YouView to expand IP offerings

BT YouView box

UK connected TV service YouView has had applications for more than 130 IP channels “which is expects to launch in the next year” according to broadcast organisation Digital UK. 

The non-profit, which was set up to assist consumers in the conversion to digital TV and is now focused on EPG issues, made the revelation in a statement about the HD channel number allocation on UK DTT service Freeview.

After a consultation, Digital UK said it was expanding the number of IP logical channel numbers (LCN) from 100 to 200 after receiving “real and imminent demand” from YouView.

“YouView (the IP television provider that had led demand for this LCN range) has now told us that it has had applications for more than 130 IP channels which it expects to launch within the next year. We are therefore content that there is real and imminent demand for further IP LCNs that warrant expansion of the IP genre to 200 LCNs, and confirm the expansion of the genre so that it will run from LCN 400 to LCN 599,” said Digital UK.

It added that the channel numbers for internet-delivered services will not be allocated by Digital UK, but is “simply a range set aside for IP television providers to use according to their own policies.”

Digital UK also said that as new HD channels appear on Freeview, they will continue to be placed in the HD genre and that substitution of HD channels into the channel numbers of their identical SD variants will “not be permitted at this time.”