Plans for BBC One HD

[Inspector Sands]

Does anyone actually know why the Channel Islands don't get ITV HD? Is it just to protect ITV Channel's local advertising?

[i.h]

Does anyone actually know why the Channel Islands don't get ITV HD? Is it just to protect ITV Channel's local advertising?

Seems like an odd reason in the post-ITV plc age, given that a number of mainland regions have the same issue

Maybe it's to avoid adverts for non-CI businesses being shown there, not in a revenue sense but so that advertisers don't need to slap "not available in the Channel Islands" on everything

[eladkse]

Does anyone actually know why the Channel Islands don't get ITV HD? Is it just to protect ITV Channel's local advertising?

Seems like an odd reason in the post-ITV plc age, given that a number of mainland regions have the same issue

Maybe it's to avoid adverts for non-CI businesses being shown there, not in a revenue sense but so that advertisers don't need to slap "not available in the Channel Islands" on everything

Indeed - CI not technically being part of the UK means there's a whole bunch of compliance reasons with advertising and programming*. So having a HD region from the mainland would not be allowed. Not a very financially viable region for it's own HD opt, so stripping off the SIDs and PIDs from the mux is the most cost-effective solution.

*One of the more obvious issues for this used to be the overnight Jackpot247 block, which was not allowed to be shown at all in CI (replaced by Nightscreen in SD). But they closed down in July 2019.

[Markymark]

Does anyone actually know why the Channel Islands don't get ITV HD? Is it just to protect ITV Channel's local advertising?

Seems like an odd reason in the post-ITV plc age, given that a number of mainland regions have the same issue

Maybe it's to avoid adverts for non-CI businesses being shown there, not in a revenue sense but so that advertisers don't need to slap "not available in the Channel Islands" on everything

Indeed - CI not technically being part of the UK means there's a whole bunch of compliance reasons with advertising and programming*. So having a HD region from the mainland would not be allowed. Not a very financially viable region for it's own HD opt, so stripping off the SIDs and PIDs from the mux is the most cost-effective solution.

*One of the more obvious issues for this used to be the overnight Jackpot247 block, which was not allowed to be shown at all in CI (replaced by Nightscreen in SD). But they closed down in July 2019.

I still don't really understand, the CI still has the mainland versions of C4, C5, and even ITV 2,3 and 4?

[This is UTV]

Does anyone actually know why the Channel Islands don't get ITV HD? Is it just to protect ITV Channel's local advertising?

I bet plenty of CI viewers who want HD will be using a freesat box with a Meridian postcode to watch ITV HD.
It's not as if Channel TV has any opt out programming like UTV/STV, so apart from the ads, Meridian and Channel are like for like outside of the news.

Those who are not bothered with HD will just be happy with Channel SD.
Not worth the effort for ITV to launch Channel HD to those tiny few number of viewers who don't want to do the leg work themselves by tuning into Meridian HD manually.

I suspect Border Scotland has a (slightly) better business case, due to Border Scots opt outs and with its neighbour STV HD being on its doorstep.

Anyway back to topic, BBC ONE HD. I bet the business case/financial viability for BBC ONE CI HD is thin at best. If they had BBC ONE South West HD, and then just kept ONE CI as SD, I can see that being the way forward.

[Markymark]

Does anyone actually know why the Channel Islands don't get ITV HD? Is it just to protect ITV Channel's local advertising?

I bet plenty of CI viewers who want HD will be using a freesat box with a Meridian postcode to watch ITV HD.
It's not as if Channel TV has any opt out programming like UTV/STV, so apart from the ads, Meridian and Channel are like for like outside of the news.

Those who are not bothered with HD will just be happy with Channel SD.
Not worth the effort for ITV to launch Channel HD to those tiny few number of viewers who don't want to do the leg work themselves by tuning into Meridian HD manually.

I suspect Border Scotland has a (slightly) better business case, due to Border Scots opt outs and with its neighbour STV HD being on its doorstep.

Anyway back to topic, BBC ONE HD. I bet the business case/financial viability for BBC ONE CI HD is thin at best. If they had BBC ONE South West HD, and then just kept ONE CI as SD, I can see that being the way forward.

How many Freesat users are there on the CI?
I suspect compared with Sky, Freeview, and the local Cable cos, not many?

Scottish Borders, I'm not aware of many overlap areas between STV and Border transmitters, so it's not as if many viewers have a choice between STV and ITV?

[Steve in Pudsey]

Could the lack of ITV HD be anything to do with the overnight casino services which were blanked out on Channel?

If the infrastructure to provide Channel HD wasn't able to be provided, putting out another region would have been problematic overnight?

[Markymark]

Could the lack of ITV HD be anything to do with the overnight casino services which were blanked out on Channel?

If the infrastructure to provide Channel HD wasn't able to be provided, putting out another region would have been problematic overnight?

Yes, but didn't C5 also used to have overnight gambling stuff too ? Was that blanked out for the CIs ?

[eladkse]

When I was talking about compliance earlier, it was in relation to ITV itself… It was explained to me once the reason why, but I forget the specifics. Gambling itself is perfectly legal in CI.

As I understand it, there was an internal compliance reason within ITV that meant Jackpot247 couldn’t broadcast in CI. Something to do with the regional structure and how certain programming was (is?) handled.

Supercasino (same owner, just on C5) had no such restriction from C5, so were able to accept CI players, thus no need to black out.

[Pete]

As I understand it, there was an internal compliance reason within ITV that meant Jackpot247 couldn’t broadcast in CI. Something to do with the regional structure and how certain programming was (is?) handled.

Was this the old scam ITV had when they ran all compliance through Channel TV so the fines (based on viewers of the region) were as small as possible?

[epsilon]

BBC One SD is no longer on Virgin Media.

There's still SD versions in the 800s.

Not for much longer. Service labels have appeared for HD versions of BBC One nations and BBC Two for the 866-869 & 872 channel numbers. Also a HD version of BBC Red Button 1 is waiting in the wings.

[jsnbts]

Has there been any indication as to when the HD regions may make their way on to Sky?

[Spencer]

Has there been any indication as to when the HD regions may make their way on to Sky?

I think it was suggested on here, possibly by an insider, that they were aiming to get it on Freeview and Satellite in the Autumn.

[epsilon]

Update on Virgin Media: The London and Nations SD versions of BBC One on channels 861 to 864 and BBC Two London on 865 have now been replaced with HD versions. Similarly, BBC RB 1 on channel 991 has been replaced with BBC RB 1 HD.

For the moment BBC 1 AD and BBC 2 AD on channels 851 - 852 remain in SD. I would expect that to change soon or for all AD channels to be completely removed as all regional versions should now carry the audio description stream.

[Rexogamer]

I was not aware that a BBC Two London or separate AD channels even existed. In any case, good to see some progress being made.

(Slight side note - it seems the switchover slide still hasn't been updated to remove Virgin? Correct me if I'm wrong but surely at this point no Virgin viewers would actually see it?)