"Your Freeview TV will lose 5 top channels this year as major change confirmed"

trog said:
"top channels" ????? No but it is another nail in the coffin for OTA Freeview.
www.express.co.uk

Your Freeview TV will lose 5 top channels this year as major change confirmed

Freeview, Sky and Virgin users will face losing access to a number of Channel 4 services later this year with the station confirming a major switch-off.
www.express.co.uk www.express.co.uk
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For a moment I thought 5 top channels would mean they had to be removing everything except Channel 4 itself. But then I saw the list and laughed: 4Music, The Box, Kerrang TV, Kiss TV and Magic YV. I'm not sure I've ever watched those.

I don't think this is a nail in the OTA Freeview platform. These are music channels and this is because people don't listen to music on their TV any more, it's all about streaming to your phone or smart speaker for music. I stream music, but to a proper hifi so I'm half dinosaur.
 
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Owen Smith said:
For a moment I thought 5 top channels would mean they had to be removing everything except Channel 4 itself. But then I saw the list and laughed: 4Music, The Box, Kerrang TV, Kiss TV and Magic YV. I'm not sure I've ever watched those.

I don't think this is a nail in the OTS Freeview platform. These are music channels and this is because people don't listen to music on their TV any more, it's all about streaming to your phone or smart speaker for music. I stream music, but to a proper hifi so I'm half dinosaur.
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I think I watched 4Music once on my 9200 but none have ever been viewed since. You have to admit that the coffin has had several nails hammered in recently though and I would not be surprised if more OTA Ch4 channels start to disappear in the not too distant future along with other minor channels and I doubt we will see Humax release more than one if any new OTA Freeview PVR's.
 
trog said:
You have to admit that the coffin has had several nails hammered in recently though and I would not be surprised if more OTA Ch4 channels start to disappear in the not too distant future along with other minor channels and I doubt we will see Humax release more than one if any new OTA Freeview PVR's.
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I watch about 7 channels on Freeview: the four BBC ones, ITV1, C4 and Five. What is hurting Freeview for me is the reduction in choice and quality on those main channels, not losing pointless channels.
 
Luke said:
If the express stopped exaggerating could it be sued because its reports are too divergent from what we've come to expect?
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Hell will freeze over before the Express stops exaggerating its weather stories. :D
 
gomezz said:
Hell will freeze over before the Express stops exaggerating its weather stories. :D
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It's the endless Mrs Hinch cleaning dross, the I am an expert you've been doing it wrong and the completely useless and often B/S gardening advice that grinds my gears. The only reason I ever see their pitiful articles are when they appear on my Opera browser News page. I often wonder who actually buys it.
 
Owen Smith said:
I watch about 7 channels on Freeview: the four BBC ones, ITV1, C4 and Five. What is hurting Freeview for me is the reduction in choice and quality on those main channels, not losing pointless channels.
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E4 gets a few things worth a look but the others are handy as they tend to show a lot of Ch4 content repeated that you may have missed at a time which is more convenient to your viewing.
 
Plus 1 / Repeat channels have more or less had their day given the ubiquity of catch up streaming services.
 
gomezz said:
Plus 1 / Repeat channels have more or less had their day given the ubiquity of catch up streaming services.
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Yes. And our new PVRs can record 3 or 4 programmes simultaneously, so I've actually dropped all the +1s from our favourite lists.
 
bottletop said:
That's odd. I thought those channels were taken off Freeview already.
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Were they ever on Freeview? 4Music morphed into E4 Extra, but the others - never seen them on my TV/Humax, unless they are online services hidden under another name.
gomezz said:
Plus 1 / Repeat channels have more or less had their day given the ubiquity of catch up streaming services.
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Except you can't record (and keep) streaming services. But I agree, even though I occasionally use them, +1 channels are a waste of bandwidth.
MikeSh said:
Yes. And our new PVRs can record 3 or 4 programmes simultaneously, so I've actually dropped all the +1s from our favourite lists.
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Very occasionally I've been channel surfing and found something that looks interesting but started 20-30 minutes ago. If there's a +1 I'll set the Humax so that I can see the beginning.
 
EEPhil said:
Very occasionally I've been channel surfing and found something that looks interesting but started 20-30 minutes ago. If there's a +1 I'll set the Humax so that I can see the beginning.
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We are definitely silver these days, but surfers not :)
 
Well even if I am in a minority I find those CH4 spin off's handy. I often use the TV as background noise whilst on my laptop in the day time and the endless repeats of find it fix it, place in the sun, dine with me are just the right level of banality not to distract me from what I am doing. I would never bother to record them or even endure the clicks or buffering to get them on catch up. As for taking up bandwidth it is the adult channels that should be ditched, the internet is full of free porn if that rocks your boat so what sort of fool pays to watch them, their demise would leave holes that could be filled with something with far more meat on the bone.
 
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bottletop said:
That's odd. I thought those channels were taken off Freeview already.
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I don't recall 2 of the 5 channels mentioned ever being available through a freeview box. Two of the other 3 were taken off freeview's lcn 18 4Music red button streaming service a while ago. The fifth, 4Music, had its conventional slot renamed to E4 Extra in 2022.
 
trog said:
it is the adult channels that should be ditched, the internet is full of free porn if that rocks your boat so what sort of fool pays to watch them,
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I wouldn't jump to that conclusion too fast. Never mind free stuff it is, or at least was in the past, paid for porn that was the biggest internet income stream. Paid for broadcast porn may be quite lucrative.
 
trog said:
E4 gets a few things worth a look but the others are handy as they tend to show a lot of Ch4 content repeated that you may have missed at a time which is more convenient to your viewing.
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But they're in SD and stereo sound at which point the streaming catchup options are on a par quality wise. I don't have any problems with buffering, streaming works fine for me it's just the reduced sound and picture quality for the terrestrial broadcasters that means I don't use streaming more.
 
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