"reflecting aerial", a BBC R&D prototype satellite dish, 1970

Alix wrote on August 26 about planned changes to how some BBC channels are digitally transmitted. A month later, some BBC channels are now moving between satellite transponders. Alix blogs now to let you know how the changes are going.

I thought you would appreciate an update on the progress we have been making on this change. There are two areas that I think will be of particular interest to you:

1. Further details of the technical changes
2. A summary of the communications we have been putting in place

1. The Technical Changes

BBC News, BBC Parliament and BBC ALBA are currently being "dual illuminated", i.e., they are still being broadcast on transponder DSat 3 and now also being broadcast on their new home transponders (DSat 2, 5 and 6 respectively). This enables the platform operators that use our satellite broadcasts to switch from the old feed to the new feed:

• Freesat made its switch between the current and new transponders yesterday (Thursday 22 September). So if you are a Freesat viewer, please remember to check that any recordings you have booked on these three TV channels are still scheduled after this point. Our work with Freesat and testing leads us to believe that the vast majority of Freesat viewers should not need to do anything special, but if you have any trouble tuning into these three channels, try turning your receiver off and on again. If you are still having trouble, the Freesat call centre will be best placed to advise you and can be reached on 08450 990 990.
• Virgin Media has also made its switch yesterday. Virgin Media customers should not need to take any action.
• Sky will be making its switch in the afternoon on Monday 26 September. So if you are a Sky viewer, please remember to check that any recordings you have booked on these three TV channels are still scheduled after this point. And if you have any difficulty receiving the three channels, the Sky customer call centre on 08442 411 653 should be able to help you.
• If you have another type of satellite receiver and you need to perform a manual retune, please do this at some point between now and Monday 26 September to avoid experiencing a break in your reception of these channels. The tuning details for the relevant transponders can be found via the link provided in my original posting above.

As for the changes to the BBC Red Button ETV streams:

• The new ETV Stream applications (on all satellite platforms) will begin using the video and audio on DSat7 in the next couple of weeks. Various parts of the BBC Red Button service on satellite will be unavailable for short periods on that day. Don't worry; these should return when we have finished our work.
• We then intend to broadcast colour bars on the following day on DSat3 for a couple of hours to allow us to confirm that all applications are pointed correctly at DSat7.
• We will then be switching off DSat3 on 7 October.

2. Communications

We have been liaising with various colleagues and partners to help make sure that (a) our audiences are aware of the changes in advance and that (b) in the small proportion of cases where some intervention may be needed by the viewer, the people they call for help are well-informed.

To support the first of these goals, to ensure our audiences are aware:

• BBC Red Button page 998 has been loaded with information and advice about this change.
• BBC News presenters made announcements on air yesterday about the changes to Freesat (there was one around 10.30 for example), pointing viewers to BBC Red Button page 998 for further information. We will liaise with BBC News to do something similar on Monday for Sky viewers.
• BBC Parliament is broadcasting a "slide" in some of its programme junctions alerting viewers to the change.
• BBC ALBA has a message on screen during the day alerting viewers to the change and pointing them to BBC Red Button page 998 for more information. There is also a message on its website.
•  The Radio Times' "Doctor Digital" has highlighted the change as the first item in the current edition (17-23 September, page 153). We also sent details of the change to a number of technical magazines in the hope that they will share the news with their readers too.

Then in support of the second goal:

• We have briefed the BBC, Freesat and Sky call centres so that agents should be able to provide appropriate advice.
• We have sought to brief the aerial installer community by liaising with the CAI (Confederation of Aerial Industries) and the RDI (Registered Digital Installers), providing them with information with which to brief their members through their website and/or newsletter.

And of course this blog itself will hopefully be presented to people who perform an internet search seeking assistance.

So to draw this update to a close, I hope this shows you how hard we try to make sure our audiences have a smooth experience through the technical changes we make. Also, I’d like to thank the people who have taken the time and trouble to give us suggestions on how we could improve on the communications around previous changes we have made. As you can see, we listen to and take on board this helpful feedback and use it to help us up our game in how we serve our audiences.

Alix Pryde is the Director of BBC Distribution

Update Thursday 29th September 10 a.m.

I wanted to give you a brief update on the implementation of this change. Freesat and Virgin Media successfully moved over on Thursday 22 September followed by Sky on Monday 26 September. The move of our ETV services was carried out yesterday (Wednesday 28 September) and you may have noticed that parts of our BBC Red Button service were unavailable for periods of time.

I'm pleased to report that we have completed our changes now and all remaining services are back on-air using DSat7. We have some more testing scheduled for today when we will put colour bars up on DSat3 to check that the streams there are no longer being used by Sky, Virgin Media or Freesat.

If you are a satellite or cable viewer, I hope that this transition has been a smooth one for you. My heartfelt thanks to the many teams involved for all the care and attention to detail they have put into implementing the complex changes involved and communicating with our audiences about them.

Satellite dishes in Tower Hamlets, London

We're planning to make some changes to our satellite transponder line-up in about a month’s time. I wanted to tell you about them in advance in case you find that you have to take some action. For the vast majority of viewers, these changes should occur seamlessly and require no intervention.

However, a few of you may need to switch your receiver off and on again or retune it in order to continue to receive all of the BBC services available to you.

In terms of content, no TV channels or radio services are closing as a result of these changes, although we will be closing a few of the least watched video streams accessed via the BBC Red Button, but most viewers will probably not notice much difference.

The key change is that we will be closing the transponder we call DSat3 (Astra 2B transponder 38) on 7 October 2011.

As you may have read, the BBC Trust’s review of the BBC Red Button service, published in November 2010, challenged the BBC to reduce the cost of the Red Button service, particularly its distribution costs. The Review also highlighted the disparity in the number of video streams offered to satellite and cable viewers compared with terrestrial viewers.

By closing a few of the Red Button video streams on satellite (and hence cable), and moving some TV channels between transponders, we will be able to close a transponder and reduce our distribution costs.

This also reduces the disparity in level of service across different digital TV platforms:

• At the moment we broadcast seven ‘Enhanced TV’ (ETV) video streams, which are used to provide enhanced coverage of BBC programmes (for example, sporting and music events). But outside of busy periods the streams are not all fully utilised. As a result of this change, the number of ETV streams on satellite and, consequently, cable, will reduce to five. By comparison, viewers of digital terrestrial television (eg, Freeview) receive only one ETV stream.
• We will also be closing one of the mosaic video streams used to provide embedded content in some Red Button applications. The News video mosaic stream, or “multiscreen”, is unaffected by these changes.
• We won’t be closing any of our TV channels or radio stations as a result of these changes, but the BBC News, BBC Parliament and BBC ALBA TV channels will move onto different satellite transponders, helping us to make more efficient use of our satellite capacity. The transponder they are on at the moment, DSat 3, has a footprint wider than the UK. They will be moving onto transponders with a UK footprint, which is the same footprint that BBC One has.

How will these changes affect our viewers?

Following the closure of the transponder, Sky, Freesat and Virgin Media viewers will probably notice little difference to the service we provide and the BBC Red Button will continue to provide enhanced video coverage of major sporting and music events.

Prior to the closure of the transponder on 7 October 2011, we will be preparing for it through some configuration changes to our channel line-ups on our satellite transponders.

The way this impacts you will depend on how you receive our services.

• Sky viewers should not need to take any action because Sky boxes should update automatically. If you do experience problems, Sky will be best placed to help and can be contacted on 08442 411 653.
• Freesat viewers in most cases should not need to take any action, although depending on your specific make and model of digital TV or box it might be necessary to turn your device off and back on again, or to do a retune using the box or TV menu. If you have any scheduled recordings for BBC News, BBC Parliament or BBC ALBA you may need to check these after the change, so please look out for this. If you need help with a Freesat box or integrated receiver it would be best to contact Freesat on 08450 990 990 or the receiver manufacturer.
• If you have another kind of satellite receiver, you will need to retune it in order to continue to receive the services that are moving. Since we are just moving services around our existing transponders, there should not be any problems. However, if you have scheduled recordings on BBC News, BBC Parliament or BBC ALBA you may need to check these after the change, so please look out for this.
• Virgin Media uses satellite as the source for BBC standard definition TV channels. Virgin Media will therefore need to make a few technical changes, but its viewers should not need to do anything.

The timing of the changes

Towards the end of September we will be making two sets of changes:

Phase 1: Move BBC News, BBC Parliament and BBC ALBA off DSat7 (Astra transponder 13)
• BBC News will move to DSat2 (Astra transponder 47)
• BBC Parliament will move to DSat5 (Astra transponder 46)
• BBC ALBA will move to DSat6 (Astra transponder 48)

This phase will occur during the week commencing 19 September 2011.

Phase 2: Move five ETV streams to DSat7
This phase will occur during the week commencing 26 September 2011.

DSat3 will then close on 7 October 2011.

The tuning details for our remaining transponders will stay the same and these details can be found at our satellite frequencies page.

We will update that page with the new service line-up when we have completed the changes.

I hope you find this information useful and that it gives you enough warning of our plans. I’d like to reassure you that we are working closely with Sky, Freesat and Virgin Media on implementing this change.

Also, we are sharing the above information with receiver manufacturers and the CAI (Confederation of Aerial Industries) to try to ensure that any satellite customers contacting their manufacturer or a CAI-registered dish installer receive appropriate advice.

We expect that the vast majority of viewers will not even notice the change and hopefully those of you who do need to take some action will find this relatively straight forward.

Alix Pryde is the Director of BBC Distribution

One of the BBC's principles is to ensure that we use the spectrum we have available to us in the most efficient way possible. This means that from time to time, as technology develops, we make changes to the way our services are broadcast to ensure we are making best use of this scarce resource.

We will shortly be making such a change to the satellite transponder that carries BBC One HD & BBC HD. The signal on this transponder is currently broadcast using a modulation scheme called "DVB-S". On 6 June we will be upgrading to a newer "DVB-S2" scheme. This is a more efficient way of operating the transponder and it creates more capacity from the same amount of spectrum. More spectral bang for our buck, if you like.

The change will mean different things to different people:

If you watch TV using Freeview or Virgin Media or can't currently view HD channels you will not be affected.

If you have Sky, you will not notice the change and won't have to do anything on or after 6 June.

If you have Freesat you may need to put your HD box or TV into standby for 30 seconds and then restart to continue to receive the two BBC HD channels. If the channels are still unavailable then carry out a 'freesat channel retune' or a 'first time installation'. Full instructions can be found in the manual for your box or TV. Further help with retuning can be found at www.freesat.co.uk or by calling their customer support team on 08450 990 990.

If you have any other kind of satellite receiver, you will need to check that it is capable of receiving a DVB-S2 signal. If it can, then you can use the following parameters to tune manually into the services carried:

Satellite: Astra 2D tp.50
Frequency: 10,847MHz (vertical polarity)
Modulation: DVB-S2, QPSK
Symbol Rate: 23.0
FEC: 8/9

If you are a viewer of our HD services on satellite, I hope this change will be a smooth transition for you. And I thought you'd appreciate an explanation of how this change fits into a bigger picture of our drive to use spectrum ever more efficiently.

Alix Pryde is Director, BBC Distribution

Update 9th June: Alix has now responded to some of your comments. See comment 48 and comment 104. (NR)

BBC ALBA, the Gaelic language TV channel operated by BBC in partnership with MG ALBA, will launch on Freeview in Scotland on 8 June.

BBC ALBA has been available on satellite (Sky and Freesat) for some time and launched on Virgin Media cable on 18 May 2011. The Freeview launch is the final piece of the jigsaw that will make BBC ALBA available to all TV homes in Scotland This will extend the reach of this public service channel allowing it to do more to meet its remit to serve Gaelic-speaking audiences and those who wish to learn the language. Crucially, the Freeview launch supports the universality principle in the BBC Agreement that asks us to give licence fee payers convenient access to the services that are intended for them.

To make space for this new service on Freeview affordably, the BBC Trust gave approval for BBC ALBA to broadcast in Scotland in the evening in place of the thirteen BBC radio services (see below for list) that we currently broadcast. The BBC Trust also challenged BBC Management to look at affordable technical solutions that would allow some radio services to be retained around the clock.

I am pleased to confirm that we have been able to retain three radio services while BBC ALBA is on-air. We decided to prioritise radio stations that are unavailable on FM, to maximise the convenient availability of our radio stations to licence fee payers. Unfortunately we couldn't make space for all seven stations that don't have full FM coverage, so we looked at audiences' radio listening habits on digital television in the evenings and gave priority to the ones that were the most listened to. As a result, the stations that will remain on Freeview in Scotland 24/7 are:

• BBC Radio 5 Live
• BBC Radio 1 Xtra
• BBC Radio 6 Music.

Six of the other radio stations will still be available to listeners on FM radio. The other four remain available on DAB digital radio, free-to-air digital satellite and at bbc.co.uk/radio.

BBC ALBA's transmission hours are:

• Weekdays: 5pm to midnight
• Saturday: 4pm to 1am
• Sundays: 4pm to midnight.

Outside these hours, all thirteen BBC radio services will continue to be available on Freeview in Scotland as now.

We hope that the vast majority of people affected by this change will continue to listen to our radio services by other means, such as FM radio, DAB digital radio, free-to-air digital satellite and at bbc.co.uk/radio. You may be interested to hear that the roll out of the BBC's UK-wide DAB digital radio service continues in Scotland over the summer and into the autumn to bring more people into coverage of the network, extending even as far as Shetland.

This wasn't an easy set of decisions to make - prioritising BBC ALBA over the radio services and then prioritising the more popular digital-only services over the others. The fact remains that in making BBC ALBA available to all TV households in Scotland, in keeping with what the BBC Agreement expects us to do, we have taken away for some parts of the day one option for listening to some of our radio stations. We have sought to minimise the adverse impact on listeners, but a small group of licence fee payers were listening to those services at that time of day on Freeview, and valuing the ability to do so. I regret that these people will be disappointed. The truth is that we had to balance the limited resource of capacity against the overall audience benefit.

Finally, I hope this explanation gives reassurance that we put a great deal of thought and analysis into the decisions we took, weighing up the difficult balances carefully.

Alix Pryde is Director, BBC Distribution

Six that are available on FM: BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio nan Gaidheal and BBC Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4. One that is available on MW: BBC Radio 5Live. And six that are available digitally only: BBC Radios 1Xtra, 4Extra, 5Live Sports Extra, 6Music, BBC Asian Network and the BBC World Service.