do, and having only heard about changes happening on the Sky platform, I was half expecting to find ITV1+1 had been changed to Westcountry East on Sky, and to still be Wales on Freeview. Thankfully, ITV managed to surpass my low expectations, so congratulations ITV for managing to do that.

Unfortunately, I have even less expectation of ITV doing anything that would make me think they would be getting anywhere close to providing a proper regional broadcasting service.

Sky Sports News to leave Freeview... why?

British Sky Broadcasting have once again shown that they have a very clouded view of the media landscape, clouded by their desire to get everyone paying extra for TV channels.

They have decided to replace Sky Sports News on Freeview with a timeshift version of Sky 3.

One question, why?

Sky Sports News has been one of the success stories of Freeview. It more than tripled it's audience, in the early going, and has continued to see success all the way, outperforming Sky News and Sky 3. So why take it off Freeview now, thereby potentially losing 2/3 of the audience that has been consistently there since it's arrival on Freeview back in 2002? And why replace it with of all things, a timeshift channel?

Sky's strategy here seems more to be professional suicide than successful broadcaster.

OFCOM and ‘sexy’ phone-in channels

OFCOM has repeatedly had problems regulating the kind of sexy phone in channels that appear on Sky in the 900s section of the EPG. 

Just recently, OFCOM fined two companies for broadcasting sexy material straight after the watershed on FTA channels.  Now, bear in mind, the watershed is 9pm.  By OFCOM’s own definition…

“…The watershed only applies to television. The watershed is at 2100. Material unsuitable for children should not, in general, be shown before 2100 or after 0530.”

It was material unsuitable for children, and it was broadcast after the watershed, yet they were still fined.

Additionally in the same Broadcast Bulletin, OFCOM found the channels in breach on about 10 separate occasions, despite the fact that only 1 of these occasion actually contravenes OFCOM’s own rules about R18-strength material.  All other incidents related to material comparable to those seen in movies rated 18 by the BBFC.

This is why I find the whole business of regulation these days to be totally out of sync with reality.  We see more violence on television dramas and movies than we see sex, and sex is regarded as the more corrupting, yet there has been many occasions when words encouraging violent acts have brought those acts about.  That’s called Incitement, and its against the law.  Yet the right wing will say, “NO, sorry, you can’t encourage someone to commit a violent act.”, yet in the same breath, they will say that the depiction of sex is a “…corrupting influence…”.  There’s only one thing to say to a viewpoint like that.

“THAT’S A TOTALLY HYPOCRITICAL AND NONSENSICAL VIEWPOINT.  The facts do NOT back up your views.”

But then the right wing doesn’t seem to let facts get in the way of their own delusions.

In OFCOM’s case here, they are trying to walk what they consider to be a tightrope, when in fact, beneath that “tightrope” is a canyon the size of the Grand Canyon, with the pro-censorship brigade on one side, and reality (and just about everybody else) on the other.  There’s no fine line between the camps, there’s a huge gap, and you’re NEVER gonna satisfy the pro-censorship camp, so don’t waste your time trying to. 

Besides which, the Virgin Media, Freeview, Freesat and Sky platforms all have a facility called PIN protection.  Basically, you can block access to programmes and channels you don’t want kids to watch by setting a PIN. 

This smacks of censorship by stealth, and to be frank, it is not OFCOM’s job to be am self-appointed censor.  That the BBFC’s job.  And if material is shown that IS comparable to material shown in films that have been rated by the BBFC as 18, then OFCOM HAS NO BUSINESS TRYING TO CENSOR IT.

Virgin 1 goes 24 hours on Freeview

Well, we’ve seen a number of changes to the Freeview platform over the past few weeks.  I’ll provide an up to date EPG list on my Ident City blog shortly, but here on Viewpoint, I’ll catch you up on the recent changes that have taken place.

You know about Quest’s “non-arrival” on channel 47.  I posted on that earlier this week.  Suffice to say that at this time, the slide is still airing, and we still do not know when the channel will properly launch.

ITV4 is now on channel 24, broadcasting 24 hours a day.

Dave ja vu (I hate that name!) is now on channel 25.

Home (the new name for UKTV Style) is now on channel 26.  Frankly, these channel names that UKTV have come up with are really bad, and they do nothing in that sense to identify the channel.

ITV2+1 is now on Channel 27.

E4 and it’s timeshift station, E4+1 are on 28 and 29 respectively.

Fiver is on 30 with sister station Five USA on 31.

Smile TV is on channel 32 broadcasting between 3am and 7am. (why?  Seems pointless to me!)

Smile TV 2 has re-appeared on channel 33, broadcasting Babestation programmes between Midnight and 5am.

Setanta Sports 1 hasn’t moved,l they’re still on channel 34.

And new today is Virgin 1+1, which broadcasts between 6pm and 6am, using the old Virgin 1 multiplex space.

Go over to Ident City, and you will find a complete EPG list for Freeview. 

Quest launches, kinda, sorta, not really…

Well, there was supposed to have been a big new channel launch on Freeview on Thursday May 14th, called Quest, and it was going to be on Channel 47.  Well, the day has come and gone, and the MHEG has been replaced by a video stream, but no programming, just a slide.  I never saw this happen, but there was a rolling promo.  It started at about 7am on the morning of the supposed launch, and ran for 3 hours, before switching back to the afforementioned slide.   Here’s the last moments…

So when will Quest properly launch?  Well not before Virgin 1 goes 24 hours on Freeview, which is set for Wednesday.  Discovery Networks Europe say it will launch in the near future, which probably means by the end of the year.  Whatever happens, we’ll keep you apprised.

CNNI arrives on Freeview

CNN International has finally arrived on Freeview. Officially it launches at 9pm tonight with Back Story, followed by World Sport, World News Europe, The Situation Room and CNN Today, ending it's broadcast day at 1am.

Even though the EPG slot on 84 is properly there, there is as yet no MHEG for the channel. Also, there is an interesting note. It lists the channel as "CNN" not CNNI. Now, whether this means anything at all, especially since the channel is listed as CNN on Sky's EPG and has been for some time, is anyone's guess. But here's mine.

CNN has been making less use of the CNN International name for a while, and more and more reference to the channel only as CNN. Perhaps they intend to phase out the International part and have it seem like one CNN across the world. Either that or out of CNN International will come regional versions of CNN for each part of the world. Heck, they're almost there already. It wouldn't take much more to get to that point.

We will see in time, but first, we'll see how they launch at 9pm tonight. With Back Story being the first programme, I get a sense it will get mentioned by host Michael Holmes.

Price Drop TV disappears on Freeview

It was actually around 9am this morning when Price Drop TV was switched off of Freeview transmitters around the UK.

As far as I'm concerned, it's good riddance to bad rubbish. I was surprised I actually stayed watching it for as long as I did last night. To my mind, shopping channels, along with gaming channels and religious channels, are the most mind-numbing, boring, uninteresting, sleep-inducing, unentertaining rubbish that digital television has to suffer.

Freeview currently suffers with too many similar channels like Price Drop. QVC and Bid TV are two more such channels along with the two Smile TV channels and Gems TV. Losing these channels will not just help Freeview, but help the whole digital switchover, which is already underway.

At least a decent station is on the way to replace. EPG information for Quest, a new channel from Discovery Networks Europe, is due to launch soon, but we do not yet know when. All the EPG data says is "Quest Coming Soon". There's also no video or MHEG being transmitted either.

As soon as I can find out any more information, I'll bring it to you.

Freeview starts changing!

At about 1.30am overnight tonight, Price Drop TV will leave Freeview after being outbid for its slot on the multiplex.

This represents the first move in a major set of changes for Freeview, and for British and Irish broadcasting.

It has been reported that Discovery Networks Europe has bought the slot, and we will see a new channel called Quest arriving soon. At the moment though, there is little information about this channel, and nothing from the Freeview EPG.

I will be watching this happen, and I will report back later with any new information that I come up with. But this is only the first move to happen just this week in the UK and Ireland broadcasting scene. Lots more due to happen, especially on Monday. More information on that shortly.

Dead And Buried?

I am nothing if not a realist. In the many years that I have been following the media, I've seen the them do a lot of silly things. But the way industry insiders such as Ralph Bernard have recently talked down DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) digital radio is almost nothing short of deliberate sabotage. Thankfully few others have gotten in on the act, though DAB does have its problems. But then, so does GCap, the company Ralph Bernard worked for. So maybe, it was telling that Mr Bernard did everything he could to hide GCap's problems behind the façade of a DAB crisis. After all, almost all of GCap's radio stations broadcast simultaneously on analogue AM or FM and on DAB Digital Radio.

But now, a group of analysts have bought into this façade and are trying to suggest that there is a real crisis in DAB, a crisis that - by the way - doesn't actually exist except in the minds of bean counters who are looking for profit all the time. The name of this group of analysts: Enders Analysis. Now, this analytical organisation has tried to claim that in fact DAB is about to become the next Betamax!

First of all, the analogy is way off the mark. DAB is not in competition with FM, or AM, or even DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) which is fairly new on the scene. If that were the case, then LW would probably have been closed off years ago. Secondly, to look at how long it takes for something to bed in to the public consciousness, you only need to look at VHF/FM. The band was opened up in the 1950s, but it didn't become popular to listen on FM until the 1980s. Even when Radio 1 had to hand over 1053 and 1089 AM to commercial radio in the 1990s, there were still plenty of people to convert over to listening to Radio 1 on FM.

The report's writer then goes onto suggest that DAB's financial health is looking grim by saying:..

"With three of the largest radio groups having reduced their commitment to the DAB platform in recent months, their stations having been replaced by a mix of ethnic, religious and non-commercial broadcasters, the future health of the DAB platform must be under question."

I really think this guy needs to wake up and actually do a little research. There are other issues at work here than just DAB. First, Yes, GCrap GCap is closing stations, not because DAB is a failure, but because of their own lack of confidence in both finances and in broadcasting itself. Remember they tried to sell off 9 stations as a bundle, that they felt were "non-core stations". They failed, miserably. GCap's Gold Network is in danger of collapsing. The whole network of 40 stations gets less than 1.5 million listeners, with some stations doing incredibly pathetic numbers. Gold's Plymouth station gets a mere 7,000 listeners. It's because the product being offered, whether by DAB, FM, AM or online, is one that people think is not up to scratch. It doesn't mean the platform will fail.

Virgin Radio may have closed one digital only station and put the brakes on launching another, but that again has little to do with DAB. SMG, who own STV and Grampian as well as Virgin Radio, are trying to sell Virgin Radio, but again, there are few interested parties. It's an attempt to make the Virgin Radio company more attractive to possible investors. It's got nothing to do with any possible failure of the DAB platform.

People were saying similar things about Digital Terrestrial Television when On/ITV Digital collapsed in 2002. I remember it well, I was reporting on it at Transdiffusion. Now, with Freeview as the base of the platform, the platform is thriving. Commercial Radio went into the platform without looking at how long it takes to establish one. They were looking for a quick 5-year or so turnaround to profits, rather than the 15-20 years it takes to properly establish a new radio platform.

DTT went from being a commercial platform to being a public service platform and has thrived. DAB needs to go down the same route and it won't as long as GCap are in charge of national and local multiplexes. GCap's Digital One and Now Digital are the DAB equivalent of ITV Digital. The daft thing is, this moronic writer of this report, whose name is Grant Goddard, also referenced the ITV Digital debacle!

"Ofcom faces a public outcry if the DAB platform were to fail, with owners of the 6.45 million DAB receivers sold to date demanding a refund of their purchases (remember ITV Digital?)."

Yes, I do. As I mentioned earlier, I reported on it, first hand, you can find the articles over in Bitstream on EMC, along with those of some of my colleagues who also reported on it at the time. And in all honesty, I do not see how over 6 million people would demand refunds for something that they HAVEN'T subscribed to, but just bought a piece of equipment for. Believe it or not, there are still ITV Digital digiboxes out there working, albeit not brilliantly, but they are working, just. But the most moronic statement of them all has to be the one that follows:

"Channel 4 is faced with the task of imminently launching a brand new DAB multiplex in the middle of a snowstorm around the future of the whole platform,"

A 'snowstorm' that has been created predominantly by two people. GCap's Ralph Bernard and Enders Analysis's Grant Goddard. Channel 4 got a taste of running a digital radio station in the recently demised Oneword, and it obviously didn't put them off because they chose to bid for a new national multiplex. And they won. 4 Digital group's stations represent the freshest ideas for DAB ever. All Digital One seems to have done is trotted out the same old tired sound, time and time again, and Joe Public is bored with it. With the growth in online listening, listeners can tune in to stations the world over, and find the cream of the crop.

Sadly for commercial radio, the UK's best stations are run by the BBC. British commercial radio barely flickers across the online 'dials' at all. But stations in the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe are all providing a far superior product to almost anything we have here in the UK. The reason is simple. Whilst our commercial radio stations have cut back content to the bare bones of music, commercials and news, other stations across the world have upped their content levels and because of this, are able to take advantage of the Podcast medium, which out of necessity, has to be speech based.

DAB as a platform is not at fault. It's the stations themselves that have shot themselves in the proverbial foot. Yes, we've lost a number of radio stations on DAB, but they've closed because their business plans were not realistic, in much the same way that a multitude of stations have closed on digital television, not because of the platform, but because their business plans were not realistic, not designed for the new digital broadcast environment that exists these days. And because they aren't making money as quickly as they want to, they want to abandon a broadcast platform. And you, Grant Goddard of Enders Analysis, are actively encouraging them with this piece of anti-DAB propaganda!

The report reads like the kind of hit job that I would expect from Fox News covering a Democrat, rather than an analysis of DAB. It has so many inaccuracies, that I have detailed and more, and come to so many erroneous conclusions, that I have to consign this report to the only file where it seems to fit in. The waste paper bin!

Ratings Review: BARB Week Ending 07 October 2007

A bit later than usual this week, because there are less obvious stories this week.

The main one however, is Virgin 1. In it's first week of operation, V1 manages a credible 0.5 share / 13.8 weekly reach. This equates to just over 6.5 million viewers across the week. Ther timeshift version manages a 0.1 / 4.3, which is just over 2 million viewers across the week.

Compare this to FTN's final week numbers which were 0.2 / 6.2, which is just under 3 million viewers across the week, plus a negligable share and 1.6 weekly reach, which is 759,000 viewers across the week, and you can see that initial indications for Virgin 1 look promising. More viewers in general have turned to the effectively rebranded FTN channel.

This does look like the first shots being fired in a new battle between Sky and Virgin Media, and the battleground could well be Freeview, as I mentioned previously in a post here at the MediaBlog about a month ago.

One interesting note this week on Timeshift channels. Just out of interest, here are the top 5.

E4 +1 - 0.6 / 13.3
Channel 4 +1 - 0.5 / 14.9
UKTV Gold +1 - 0.4 / 9.2
Living +1 - 0.4 / 7.9
ITV2 +1 - 0.3 / 8.8

It is very interesting to note that E4 has the most timeshift viewers, more than the most popular digital channel, ITV2.

Now, to the "Hall Of Shame", once again, in no particular order...

Sky Travel Shop - 50,000
Anime Central - 82,000
Business Channel - 79,000
Community Channel - 106,000
Diva TV - 106,000
Fashion TV - 122,000
Film 24 - 130,000
Golf Channel - 153,000
Hollywood TV - 185,000
Legal TV - 140,000
Life One - 184,000
MusFlash - 51,000
MUTV - 45,000
Overseas Property - 69,000
Performance Channel - 162,000
Real Estate TV - 175,000
Rockworld TV - 70,000
Setanta Golf - 122,000
Simply TV - 33,000
The Baby Channel - 81,000
The Travel Channel +1 - 196,000
Wedding TV - 124,000
Wedding TV +1 - 123,000
XLeague.TV - 95,000

The interesting thing to note is that Baby TV, which was on the list last week, has come off the publically released list this week. Why I don't know, but when channels choose not to release ratings info, it's a sure fire sign of trouble. Baby TV announced on 8th October 2007 that Fox International Channels has acquired a "...major stake..." in the channel.

Newly launched Diva TV, from the team behind The Hallmark Channel, is new to the list, with a paltry 106,000 viewers. Despite airing programmes like The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Late Show with David Letterman, all the channel has so far managed to succeed in doing is pull in one of the lowest rated launches ever in the history of television. They say they are "...sassy, sexy and totally seductive...", whilst in reality they are nothing of the sort.

Ratings Review: BARB 5th June 2007

I haven't been following the ratings too much recently, but I do notice in the latest publicly available figures on the BARB website, some very interesting stats.

It is noticeable that Sky One has lost a lot of ground and is now pulling in it's lowest viewing figures ever. Just a 1.1 share / 15.7 weekly reach. It is even more noticeable, that whilst Sky Three has a lower share than Sky One (0.7), the weekly reach figures are better (17.9). Obviously the Sky vs Virgin Media incident is doing Sky One a great deal of damage.

In terms of share of viewing this week, Sky One is now behind the likes of BBC Three (1.2), CBeebies (1.2), E4 (1.2), ITV3 (1.4), ITV2 (1.8) and Sky Sports 1 (2.4). Sky One has never fallen this low and it remains to be seen just what will be done, particularly in regards to Sky Three's prescence on Freeview and the Sky / Virgin Media situation.

Now, for the worst performers of the week. These channels rate so low on share that it's between 0 and 0.1, so we rank them by weekly reach instead. The worst of the worst is Setanta Sports 2, which only broadcasts on Saturdays and Sundays, in a similar way to Sky Sports 2's early years. They rank just 29,000 viewers this week. Then comes MUTV (48,000), The Business Channel (50,000), Legal TV (90,000) and Rockworld TV (92,000).

Setanta may be making a big deal out of the fact that they have Premiership Football from August, but their current ratings are incredibly low. In fact, Setanta Sports 1, which now broadcasts on both Sky and Digital Terrestrial (note: Digital Terrestrial, not Freeview, as you have to pay a subscription), only gets 205,000 viewers per week, and doesn't score high enough on the share of viewing table to get a 0.1, but does at least avoid a complete 0. Out of all the Sports channels that we can track on the BARB ratings, only the Golf Channel UK comes in with a worse performance than Setanta Sports 1 (159,000) and the next worst above Setanta Sports 1 is the now defunkt Prem Plus, which scored 252,000 for one of the last matches they ever showed. Setanta Sports have their work cut out.