Freeview to carry eight extra BBC channels during Rio Olympics

[dutchman]

Multiplex and broadcast infrastructure company Arqiva has confirmed it will carry eight additional services on digital terrestrial TV for the duration of the 2016 Olympics



The additional services, delivered in conjunction with the BBC and consisting of a mixture of standard and high definition streams, will broadcast on the company's COM8 multiplex, which has a technical reach of 76% of households. Arqiva says the move will help contribute towards the BBC's goal of bringing more than 3,000 hours of coverage of the event.

In order to receive the channels, viewers must have a device that's DVB-T2 compatible - i.e. a device supporting Freeview HD, Freeview Play, YouView (BT TV, TalkTalk TV, Plusnet TV) or EE TV.

The COM8 multiplex already carries QVC+1 HD and QVC Beauty HD on channels 111 and 112, so viewers who can receive these services now will be able to benefit from the expanded service. Viewers may need to retune their receivers at the beginning of August in order to receive the expanded Olympics service, which will be live from 5th August - 21st August 2016.

There will be further changes to the Freeview service during this time, including changes to the broadcast hours of BBC Four and BBC Four HD - the channel is being converted into an Olympics sports channel in August. According to an earlier set of information released by the BBC, the changes mean BBC Parliament will need to close and CBBC HD and CBeebies HD will need to move from their current broadcast frequency. The BBC has warned that the HD versions of both channels will have "reduced coverage" during August, although the standard definition versions of CBBC and CBeebies will continue as normal.

The BBC currently has three standard definition Red Button streams waiting to be activated (BBC RB0, BBC RB2 and BBC RB3), but the COM8 deal will provide room for more temporary Red Button streams.

Everyone with Freeview will as a result gain access to extra Olympic coverage, but due to the reduced coverage of COM8, some of it will be geographically limited and dependant on whether or not a viewer has access to DVB-T2 compatible (e.g. Freeview HD) equipment. Further details of how viewers will be affected are due to be confirmed by the BBC shortly.

The BBC has confirmed that it has completed an assessment of necessary permissions from Ofcom and that all requirements are satisfied by these arrangements, with the temporary services being offered to all platform providers on a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory basis.

[dutchman]

All eight are now up, a manual retune may be required.

As part of the changes, BBC4HD (Freeview Ch 106) is now available in some areas where it wasn't before. You may have to retune to receive it though (UHF Ch40). This is strictly a temporary measure for the duration of the Olympics. After that it will move to a more obscure frequency on COM8 (UHF Ch35).

CBeebiesHD has also been moved to UHF Ch35 and reception may be hit & miss where you live.

[dutchman]

A lot of problems being reported with the Humax FVP-4000T Freeview recorder following the latest additions. In particular there is no sound on the Olympic Channel when selecting LCN114. A temporary workaround to restore sound is to first press Pause and then Play.

[dutchman]

It's Musical Chairs time again folks!

You will need to rescan to continue to receive certain HD channels and/or remove unwanted ones.

I would advise only scanning those HD multiplexes which are absolutely necessary, UHF Channels 33, 35 and 40 if your signal is from Sutton Coldfield. If your signal is from Allesley Park I am afraid you will no longer be able to receive BBC4HD or CBeebies on UHF Channel 28.

Don't rescan if your signal is currently weak up breaking up as that will cause you lose existing channels. Also avoid doing a full rescan as that could mess up your EPG and delete your timer settings.

[dutchman]

5Star+1 has now replaced one of the Olympic services on COM8 (Sutton Coldfield UHF Ch35, Freeview Channel 55) so yet another retune is necessary.