[speculator]

The BBC has confirmed to MediaGuardian.co.uk that it is to withdraw the BBC Parliament channel from the Freeview digital terrestrial TV service for the duration of the Beijing Olympics in August on order to replace it with action from the games.

BBC Parliament's Freeview capacity will be used to "enhance" the quality of the interactive TV streaming the BBC is planning to use for the Olympics, which take place between August 8 and 24.

The BBC said that as all the UK's parliaments and assemblies will be in recess during August, using the channel for Olympics coverage would make the best use of its capacity during a busy sports period.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008...icsandthemedia

[Paul Grayson]

Makes sense; during that period BBC Parliament only shows recorded coverage from earlier in the year interspersed with the odd documentary and re-runs of old election results programmes.

I presume that the Olympic Games will be over by the time the party conference season starts?

[John259]

That seems a very sensible decision - but for just a second there it did conjure up a vision of our PM doing the pole vault with Frank Field standing underneath holding a couple of javelins sticking up in the air

John

[garrick]

Let's just hope OFCOM do's not go and put a spike in that and force the channel to do full party coverage.

[You_mo]

Sensible news but the BBC really could do with a dedicated sports channel.

[mossy2103]

Very sensible considering that all Parliaments will be in Summer recess.

As for a dedicated sports channel, there was a long thread on here recently, but what it boils down to is what would the BBC use to fill it when there is little sport available (like this week for example). Indeed, sometimes we can go months without any major sports tournaments (those lasting more than a few days), and even then it might only be highlights (due to lack of cash, or merely the fact that they don't have the full rights).

[John259]

I'm quite happy with 301 and 302 being used for live sport whenever needed. It would be nice to have a few more similar channels like that available on Freeview but bandwidth priorities lie elsewhere, rightly or wrongly.

Just for the record, you can see the schedule for the sports programmes on 301 and 302 here (click the "Interactive" tab).

John

[tvhamster]

Im happy.... no rubbish on freeview no more other than the shopping channels.

[BMR]

Originally Posted by Paul Grayson

I presume that the Olympic Games will be over by the time the party conference season starts?

Yes, they will. Party conferences are not until September.

[darnall42]

Originally Posted by John259

Just for the record, you can see the schedule for the sports programmes on 301 and 302 here (click the "Interactive" tab).

John

never knew about that page,very usefull link

[David (2)]

makes sense to switch it for the sports - but this also highlights the bandwidth limitations of Freeview. Ideally they shouldnt have to make the switch.

Dave

[russellelly]

Originally Posted by David (2)

makes sense to switch it for the sports - but this also highlights the bandwidth limitations of Freeview. Ideally they shouldnt have to make the switch.

Dave

Ideally, yes. Incidentally, during the summer months especially in an Olympic year would News Multiscreen not also be a good candidate to make way for more BBCi streams?

[TelevisionUser]

I'd go along with the above posters. It does seem an intelligent use of BBC Parliament for Olympic sporting events while MPs are on their holidays. In effect, the BBC does already use the extra BBCi channels as partial sporting channels but they probably cannot officially describe them as such.

[Spot]

Does anyone know how they will do this technicaly? Will it require a rescan, or are they just intending to direct viewers to Ch 81 to see the extra stream?

[Nick76]

I guess it's something they have to do in order to keep receiving the licence fee, but I can't really see the point of a full-time BBC Parliament channel. Surely BBC News could show the live coverage of anything important (they already show Prime Minister's Questions for example), and leave the bandwidth free for something that might be of more general interest than repeats of committee meetings and Welsh Assembly debates.

[Spot]

Originally Posted by Nick76

I guess it's something they have to do in order to keep receiving the licence fee, but I can't really see the point of a full-time BBC Parliament channel. Surely BBC News could show the live coverage of anything important (they already show Prime Minister's Questions for example), and leave the bandwidth free for something that might be of more general interest than repeats of committee meetings and Welsh Assembly debates.

The point is that it is part of our democratic process, it offers far more than a news channel could offer as it makes everything available to anyone who might wish to watch regardless of how 'important' a particular debate might be (a judgement which will surely vary from one person to the next) and it is an excellent way of using the digital platform to extend choice. The alternative might well turn out to be another shopping channel.

[miles19740]

Originally Posted by You_mo

Sensible news but the BBC really could do with a dedicated sports channel.

I totally agree with you. It infuriates me beyond belief when the evening schedules are shunted out of the way to supply us with a football match concerning teams I have never heard of and players I couldn't care less about. BBC, please shunt all your sports coverage onto the Parliament Channel...and put all the politics coverage onto the BBC News Channel.

[russellelly]

Originally Posted by Spot

Does anyone know how they will do this technicaly? Will it require a rescan, or are they just intending to direct viewers to Ch 81 to see the extra stream?

I'd guess LCN 81 will stay in place with an MHEG message explaining that it'll return. The olympics coverage could then be hidden behind that (ala the Big Brother stream a few years back) only accessible via Red.

Or else they could require a rescan to get the stream to allocate an LCN in the 300s, but I'd guess the BBC would want to avoid needing rescans.

[darnall42]

Originally Posted by miles19740

I totally agree with you. It infuriates me beyond belief when the evening schedules are shunted out of the way to supply us with a football match concerning teams I have never heard of and players I couldn't care less about. BBC, please shunt all your sports coverage onto the Parliament Channel...and put all the politics coverage onto the BBC News Channel.

because you dont like sports would you deprive people with only the standard 5 channels the chance to watch them?the fact is that the bbc hardly has any live football and very rarely apart from world cup/euro cup macthes do they shunt programes to acomadate them,most of the sports coverage is on red button now anyway

[TUTV Viewer]

Originally Posted by Spot

Does anyone know how they will do this technicaly? Will it require a rescan, or are they just intending to direct viewers to Ch 81 to see the extra stream?

Would imagine that there will be a "BBC Olympic" location created for the period with an Mheg being displayed on the BBC parliament stream.

A low location would be good. Perhaps "15" has already been reserved.

Maybe keep the location free for the Commonwealth Games in 2014 too.

[kevin McMulkin]

Originally Posted by TUTV Viewer

Would imagine that there will be a "BBC Olympic" location created for the period with an Mheg being displayed on the BBC parliament stream.

A low location would be good. Perhaps "15" has already been reserved.

Maybe keep the location free for the Commonwealth Games in 2014 too.

Don't think so, your probably right about keeping BBC Parliament' s LCN free and just covering it with an MHEG display, but most likely the stream will become 306 so that it can be accessed via the red button and it doesn't disturb the current channel line up.

[mossy2103]

Originally Posted by miles19740

I totally agree with you. It infuriates me beyond belief when the evening schedules are shunted out of the way to supply us with a football match concerning teams I have never heard of and players I couldn't care less about. BBC, please shunt all your sports coverage onto the Parliament Channel...and put all the politics coverage onto the BBC News Channel.

BBC Parliament is not just "politics coverage", it is live coverage of Parliament. There is a BIG difference. As for using the BBC News channel, the BBC has a duty to proviode live coverage of Parliamentary debates when Parliament is sitting (and it sits up to 10:30pm or later Mon-Thurs), so what happens to the BBC's news coverage on it rolling news channel?

Sorry, but the two cannot co-exist on the same channel. This seems more like "I don't like it, I'm not interested in it, so it should be shunted way out of the way and I don't care that others who are interested are inconvenienced".

[miles19740]

Originally Posted by mossy2103

Sorry, but the two cannot co-exist on the same channel. This seems more like "I don't like it, I'm not interested in it, so it should be shunted way out of the way and I don't care that others who are interested are inconvenienced".

The thing is the BBC News Channel covers all the important politics bits and most of the Parliament stuff is filler. I really think it could be a positive. Merge Parliament with the News Channel and make the current Parliament Channel into a new BBC Sports Channel. Problem solved. The main channels can then concentrate on other stuff without the sport getting in the way. Guys you know it all makes sense.

[russellelly]

Originally Posted by miles19740

The thing is the BBC News Channel covers all the important politics bits and most of the Parliament stuff is filler. I really think it could be a positive. Merge Parliament with the News Channel and make the current Parliament Channel into a new BBC Sports Channel. Problem solved. The main channels can then concentrate on other stuff without the sport getting in the way. Guys you know it all makes sense.

The democratic process is "filler"? That's a good one. If anything there should be more live coverage of the devolved parliaments/assemblies.

I do support a sport channel, mainly because I reckon a lot of people must miss events carried on 301/2, but 301 or 302 should timeshare with a channel on a lower LCN with a published schedule. It definately must not take away from BBC Parliament when parliament is in session.

[NEWLINEtv]

Why don't the BBC upgrade Multiplex B to 64QAM then they could include more interactive screens.