³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

If you watch television on a Freeview, Freeview HD, Freeview Play, YouView or EETV device (be it a TV set or a set-top box) then you may need to do a manual rescan on your receiving equipment this afternoon (Wednesday 2 August).

The Children's and News channels are moving to make way for further general entertainment channels on the digital terrestrial television (or Freeview) EPG this afternoon.Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat viewers are unaffected.

In October 2016, Digital UK, who manage certain aspects of the DTT (Digital terrestrial television) platform, embarked on an in-depth consultation to make sure the Freeview EPG would be fit for purpose in future.  One of the outcomes of that was a decision for the Children's and News channel blocks to move in order to accommodate extra growth in the general entertainment genre on Freeview and also to create sufficient capacity within those genres themselves.   

Recognising the recent expansion and potential for even further growth in the number of general entertainment channels,  the most suitable and appropriate block for the Children's channels was identified as starting at 201, and the block for News identified as starting at 231.  As part of the reorganisation, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Red Button text service will also be moving home from its current listing at 200 to its new home at 250.

Whilst channel numbers are changing, the relative order of the channels within the genre will remain the same – thus the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ services affected (C³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, CBeebies, C³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ HD, CBeebies HD, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ News and ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Parliament) will all remain at their respective positions in the genres, in accordance with public-service prominence rules. News HD channels are not moving as they will stay within the HD genre – so ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ News HD will remain at 107.

It is worth noting that some equipment will automatically do a rescan today (Wednesday 2nd August), whilst some people will need to do a manual retune.

Once the retune has taken place, holding slides will be in place for two weeks that will redirect viewers to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ channels on their new EPG numbers.

More information and help in retuning can be found at :

Neil Walker is Senior Commercial Manager, Distribution Ventures