Technical upgrades behind the scenes mean more channels go live to Freeview viewers in this month’s Freeview update.
- Oldie music channel among the new launches on the platform in August’s channel update.
Additional services have gone live to Freeview viewers this week, including one channel that is now once again available without an internet connection.
Following August’s Freeview monthly channel update, which completed Wednesday lunchtime, viewers now have access to a music channel featuring golden oldies all day, plus a new craft shopping channel and the return of children’s channel POP as a broadcast channel over the airwaves.
The channel boost follows a technical upgrade, which now enables more of Freeview’s multiplexes to carry up to 18 channels simultaneously.
However viewers in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland may need to retune to benefit from the latest changes. There are no changes to the Freeview line-up for viewers in the Channel Islands and most viewers in the Isle of Man.
What’s new?
That’s Oldies is now live throughout the day on Freeview 75, with sister channel That’s Melody moving to channel 76. Viewers can find a selection of vintage music videos from the 20th century.
Hobbycraft TV is the new TV spin-off of the retailer Hobbycraft. Its launching on 4th September, but viewers can already find a preview loop on channel 97. The channel looks set to full the void left by the collapse of Create & Craft and attract many of its former viewers.
Children’s channel POP returns as a regular broadcast channel on channel 205. But the channel is not new to Freeview. Up until Wednesday morning, you needed a TV connected to the internet to stream the channel. POP’s sister channels, including Tiny Pop, POP Up and POP MAX (now on channel 212) remain exclusive to Freeview users with compatible internet connected TVs.
Streaming channel closures
Two services have been delisted from Freeview’s channel guide.
- Moochi, a streaming children’s service, is now no longer available on channel 213.
- Shots!, a streaming sports news service owned by National World has been delisted from 262 following its abrupt closure earlier this summer. It was branded an “expensive vanity project” by National World’s new owners.
Retune required
You’ll need to retune to benefit from all of this month’s Freeview channel changes.
This is partly due to two changes that weren’t formally confirmed by Freeview on Wednesday:
POP and streaming channel wedo movies have changed multiplexes. Coverage of wedo movies has reduced, as it’s now only available on 275 in areas covered by a local TV service.
Technical update behind the scenes
Two multiplex operators, SDN (owned by ITV) and Arqiva, operate the bulk of Freeview broadcast capacity open to commercial channels. Arqiva has now followed SDN in implementing encoder improvements that allows more channels to broadcast simultaneously on a multiplex. The current record, held by SDN is 18 channels. As of today, Arqiva now carries up to 17 channels on its multiplexes.
By: Marc Thornham | Image: Freeview