The broadcaster behind TV channels including U&Dave, U&W and U&Yesterday has made a change to its satellite signal today.
- Sky and Freesat viewers who have lost channels may need to reboot their receiver.
- Part of industry-wide change to the way services are broadcast on satellite.
UKTV has become one of the last broadcasters to switch its satellite signal to DVB-S2, following in the footsteps of the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky.
The switch affects how standard definition (SD) versions of U&Alibi, U&Dave, U&Drama, U&Eden, U&Gold, U&W, U&Yesterday are broadcast to Sky and Freesat receivers.
Most viewers won’t be directly impacted by the change. However, if you have Sky+HD, SkyQ or Freesat HD/4K and you’ve lost access to UKTV’s channels, you may need to reboot your receiver. This also includes +1 channels offered by UKTV.
Freesat issued an update to receivers on Monday in advance of the change. Sky followed on Tuesday with an update to Sky+HD and Sky Q boxes.
HD copies of the above channels, currently only offered by Sky, are not affected. Viewers using Sky’s streaming TV platform (Sky Glass/Sky Stream) are equally not affected.
Why the change?
The change is part of a wider industry-led change in the UK and Ireland to migrate satellite services to a more bandwidth efficient broadcast standard.
DVB-S2 was originally introduced to cater for HD channels, which require more bandwidth. However most broadcasters have now adopted DVB-S2 for both SD and HD channels, reducing the amount of satellite bandwidth they need to pay for to distribute their channels. The switch to DVB-S2 which started in earnest last year rendered older first generation satellite receivers obsolete.
For UKTV, the change does mean it now has extra capacity on its satellite transponder. It hasn’t disclosed what it will use the capacity for. However, the broadcaster would now technically have capacity to launch a full set of Ireland versions of its main channels. Alternatively, it could seek to migrate some of its services to HD only.
Broadcasters who have yet to switch to the newer broadcast standard include Paramount (Channel 5), Narrative Entertainment (GREAT! movies, POP!) and a number of smaller broadcasters including That’s Dance, NOW 90s and 00s and Court TV. These smaller broadcasters utilise capacity provided by third-party operators. Sky incidentally continues to broadcast a copy of Sky News, radio news feed IRN and some sports channel feeds in the older DVB-S format.
Tuning parameters
The following satellite manual tuning parameters now apply to UKTV’s channels.
You’ll need this information if you’re using a generic satellite receiver to access the channels.
However, if you’ve got Sky or Freesat, UKTV channels will automatically appear in your channel list. The channels are no longer available on first generation satellite receivers.
| Channel | Tuning Parameters |
| U&Alibi (Sky only) U&Alibi+1 (Sky only) U&Dave U&Dave Ja Vu U&Drama U&Drama+1 U&Eden U&Eden+1 U&Gold (Sky only) U&Gold+1(Sky only) U&W U&W+1 U&Yesterday U&Yesterday+1 | Astra 2E, Transponder 22 Frequency: 12129 Polarisation: Vertical Mode: DVB-S2, 8PSK Symbol Rate: 27500 (27.5 Mbaud) FEC: 2/3 |
By: Marc Thornham | Image: UKTV