BBC HD satellite upgrade timetable

After a lot of talk, promises and delays, 13 years after launching BBC One HD, the service will become fully regionalised.

If you’re in England, this means BBC One HD will appear on channel 101. The SD version will end.

If you’re in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, the SD copy, already relegated down the channel list will close – the HD copy already runs on 101 on Sky+HD, Sky Q and Freesat HD/4K.

Freesat will update the afternoon before Sky updates, due to the way the two platforms interact. This also ensures older Freesat boxes that update overnight will be correctly configured in time before the SD regions are turned off.

Schedule

• 23rd/24th January: South and Northern Ireland.
• 30th/31st January: East and East Midlands.
• 6th/7th February: West Midlands, East Yorkshire/Lincolnshire and Wales. BBC Alba will also launch in HD.
• 13th/14th February: West, South West, Channel Islands and London. BBC RB1 will also launch in HD.
• 20th/21st February: North East and Cumbria, North West, Yorkshire and Scotland. BBC Parliament will also launch in HD.
• 22nd/23rd February: South East.

UPDATE: as of 12.50pm, implementation of the changes was under way on Freesat.

• BBC One South HD is on 101 in the south region. In other parts of the country, it can be found on 961.
• Channel 106 (south region), formerly the home of the national BBC One HD service, now displays an advisory slate, directing viewers to channel 101.
• BBC One South SD is no longer available. SD-only Freesat viewers will find out they need to take action, from around 1.30pm. The same applies for Sky viewers but in 24 hours from now.
• BBC One Northern Ireland SD and BBC Two Northern Ireland SD is no longer available.
• BBC Two SD, BBC Three SD, CBBC SD, CBeebies SD have moved to 12422H.

UPDATE: changes began rolling out on Sky shortly after 11am on 24th January.

• BBC One South HD is now available on Sky channel 101 in southern England. It can be found on channel 964 in the rest of the country.
• BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC Two Northern Ireland are both HD only.
• BBC One South SD, BBC One Northern Ireland SD and BBC Two Northern Ireland SD ceased at 2.30pm.

Acknowledgements