OFCOM has announced it will currently not be reserving an HD slot for Five on Freeview. In June 2009, Ofcom made a provisional decision to reserve a HD slot for Five to provide new services on Freeview from 2010. This decision was subject to it resolving certain key criteria by the end of 2009. In OFCOM’s final decision published today (15 March) the regulator stated that Five had not been able to resolve the outstanding issues.

The only other applicants for the HD slot, Channel 4 and S4C, were unable to provide Ofcom with confirmation of their ability to launch a service within a defined timescale.

Any capacity within Multiplex B that is not reserved by OFCOM is available for the BBC to use. This brings forward by around two years the date when it was anticipated that further capacity on Multiplex B would revert to the control of the BBC Trust.

Sky and BT have signed a contract for the wholesale supply of Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 to BT. The deal means that BT customers will be able to sign up for the subscription channels from early July.  BT Vision customers will be able to view Sky Sports 1 and 2 from August 1, in time for the start of the Premier League season on August 14.

Further evidence of how competitive all this could get is in the story of how Sky subscribers could be convinced to stay as customers by the offer of free viewing via their gadgets and widgets.

The onslaught of complaint regarding BBC’s HD quality finally won through with a raft of picture quality improvements following weeks of campaigners taking their grievances direct to the channels’ hierarchy.

The grief all started last August when the BBC introduced new HiDef encoders that reduced bandwidth below that of Sky’s HD and even their own BBC HD Worldwide channel. What made matters worse was the BBC claim that it was a variation in production styles that caused the picture quality drop. A full account of the campaigners visit to the BBC can be found on the BBC internet blog.

Further good news on the BBC front is the autumn launch of BBC1 HD elevating much of the top viewing programmes to HD status.

After eight years of free-to-air broadcasting the Sky Sports News will move to pay only later this year. With the move to Sky satellite, Virgin Media and Talk Talk TV comes the plan to launch a HiDef simulcast of the channel. Freeview will then air timeshift Sky3 +1 in place of the Sport News. Other Changes are also happening with the closure of Sky Real Lives with a shift of focus to Sky1 and Sky2.

Monday, 12 July 2010 11:59

NME TV has begun broadcasting on Freesat. The music channel features up-to-date charts, videos and music news from NME. CSE Media, who operate NME TV is also launching True Entertainment, a film, drama and documentary channel on Freesat this month.