Freesat viewers regained access to Warner Bros Discovery’s entertainment channel TLC on Monday after being temporarily blocked from viewing the TLC service over the weekend.
Mystery over issue that stopped Freesat viewers tuning in
TLC HD on Freesat channel 144 and TLC+1 on 150 became unavailable over the weekend after the satellite signal carrying both services was re-encrypted. The channel and its timeshift service had only been added to Freesat in the past week.
As Freesat receivers don’t support encrypted channels, viewers received an error message when trying to access the channel. That left Freesat users unable to watch the first episodes of Young Sheldon spin-off comedy Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.
Sky satellite viewers with a valid subscription were not impacted. Freeview and Freely were also not affected.
Late on Monday morning (19 January), the encryption was lifted allowing Freesat devices to access both services as normal.
As of the time of publication, both Freesat and Warner Bros Discovery have remained quiet about the issue. It’s understood the problem is not Freesat’s fault, as they don’t control encryption.
Former members of the broadcast industry have privately indicated a range of possible reasons to RXTV, from something accidental, like a technical misconfiguration to some thing more substantial, such as a lack of clearance to screen a programme or movie on free-to-air satellite, due to potential signal overlap in neighbouring countries.
TLC was relaunched last week in the UK as a free-to-air channel with much fanfare. The channel was added to the Freesat TV guide at lunchtime on 13 January.
The relaunch has seen TLC’s reality-focused output replaced for much of the day by US sitcoms. In the coming months, new original programmes Mock The Week and Zero Stars arrive on the channel. As Warner Bros Discovery is planning to split this year into two entities, the relaunch of TLC effectively positions TLC as flagship UK free-to-air entertainment channel of the new Discovery Global division of the company.
By: Marc Thornham | Image: WBD