BBC One HD and BBC Four HD are moving channels. BBC Three HD launches.

[Kei_M]

On Wednesday 26th January, if you're in England you may notice that BBC One HD has changed channels. 

	New Channel Number	Old Channel Number
BBC One HD (From 26th Jan in England)	101	108
BBC Four HD (From 1st Feb in England & NI)	108	107
BBC Three HD (Launches 1st Feb)	107 (England & NI) 157 (Scotland & Wales)	N/A

FAQ

What happens to BBC One SD?

BBC One SD will close for customers in England.

What happens to my series links?

For series links you've setup on BBC One SD, customers with a Virgin TV 360 will have set these up again on BBC One HD (Eng only). All other boxes and regions are unaffected.

For BBC Four HD, Virgin TV 360 customers will have to setup series links again (Eng & NI). All other boxes and regions are unaffected.

What happens to regional news?

Regional news which was previously shown on BBC One SD will now be shown on BBC One HD (for some regions it'll be upscaled SD).

How long do recordings on BBC One SD last for?

Recordings will last up to 12 months before being removed.

Update:14th Feb

Some further changes are planned to the BBC channels found between 861 and 991 from 15th Feb. As with the above, customers using the Virgin TV 360 boxes will need to set up their series links again for these channels.

• 861 BBC One London becomes BBC One London HD
• 862 BBC One Scotland becomes BBC One Scotland HD
• 863 BBC One NI becomes BBC One NI HD
• 864 BBC One Wales becomes BBC One Wales HD
• 865 BBC Two becomes BBC Two HD
• 991 BBC Red Button 1 becomes BBC Red Button 1 HD

[mrflavell]

What will happen to the local news? At the moment you cannot get North West news on BBC 1 HD, only on BBC 1 SD. Is this going to change, or will the local news be lost altogether?

[BenMcr]

Regional news will be on BBC One HD. Here's the BBC's announcement on it last year https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/articles/2021/bbc-one-hd-rollout-england

[PhilipF]

Good news, all held back by the BBC, glad its sorted.

[PhilipF]

Hasn't happened yet? 07.25 am.

[Kei_M]

A bit keen? 😉 We're starting to see the changes filter through now.

[PhilipF]

Yes about 8.30, no overtime for who have presses the buttons then😀

[AlgieC]

What has happened to subtitles on BBC1? Haven't been able to get them for some time on HD. Now can't get them at all.

[BenMcr]

@AlgieC Subtitles are available on BBC One HD and are working on my 360 box. If they're not working for you, I'd recommend posting that in the appropriate forum for the TV box you have so it can be looked at.

[finlux]

A quick question (if I may). As BBC1 HD has now moved from 108 to 101, will this affect any previously made recordings in the long term?

I'm sure I read before that after a channel closes - and technically it IS a closure of a national HD version to a new regional HD version - previously recorded programmes will only be watchable for a few months. Is this true or will they be viewable indefinitely? 

[Jimmyswanston22]

BBC three yet not appeared on my 360 box has anyone got it on 360 already on TiVo I believe

[RangerLazzari]

Hi I still haven't got BBC 1 BBC 4 back yet?

Any ideas what's happening?

[george57l]

1. Why didn't they just put BBC 3 on channel 108? Would have been much less disruptive. No doubt the OCD guide people could not bear BBC 4 coming before BBC 3 on the guide.

2. The level of publicity / notification about this is woeful. I only found out because I noticed something was not recording. Then noticed 108 had disappeared. Then went online to Google. Ended up here. BBC (and Virgin) should be ashamed about the lack of publicity about actual channel number changes.

3. And now we have to review all our Series Links to see which will be affected? Good grief!

4. And no information about whether stuff already recorded on channels now removed will be watchable and if so whether there is no time limit.

The level of competence shown in planning for this channel change is appalling. These people couldn't even organise a party in No.10. 

[JamesNMS]

Digital TV has been plagued for years by frequent channel changes. Appalling system design that seems to be a permanent failing beginning with the introduction of Freeview. I don't remember the same level of disruption with Sky.

[Kei_M]

@finlux the recordings will be available for up to 12 months and I'll post up the exact details of how this works when I find out.

[finlux]

@Kei_M

Thank you very much for letting me know!

[george57l]

@Kei_M When you do find out "the exact details" perhaps you could persuade those further up the hierarchy to create and send an email to all customers with the following information:

Because of the BBC's reintroduction of BBC 3 as a broadcast channel the following changes have taken place.

1. BBC 1 HD has moved from 108 to 101. There are no longer two channels for watching BBC 1. BBC 1 HD on 108 used to not show local news. BBC HD on 101 will show local news.

2. BBC 4 has moved from 107 to 108.

3. BBC3 is now on 107.

- If you have any series links set for channels 108 or 107 you need to review these and update them with the correct channel number or you will miss scheduled recordings/episodes in series.

- if you have recorded any programmes on 107 or 108 (whether as series links or as ad hoc one-off recordings) you have 12 months from (INSERT DATE) to view these, after which time they will not be available to you to watch as recorded programmes on your Virgin Media set-top box. (Note - not all programmes will still be available for streaming via iPlayer).)

See? It's not hard to communicate! You have all our email addresses, after all. Sending something like the above will almost certainly head off a lot of complaints and disgruntled customers who, without this information and taking the action it suggests, will find in the coming days and months that things they had relied on being able to record and watch are not now there.

@Kei_M if you are unable to do this, perhaps you can advise me who in senior management I need to write to to get this message to the right eyes.

Thanks very much.

[Kei_M]

It's not quite as simple as that @george57l I'm afraid, we can't just email all customers - for good reason there's rules against that 🤗. We emailed the customers that we could on the 26th of Jan, we've updated some of our websites including this one, and we've displayed messaging on the boxes.

Considering how many customers watch these channels, in particularly BBC One HD, we're relatively happy with how little queries have come in and you've been able to explain to me what the changes are which probably suggests we've managed to communicate the changes for the most part 😊. There are small caveats of course but I imagine the vast majority of customers will be happy to see BBC One HD at 101.

[george57l]

@Kei_M

"we're relatively happy with how little queries have come in..."

...AS YET!  (and how HAVE the 'little queries' come in? Hint: it's 'few')

How many have fumbled around and figured something out for themselves? And maybe do not yet know their series links are broken? Or will come to watch something in a year's time and wonder why despite it being a recording it is not there? How many are still blissfully unaware? How many are aware only because they had to do their own tedious research?

"you've been able to explain to me what the changes are which probably suggests we've managed to communicate the changes for the most part"

It does not suggest anything of the sort!

That is breathtaking in its ignorance and arrogance. I am only able to explain things to you because I noticed something wrong and then had to find out for myself, and everything I found out came from reading the whole of this thread!  How many customers are even aware of there being a forum? Let alone likely to find this thread? You cannot infer ANYTHING AT ALL about VM's communications about this matter from my ability to summarise and replay to you the things I only learnt about on here.

And as for not being able to communicate with everyone ... everyone gets a bill every month. How hard would it have been to add an addendum to December's bills explaining the change? (Yeah - probably very hard, knowing how behind-the-curve most VM systems and processes appear to be.) There are other ways you could have communicated this, too. The lack of effort or care by VM on this is reflected in your asinine comment above.

By the way, I now realise that the statement at the top of this thread about "What will happen to Series Links' is confusing. And, by the way, I have no idea what Virgin TV 360 is. I assume it does not apply to me.

For series links you've setup on BBC One SD, customers with a Virgin TV 360 will have set these up again on BBC One HD (Eng only). All other boxes and regions are unaffected.

So if I do NOT have 360 my BBC1SD links will ... what? Disappear because BBC1SD no longer exists? Stay the same because what you meant to say was channel 101 (whatever is on it)?

For BBC Four HD, Virgin TV 360 customers will have to setup series links again (Eng & NI). All other boxes and regions are unaffected.

So, again, if I do not have 360 I do not have to set up a series link again? Series links set for 107 will automatically be moved to 108?

[george57l]

@Kei_M

I note you have not come back either to reply to my comment on your last reply and answer the questions I posed there, nor to "post up the exact details of how this works when I find out." (Or is the FAQ statement all there is to say, now?)

At the very least you could correct the sentence in the FAQ that is clearly missing a word, rendering it rather confusing.

The FAQ says

For series links you've setup on BBC One SD, customers with a Virgin TV 360 will have set these up again on BBC One HD (Eng only). All other boxes and regions are unaffected.

This could be potentially misread as these customers will have their series links (re)set up for them, if the reader assumed the words these and set were typed in the wrong order. ( ...will have these set up again...)

What that sentence should say, I expect, is

For series links you've setup on BBC One SD, customers with a Virgin TV 360 will have TO set these up again on BBC One HD (Eng only). All other boxes and regions are unaffected.

One carelessly omitted word and a lack of proof-reading/checking can be a cause of confusion.

Forgive me for noting that this is typical of VM's lackadaisical approach to communications on this matter.

[DaveGlassboy]

Yet again the great con of so called "HD" is being forced on us.

Having never seen one iota of difference between the picture on SD and so called HD, the only difference that I can ascertain is that the latter just takes up more space on the Tivo box for some reason.

So this is in effect a downgrade as I will now have space for fewer programmes than before.

Thanks for nothing.