[skyisthebest]

From Media Guardian:

CBBC plans later bedtime

Digital channel CBBC could be on air until 10pm under plans being considered by the BBC children's controller, Richard Deverell.

Mr Deverell wants to extend CBBC's hours as many children do not get home from after-school activities until just before the service closes. At the moment CBBC ends at 7pm.

"It's the only children's channel to end at 7pm, yet a lot of children only get home from after-school activities by 6pm or 6.30pm," he said.

"An urgent aim is to secure extra distribution capacity so we can stay on air until 10pm," Mr Deverell told Ariel magazine.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcas...948619,00.html

I guess this also means that BBC THREE would be able to extend its hours as well if timesharing ended....

[paul_hadley]

10pm? Shouldn't kids be asleep by 9pm?

If this does happen (on Freeview), I would assume they would compress the 302 stream and use the "new free" bandwidth for CBBC.

Then BBC THREE could use CBBC's "old space" to go 24 hours.

302 - As normal but compressed?

CBBC - Put on new space created through compression on 302?

BBC THREE - Uses CBBC's old space, as both channels are, technically, on the same feed at the moment anyway

They could also go the full hog and compress 301 as well and use "new" bandwidth created from that for CBeebies (or BBC FOUR 24 hours)?

[ProDave]

IF CBBC and CBeebies extend their hours WITHOUT reducing the hours of BBC3 and BBC4, then at last I would conceed that the BBC have 8 channels.

At the moment they only have 4 full time channels, and 4 half time channels, which I have always said means they only have 6 channels.

What do they mean they are the only childrens channel to close at 7PM, implying others continue for longer. Doesn't CITV close even earlier than that at 6PM?

[paul_hadley]

Originally Posted by ProDave

IF CBBC and CBeebies extend their hours WITHOUT reducing the hours of BBC3 and BBC4, then at last I would conceed that the BBC have 8 channels.

At the moment they only have 4 full time channels, and 4 half time channels, which I have always said means they only have 6 channels.

What do they mean they are the only childrens channel to close at 7PM, implying others continue for longer. Doesn't CITV close even earlier than that at 6PM?

CITV closes at 6pm, yes.

[2Bdecided]

They've already "compressed" 301 and 302 to fit Parliament in. Any more on that mux and the pictures will be horrible.

However, they could balance the use of 301 and 302 vs CBBC, but that would make the Freeview BBCI service even poorer compared with DSat.

Cheers,
David.

[skyisthebest]

I think the BBC News Multiscreens should be scrapped on Freeview. Especially as BBC Parliament is now full screen.

I would rather see extended hours for the CBBC Channel and BBC THREE than the BBC News multiscreens....

[BongMong]

This would be a pain. If this happened then the watershed would have to be put forward from 9pm to 10pm. Any non-pg films could only start at 10, so midnight finishes would be common. That'll hurt. Either that or we'll have post watershed BBC childrens programmes. They'll be interesting I'm sure...

If we've finally crowbarred the kids out of the sofa and into after-school activities in preference to the telly, should the BBC really be trying to fight back?

[AlexD]

Originally Posted by BongMong

This would be a pain. If this happened then the watershed would have to be put forward from 9pm to 10pm. Any non-pg films could only start at 10, so midnight finishes would be common.

What on Earth are you talking about? Why would the watershed have to be put back?

[PrimusM]

The BBC appear to have flung caution to the wind and are suddenly maximising their bandwidth, hot on the heels of BBC Parliament's switch to fullscreen.

Is it possible that this change in hours would only be on satellite and cable, and not Freeview due to "lack of available bandwidth"?

[BongMong]

Originally Posted by AlexD

What on Earth are you talking about? Why would the watershed have to be put back?

If parents stop their kids watching TV at 9, when the childrens' TV ends and the watershed starts, then everything is in sync. If they try this in the middle of the childrens' TV programmes then they'll have a lot of complaints from the kiddies. Reasonably so. If the inconsistency is left in place then the watershed convention will swiftly disappear altogether. Not a good thing, I suspect we can all agree.

[TV Ideas]

The ideas expressed can be done now, but the quality will be like multiplex D, on both multiplexes 1 and B.

Using the ideas, I can speculate the following:-
Multiplex 1
BBC1 (24 Hours)
BBC2 (24 Hours)
BBC News 24 (24 Hours)
CBBC (24 Hours, even though from 7am - 10pm)
S4C2/BBC3 (9am - 6pm, 6pm - 9am,
a new channel for Scotland, Northern Ireland and England (individually perhaps?) between 9am and 6pm)
CBeebies/BBC5 (6am - 7pm, 7pm - 6am)

Multiplex B
301 (24 Hours)
302 (24 Hours)
303 & 305 (24 Hours)
BBC Parliament (24 Hours)
Five (24 Hours, moving to MUX B in 2008)
Community Channel/BBC4 (6am - 11am, 11am - 6am)

Each multiplex would have 6 TV streams, and Multiplex 1 can have better audio quality because of less radio stations (no radio stations in England, perhaps BBC Local Radio 1 & 2 on 719 and 720?)

EDIT- Remember the licence fee is increasing by 2013 to £150 per annum, to expand for digital broadcasting from the BBC & improvements for Freeview, so why not spend more money on new equipment and less on luxury idents!!

[Mark.]

Aren't we forgetting one important point?

CBBC shares playout equipment with BBC3 at the BBC Broadcast centre so, unless they invest in new equipment, it's impossible for them to broadcast at the same time.

[mrstottie]

Originally Posted by dundee_mark

Aren't we forgetting one important point?

CBBC shares playout equipment with BBC3 at the BBC Broadcast centre so, unless they invest in new equipment, it's impossible for them to broadcast at the same time.

That's exactly what I was thinking. This would therefore be extremely expensive to implement - at a time when the BBC is meant to be cutting costs.....

[TV Ideas]

If my ideas are to implemented as previously said, then a lot of improvements can be made on MUX 2 & A as well.

• Moving S4C2 from MUX A to MUX1 means that Welsh viewers can fully watch QVC 24 hours a day.

• S4C could move from MUX A to MUX 2 (another PSB multiplex) there is more space up for taking, on MUX 2 (if MUX 2 is identical to MUX A). This will also allow for more channels from STV and UTV for an extra channel in Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively. England could have a local channel, maybe ITV Local.

• BBC Local for English Regions, Scotland and Northern Ireland could be on MUX 1 between 9am and 6pm, and in Wales S4C2, timesharing with BBC3.

• Five moving from MUX A to MUX B would mean that vacated space could be used for a fourth channel from Five on MUX A, and more space for TUTV Anytime. TUTV Anytime 4 timesharing with Five US between 1am to 9am then followed by CNN (US News) and TUTV Anytime 5 timesharing with Five.4 between 1am to 9am followed by Teachers TV (Five.4 might be like Five US broadcast hours)?

• Back to S4C, and it can be decided whether Wales would like to see S4C3 (or renamed S4C2 for entertainment, and S4C3 for Cynuliad (Welsh Assembly)), ABC1 or Bid TV 24 hours a day, on the space vacated by S4C on MUX A. Then would Welsh viewers would like to see either ABC1 or Bid TV on the place currently timesharing with TCM on MUX A (Tele G moved to MUX 2, where S4C moves to)?

Channel number changes (and no TUTV Live channels):-
8 ITV3
9 BBC4
10 ITV4
...
15 ABC1 (UK Wide)
...
17 Bid TV (Eng/Scot/NI) S4C2 (Entertainment) (Wales)
...
23 Price Drop TV
24 ITV Local (Eng) STV2 (Scot) UTV2 (NI) Channel 4 (Wales)
25 Film4
26 Film4+1 (New Channel)
27 ITV Play (Film Channel maybe?)
28 E4 +1 (New Channel)
29 BBC Local (Eng/Scot/NI) S4C3 (Cynuliad)(Wales)
30 Five US
31 Five Life
32 Five.4
33 BBC5 (Sports genre perhaps?)
34 Setanta Sports
35 Smile TV
36 - 40 TUTV Anytime 1 - 5
41 (Sky Sports 1 replacing TUTV 1 Slot)
42 (Sky Sports 2 replacing Sky Sports News on MUX C)
42 (TCM/British Eurosport replacing TUTV 2 Slot)
...
80 BBC News 24
81 BBC Parliament
82 Sky News
83 CNN
84 Teachers TV
85 Community Channel

[NEWLINEtv]

I wish CBBC was 24 hours.

[John259]

Although the bandwidth implications are obviously vitally important, let's just consider content for a moment....

....I think there's an excellent case for CBBC fading from older children's programmes into educational programmes as the evening progresses. If it become 24 hours then it could carry the BBC2 Learning Zone material overnight.

What I definitely don't want is for it to migrate into another BBC3/E4 thicko "yoof-tv" channel during the evening please!

John

[rsocon]

Is it possible that CBBC will use BBC Parliaments space, and vicke verki. I'm not sure what goes on BBC Paliament after 19:00? There could be alot, or there might not.

[Spot]

Originally Posted by rsocon

Is it possible that CBBC will use BBC Parliaments space, and vicke verki. I'm not sure what goes on BBC Paliament after 19:00? There could be alot, or there might not.

Parliament often sits during the evening - not quite as much as it used to but it still happens, and debates can occasionally go on all night. Usually, recorded coverage of the Lords is shown after the House of Commons adjourns as well as many other politics-related programmes. So what you suggest isn't really an option.

[Ray Cathode]

I am sure the BBC are postulating for post DSO operations when more bandwidth becomes available on their muxes with the switch to 64QAM.

[ronant]

Well Janice Hadlow, controller of BBC4 has also said in the past she wants to extend into the daytime. http://media.guardian.co.uk/bbc/stor...694638,00.html

From Media Guardian article in January:
BBC4 controller Janice Hadlow has revealed she is in discussions with corporation's director general, Mark Thompson, about extending the number of hours her channel is on air.

Ms Hadlow said at today's season launch that the idea to begin programming before 7pm is "at the thinking stage" but said she told Mr Thompson she would be keen to see its hours extended.

"There is an audience for the kind of things that BBC4 does best. Watch this space - we hope that at some stage there will be the space to do that," she said.

"People are longing for something that they are not getting elsewhere. I have been thinking about this for a long time."

[Mark.]

Originally Posted by TV Ideas

<fantasy EPG post snipped>

Why, oh why do you always have turn threads into fantasy EPG's/Mux line-ups?

[Ray Cathode]

Originally Posted by ronant

"People are longing for something that they are not getting elsewhere. I have been thinking about this for a long time."

So have I. It's called sexual frustration. The cause of all the BBC's problems. Now if the Beeb showed porn on BBC4's extended hours, then Controllers everywhere would be satisfied.

[Mark.]

Originally Posted by rsocon

Is it possible that CBBC will use BBC Parliaments space, and vicke verki.

The BBC could have an entire stream free, but CBBC and BBC3 cannot broadcast at the same time (again, unless they install some [expensive] new playout equipment).

[mossy2103]

Originally Posted by Ray Cathode

I am sure the BBC are postulating for post DSO operations when more bandwidth becomes available on their muxes with the switch to 64QAM.

I agree - the report did state

An urgent aim is to secure extra distribution capacity so we can stay on air until 10pm

Note the term extra distribution capacity

[freetoview33]

yes a new slot on maybe mux1 is needed urgently

MUX1

BBC1
BBC2
News 24
CBbebies /BBC3
CBBC

MuxB

BBC Parliament
BBC4
301
302/community
303