Making the most of summer 2014 on Red Button

Since Alix Pryde's departure as Director of Distribution, I've taken up the role in an acting capacity. I wanted to use this post to introduce myself and give you a heads up of the changes we're putting in place in order to make a blistering summer of sport and music available via Red Button.

Once again, the BBC will be making additional Red Button streams available. And for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, as we did for the London 2012 Olympic Games, we will make BBC Three available 24 hours a day, in HD and in SD.

Extended Hours for BBC Three

Following the success of BBC Three extended hours during the London 2012 Olympics, BBC Three will once again be broadcasting in the daytime during the Commonwealth Games (23 July to 3 August).

To make space for this, we have to juggle how our services are configured. No action should be required by viewers to receive extended hours on BBC Three, but to explain where the capacity is coming from:

• On DSAT SD, CBBC SD moves transponder (from Tp 48 to Tp 45), allowing BBC Three to extended into CBBC’s original slot. CBBC SD will timeshare with the part-time Red Button stream, ‘Red Button 0’.
• On DSAT HD, CBBC HD moves to our temporary summer transponder, allowing BBC Three HD to extend into CBBC HD’s original slot. While on the temporary transponder, CBBC HD will timeshare with Red Button HD.
• On DTT SD, BBC Three becomes 24 hours while CBBC shares with Red Button 301. (Unlike the Olympics, BBC Parliament will remain on-air for the duration of the Commonwealth Games as Parliament doesn’t rise until part-way through the Games.)
• On DTT HD, extended hours BBC Three HD takes over CBBC HD’s capacity.

Additional Red Button streams

Wimbledon and Glastonbury

Satellite and cable viewers will receive five SD and one HD Red Button stream, while Freeview and YouView viewers will receive two SD Red Button streams. These streams will be available from the first day of Wimbledon, 23^rd June.

These streams will be EPG listed on all platforms so that you can record your favourite events. The channel numbers will be as follows:

*Available to c. 90% of UK households, because we are using capacity on a commercial multiplex to deliver these services.

Commonwealth Games

Again, there will be additional Red Button streams available on all platforms. The lineup is different from that of Wimbledon and Glastonbury, because capacity is required to extend BBC Three’s hours in SD and HD.

For the duration of the Commonwealth Games, you will find the available Red Button streams at the following EPG positions:

* These streams share capacity with CBBC, so will be available from 7pm.

**Available to c. 90% of UK households, because we are using capacity on a commercial multiplex to deliver these services.

How to access the services

You will not need to do anything special to access the extended BBC Three and BBC Three HD.

To access the new Red Button streams:

• If you have Freeview, YouView or BT Vision+ your receiver may well pick up the changes automatically but you will likely need to do a retune if you don’t have an HD receiver. Digital UK’s TV retune website gives advice on how to retune.

• If you have Sky, you should not have to do anything. If you do have a problem receiving any of our channels, you can try turning your Sky set top box off at the mains, waiting 30 seconds and turning it back on again. If that doesn’t resolve your problem you can find more help at www.sky.com/helpcentre.

• If you have Virgin Media the new streams should appear automatically. If you do have a problem receiving any of our channels, you can find more help at Virgin’s website. For Virgin TiVo users the broadcast Red Button streams will still appear in the 990s while the Red Button application on our TV channels will take you to additional coverage on the Connected Red Button service.

• If you have Freesat and you do not pick up the new channels automatically, you may need to put your digital box or TV into standby for 30 seconds and then switch it back on again. If the channels are still unavailable then carry out a 'Freesat channel retune'. Full instructions can be found in the manual for your digital TV or box. Further help with retuning can be found at www.freesat.co.uk or by calling the Freesat customer support team on 08450 990 990.

For those that need it, full DSAT transponder information can be found on our Reception Advice page. 

CBBC HD on Freeview

CBBC HD will be off-air on Freeview from 16^th July until shortly after the Commonwealth Games, to allow us to extend BBC Three HD’s hours.

CBBC will remain on air in standard definition on Freeview channel 70.

I’m sorry for any inconvenience this causes. Unfortunately, any series links set for CBBC HD will not record and will need to be reset for CBBC SD if you want to continue to record the programme during the Commonwealth Games.

Radio on Freeview in Scotland

My predecessor, Alix Pryde, has previously explained how and why some BBC Radio services are removed on Freeview in Scotland to make way for BBC ALBA. When BBC ALBA launched in June 2011, we were able to keep three radio stations on air; we prioritised stations unavailable on FM and because we couldn’t restore all seven stations without FM coverage we gave priority to the stations which were the most listened to on digital television: BBC Radio 5 live, BBC Radio 1Xtra and BBC Radio 6 Music.

In December 2013 we were able to take advantage of some spare capacity to restore some more stations. We need this capacity back to enable our Commonwealth Games configuration to work, so I’m sorry to say that the stations which were restored in December 2013 will revert to being unavailable in the evenings on Freeview in Scotland from 16th July until shortly after the Commonwealth Games. The affected stations are: BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra, BBC Radio 5 live sports extra, BBC Asian Network and BBC Radio Scotland.

I hope that these changes to the BBC’s services will help you to enjoy another fantastic summer of sport with us.

Garazi Goia is Acting Director of Distribution.