Freeview

I have just bout a Miglia TV Mini device for my Mac. This is a great device that enables me to get digital terrestrial tv on my Mac. It comes complete with EyeTV software which is great software for watching tv, recording tv and has a built in program guide so you can choose what to watch. The device is nice and small, no bigger than a USB memory stick, and has an input for a standard coxial ariel cable so an ariel can be plugged in to it. The box also has a remote control so you can control the EyeTV software and also an ariel, although this does not provide a good enough signal to the device unless you are in a very good signal area.

Freeview, which is the UK’s digital terrestrial tv service is good, and provides all the standard features you need when using it, such as a now and next bar on the channels etc. However the major complaint I have with Freeview is with some of the channels they show. I personally do not think that they should be showing 4 shopping channels, or plus 1 channels when there is limited bandwidth. Freeview gives you the following channels :- BBC1, 2, 3, 4, News 24, Parliament, CBBC & CBeebies
ITV 1, 2, 3, 4, Citv & Play,
Channel 4, E4, E4+1, More 4, Film 4, Film 4+1,
Five, Five Life & Five US,
Sky Three, Sky News, Sky Sports News,
uktv History & Bright Ideas,
Ftn Full On Television, abc1, Smile tv,
The Hits, TMF The Music Factory, Community Channel,
teachers tv, Ideal World, QVC, price-drop tv and bid tv

There is also a subscription service available on Freeview called Top-Up TV, costing £9.99 a month, once you have bought a new Freeview Box for £180 and paid a £30 connnection fee. offering premium channels, and an overnight recording service, downloading the best programs of your choice from a range of channels, for you to watch the next day. They also plan to start showing Setanta Sports from the summer for an additional fee. For more info see www.topuptv.com

In order to make Freeview better, here is what I think the Government should do, to make Freeview better for everyone:

Firstly I would make it illegal for Freeview to show +1 channels, due to limited bandwidth available, thus removing E4+1, and Film 4+1 from Freeview.

Secondly I would make it illegal for Freeview to show more than 1 shopping channel, thus I would remove Ideal World, price-drop tv and bid tv from the lineup.

Thirdly I would remove Top-Up TV.

Once this is done, I think the following channel changes should be implemented:
1) abc1 should have its broadcast hours increased to 24hrs a day in line with cable and satellite, using the space given up by E4+1.

2) The program hours used by Film 4+1 should be given over to Discovery, so they can make a Freeview channel showing the best of their programming from their cable/satellite channels.

3) New channels should be created by uktv - uktv 1 showing programs from uktv Gold, G2 & Drama, replacing Ideal World. uktv 2 showing programs from uktv History, People and Documentary, replacing uktv History and uktv 3 showing programs from uktv Food, Style and Style Gardens, replacing uktv Bright Ideas, and itv Play

4) Having removed Top-Up TV, I would use the channel bandwidth to make a new pay tv service, perhaps called Freeview + whereby viewers whose set-top box can take a viewing card, can pay additional fee for sports and movies, probably £7.50 a month for Setanta Sports, £7.50 a month for a film service such as Picture Box from Universal, showing the latest blockbuster movies (like Sky Movies) and maybe a fee £12.00 for both packages.

All in all Freeview is a good service, and if the changes mentioned above were implemented it would be a fantastic service.