BT and TalkTalk to hit YouView guide with more than 130 internet channels

TalkTalk and BT will add more than 130 internet-based TV channels to YouView’s programme guide as they expand this year.

Both broadband and TV providers are planning to add their subscription internet TV channels to the YouView Guide in the next few months.

They’ve asked Digital UK to double the ‘IP’ section of the YouView and Freeview HD channel listings from 100 channels to 200 channels, at numbers 400-599.

Read Recombu Digital’s guides to Freeview, YouView, and the Freeview channel number reshufflesThe agency, which manages the Freeview channel listing, has agreed – but warned that no more LCNs (Logical Channel Numbers) will be available for internet TV.

“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,” said Digital UK.

“We do not anticipate any further expansion of this genre and believe it is now for IP television providers to manage their LCN allocation for IP channels within this range.”

Unlike most positions in the Freeview and YouView guides, Digital UK won’t assign specific numbers to particular channels in the IP section.

This could mean that the same channels would appear at different numbers depending if you’re getting them from BT or TalkTalk.

Both BT and TalkTalk already have internet TV channels streaming into their YouView player apps, but they want them to appear alongside Freeview channels in the YouView Guide.

Arqiva, which operates Freeview’s commercial multiplexes, objected to expanding the IP genre because there is not enough evidence of demand for the extra channel numbers.

Arqiva also runs the Connect TV internet channel service, which is accessed on Freeview HD through a portal connected to a single channel, and would not gain more channels in the expanded IP genre.

Arqiva added: “UK DTT is limited to listings of 0-999; with two hundred LCNs (20%) released to the CE Manufacturers and a further hundred (10%) already released to IP providers Digital UK has already given up one third of the LCN ‘real estate’.”