BBC Regional Channels

[PeterFB]

This subject has come up before but here is a new twist. Until a few days ago I received BBC Regional channel from the East. Look East ( I live in Norfolk), but now I am getting BBC South West. ( ie the regional channel for Devon, Cornwall and Somerset). Tried all the usual off rebooting box etc. It is not a problem with BBC transmissions as I can see Look East on my satellite feed. Phoned Virgin Media ( although frankly I don’t know why I bothered ), told no problem at their end. So Virgin lived up to their usual “high “ standards from their help desk. Anyone any ideas? 

[sarahcole]

Im getting the same issue in Essex im getting bbc points west not look east 1st noticed it monday at 7am

[David_Bn]

Thanks for reaching out to us @PeterFB, and welcome to our Community Forums!

Sorry to hear of the issues with the incorrect regional broadcasting being available on BBC's platform.

Can you please confirm on which channels this has been apparent?

We would need this information to ensure this is fed back

Thanks,

David_Bn

[PeterFB]

This has now been solved. It was however an issue affecting a lot of your users in the East Of England and was mentioned on the BBC Look East local news. The issue was with channel 101, ( BBC1). 
I have say the response of your help desk was as usual pathetic. Apart from the usual advice to reboot the VM box I was told that VM could only supply the channel that was broadcast, this was of course completely wrong. I could see that the correct channel was being broadcast in the East of England from a separate feed from my satellite dish. I explained that clearly someone at VM had incorrectly mapped the signal that you were receiving to the wrong region but as usual this went straight over the head of the person on the helpdesk taking the call. In addition although I was told they would call me back once they had checked further needless to say this never  happened. 
Why you bother with a help desk baffles me, it is more akin to a “helpless desk”. As usual I expect you do do nothing with this feedback, with more streaming services now available the time is approaching when I will drop your service altogether.

[nodrogd]

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@PeterFB wrote:

This has now been solved. It was however an issue affecting a lot of your users in the East Of England and was mentioned on the BBC Look East local news. The issue was with channel 101, ( BBC1). 
I have say the response of your help desk was as usual pathetic. Apart from the usual advice to reboot the VM box I was told that VM could only supply the channel that was broadcast, this was of course completely wrong. I could see that the correct channel was being broadcast in the East of England from a separate feed from my satellite dish. I explained that clearly someone at VM had incorrectly mapped the signal that you were receiving to the wrong region but as usual this went straight over the head of the person on the helpdesk taking the call. In addition although I was told they would call me back once they had checked further needless to say this never  happened. 
Why you bother with a help desk baffles me, it is more akin to a “helpless desk”. As usual I expect you do do nothing with this feedback, with more streaming services now available the time is approaching when I will drop your service altogether.

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Virgin do not source their HD/UHD content from satellite. The channels are directly fibre fed from the BBC to VMs master headend via an automated switching network provided by the BBCs transmission partners Arqiva. It is therefore quite possible the issue was outside VMs control. If the region on the banner of your box & the EPG still shows the correct region it is an Arqiva issue. I am London area, & we have had both BBC South & the BBC News channel showing in the regional opt-out slots a few days ago.

[Kevin_H]

I live in Essex and for years now I have tried to get Virgin Media to change my BBC 1 (channel 101) regional news from London to Look East without success. Although strangely I can get BBC 1 South East (Kent) on channel 858 and other regions like Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, why can't I get my local news from "Look East"?

Is there any way someone can help me to resolve this issue please?

[Roger_Gooner]

Where in Essex are you? if in the western part your regional headend might be broadcasting BBC One London.

[Kevin_H]

I live in South Benfleet which is in central south Essex area. Is it possible to get the BBC Look East for this area?

[nodrogd]

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@Kevin_H wrote:

I live in Essex and for years now I have tried to get Virgin Media to change my BBC 1 (channel 101) regional news from London to Look East without success. Although strangely I can get BBC 1 South East (Kent) on channel 858 and other regions like Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, why can't I get my local news from "Look East"?

Is there any way someone can help me to resolve this issue please?

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You won’t be able to get it changed. VM boxes don’t work on postcodes, they work on the area allocation agreed with OFCOM from the local headend you are downstream of. All customers in a franchise therefore get the same channels on the same numbers. Your local cable headend is Basildon, which resides in the London cable franchise area, hence London channels on 101 & 103. This overlaps with both the South East & Anglia East regions. VM can only map one additional BBC region onto the local network, so 858 has been allocated to the biggest overlap, which is most of North Kent. Fortunately, two ITV regions can be mapped, so Anglia East is available on 870 & Meridian South East on 871.

Both ITVs marketing map and the BARBs audience research map put South Benfleet in the London area, as is Southend-on-Sea.

London cable franchises in yellow