Recent changes on the VM Network

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  • There's speculation that the Universal Channel is to close, mainly because:

    - Law & Order: SVU is moving from Universal to Sky Witness.

    - There is nothing new on the channel anymore.

    - All the promos have been replaced by promos for other Sky channels.

    - Their website has been reduced to a schedule page only.

    - Their social media pages haven't been updated since 1/8/19.

    - Sky may just be keeping it running so that (on their own platform) EPG 113 can be used for Sky Comedy next year (right next to Comedy Central).

    This will obviously affect VM too, but if it's correct that Universal is to be used for Sky Comedy, I wonder what will happen to Sky 2 as this was touted as closing in order to accommodate Sky Comedy.

  • Given there's a trend gaining momentum for broadcasters consolidating their channels, maybe Sky 2 will simply close? It's only one channel, no +1, no HD and no unique shows, it's simply been replaced by people's changing habits. People are moving toward on-demand box sets and maybe Sky decided on a combination of that and having clearly defined genres for their channels rather than having many doing similar things?

    I didn't know SVU had moved, thanks for that.

  • Given there's a trend gaining momentum for broadcasters consolidating their channels, maybe Sky 2 will simply close? It's only one channel, no +1, no HD and no unique shows, it's simply been replaced by people's changing habits. People are moving toward on-demand box sets and maybe Sky decided on a combination of that and having clearly defined genres for their channels rather than having many doing similar things?

    I didn't know SVU had moved, thanks for that.

    Chicago Med too, no clue about The Resident yet.

    Joining Greys Anatomy and who knows what else, maybe Sky Witness should be renamed Sky Med.

  • Chicago Med too, no clue about The Resident yet.

    Joining Greys Anatomy and who knows what else, maybe Sky Witness should be renamed Sky Med.

    The Chicago Med transfer has been known about for a wee while now.

    Sky Procedural would probably have been more flexible, and accurate, but it doesn't roll off the tongue. :P

  • JJ20X, as you may have seen DigitalBitRate has had a bit of a makeover.

    I can't tell if all the information is still there. The formatting has clearly made it cleaner to look at, and it may be reformatting the page based on device used to view. To me there is less info.

    Maybe it was always an option, but they seen to have added a paid Pro tier.

    I was just wondering what your interpretation is.

  • Definitely a cleaner look. They have always had a paid tier, with various additional options and an extended data history.

    Thanks. There are pages that used to be filled with tables after tables that now just have channel name and SID. It may be that the page is wrongly assuming, based on OS, that it's a mobile device and now showing it all, or it simply isn't showing all the table columns any more. I can't tell.

  • I've not had a good look at it yet, but it seems to open with a summary of all transport streams and you can either use the + option to see more or go through the navigation pull down menu.

    I guess people will have taken forever trying to get used to the layout and now they will have to learn how to access everything with the new layout. The problem I always had with that site is what it doesn't tell you, which is a lot...

  • I've not had a good look at it yet, but it seems to open with a summary of all transport streams and you can either use the + option to see more or go through the navigation pull down menu.

    I guess people will have taken forever trying to get used to the layout and now they will have to learn how to access everything with the new layout. The problem I always had with that site is what it doesn't tell you, which is a lot...

    That's what the + is for!

    I thought it was for something else, like when there was a trend for customising Start Pages back in the earlier days of the internet, so it never occurred to me it was worth pressing/clicking.

    Thanks JJ20X.:)

  • As far as the scans go, there's a backlog of data to process. Some of VMs changes earlier in the week seemed to remove part of the conditional access data for some channels. Not sure what is happening there, so a full analysis is required.

    An update on this, which related to the CA ID section of the SDT, which isn't usually included in this report. On the Oct 8th scan, the CA ID sections of the SDT had been removed for Sky Sports SD channels, only to be reintroduced on Oct 9th. Similarly, on Oct 17th, the CA ID sections were removed for some of the Sky Sports HD channels (Arena, Golf, PL, Action, F1, Main Event & Cricket) - again, these reappeared on the Oct 18th scan. I'm still not sure about what was happening with these changes, possibly just errors in the SDT which VM corrected as soon as they were noticed. Sky Sports Football HD appears to have escaped from these SI data oddities, so far...

  • An update on this, which related to the CA ID section of the SDT, which isn't usually included in this report. On the Oct 8th scan, the CA ID sections of the SDT had been removed for Sky Sports SD channels, only to be reintroduced on Oct 9th. Similarly, on Oct 17th, the CA ID sections were removed for some of the Sky Sports HD channels (Arena, Golf, PL, Action, F1, Main Event & Cricket) - again, these reappeared on the Oct 18th scan. I'm still not sure about what was happening with these changes, possibly just errors in the SDT which VM corrected as soon as they were noticed. Sky Sports Football HD appears to have escaped from these SI data oddities, so far...

    If Conditional Access had been erroneously removed, would this have led to non Sky Sports subscribers being able to view the affected channels for a short time?

  • The pack codes are in the EPG so, even if that was the case, the channels would still be greyed out on the EPG. It's possible that it could have generated a fault for valid subscribers but I don't know. Encryption would still have been active.

  • This is from last July, but i'd not seen this until SP posted it:

    https://www.libertyglobal.com/virginmediaand…earpartnership/

    I wonder if the scans will eventually show up any tests for the Sky UHD channels? I'm not sure how Sky deliver their UHD content, if it's delivered over the internet, then maybe we won't!

    Given so many 3rd party HD channels on satellite have been disappearing from Sky provided/subsidised space I'd suggest they are clearing it so they can use it themselves. So I expect them to be a broadcast channels.

  • This is from last July, but i'd not seen this until SP posted it:

    https://www.libertyglobal.com/virginmediaand…earpartnership/

    I wonder if the scans will eventually show up any tests for the Sky UHD channels? I'm not sure how Sky deliver their UHD content, if it's delivered over the internet, then maybe we won't!

    UHD tests would take up quite a bit of space, so I guess so. The scan analysts have thought up a new way of comparing scans, which is good in theory but not very practical. It would improve the analysis whenever streams change TSID / SID. So, we'll see how that develops.

  • After initially being removed, Sky News Brexit Free has now been made available to non Sky customers via their YouTube channel according to the following link:

    https://www.rxtvlog.com/2019/10/sky-br…-up-to-non.html.

    You can view Sky News Brexit Free if you click on the following link

    External Content youtu.be
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

  • UHD tests would take up quite a bit of space, so I guess so. The scan analysts have thought up a new way of comparing scans, which is good in theory but not very practical. It would improve the analysis whenever streams change TSID / SID. So, we'll see how that develops.

    I asked on a Sky forum whether Sky broadcast their UHD channels via satellite or over the internet and was told "Satellite. I don't think Sky can even do 1080p over the internet yet".

    If VM follow suit, we will hopefully see these testing.

    Sky have been busy ridding themselves of third party HD channels on their own transponders and it's been speculated that this is to accommodate UHD content.

    Maybe this is also one of the reasons why VM have been closing duplicate SD channels etc??

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