BBC TV and Radio
Changes in October 2012
The BBC have
confirmed the changes to some BBC TV and BBC Radio services in
October.
BBC Red Button
streams to be cut to one. As part of the BBC cost cutting drive the
number of BBC Red Button video streams on satellite will be reduced
to one - on the 15th October. The lone BBC Red Button video stream
will be moved from its current frequency (Astra 2A to 13 11954 H) to
a new frequency : Astra 1N to 45 10773 H 22 5/6
BBC TV and
Radio Channels Frequency Changes. The BBC will need to shuffle some
of their other TV services around, so in the early hours of 15th
October 2012:
BBC Three /
CBBC and BBC News will move to Astra 1N to 48 - frequency 10818 V 22
5/6
BBC ALBA and
BBC One North East & Cumbria will both move to Astra 1N to 47 -
frequency 10803 H 22 5/6
BBC Four /
CBeebies and BBC Red Button stream 1 will move to Astra 1N to 45
frequency 10773 H 22 5/6
BBC Radio
Frequency Changes
Some of the BBC
Radio services will also change frequencies and will be split between
frequency 10803 H 22 5/6 and frequency 10788 V 22 5/6
Possible loss
of BBC Radio stations for Expats??
This will mean
the BBC can close Astra 2A to 13, which is a Pan European beam. As
the BBC statement says:
"This will
also mean that our radio services move from a European beam to a UK
spot beam as DSat7 is the last of our European beam transponders. We
use a UK beam for our TV services, so the radio services will be as
available in the UK as our TV services. But it does mean that the
radio services will no longer be receivable across much of mainland
Europe. I’ve no doubt that some readers of this blog will be
disappointed by this news. But I’m afraid European-beam
transponders are not cost effective for us. We broadcast our services
for UK audiences “in the clear” or unencrypted (which is what
makes Freesat possible) and so for rights reasons we are limited in
terms of the services that we are able to broadcast on a European
beam. The BBC’s radio station for listeners outside the UK is the
BBC World Service, and it is widely available throughout the world.
In Europe you can receive the World Service in many different ways
including on satellite from Eutelsat Hot Bird 8 at 13°East. It’s
also available online 24 hours a day via the listen live link from
the BBC World Service homepage."
BBC One HD Regions
to Launch
These changes to
BBC TV and Radio will also help with the launch of BBC One HD for
Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland "over the next few
months".
The BBC also
confirmed that "BBC HD will be converted into BBC Two HD towards
next year".
To allow these
further BBC HD regions to be available on satellite the BBC are
renting a new Transponder and frequency from Astra.
