Timeline: 2024 Week 37

A round-up of the week’s stories and observations.

If you know of an item worth including on this page, please let us know via our Contact Form or X account.

• FRI 13TH SEP (10AM)
  Fire alarm takes Jeremy Vine’s Channel 5 programme off air
• FRI 13TH SEP (8PM)
  ITV 1 and ITV 2 SD services to cease on satellite

Friday 13th September

10am Fire alarm takes Jeremy Vine’s Channel 5 programme off air

A fire alarm at ITN’s Grays Inn Road headquarters resulted in Jeremy Vine’s live Channel 5 programme being delayed.

Channel 5 Playout abruptly broke into their schedule, resulting in an aborted pre-recorded link into Jeremy Vine at 9.15am.

A looped breakdown graphic was played for over three minutes before an edition of Entertainment on 5 was put to air.

8pm ITV 1 and ITV 2 SD services to cease on satellite

ITV has announced that SD versions of ITV 1 and ITV 2 will close on Sky satellite and Freesat next month.

The move by ITV coincides with Sky’s planned cancellation of subscriptions for SD-only boxes.

“Here at ITV, we have completed our upgrade to all-HD on satellite for ITV1, bringing the best picture quality to all satellite viewers.

“From October 2024, households with an SD-only satellite set-top box will need to upgrade to a High Definition (HD) satellite receiver to continue to watch ITV1. ITV1 and ITV2 nationally will no longer be available in SD on satellite.

“With all Sky customers being moved to HD boxes, this potentially affects a very small number of people – non-Sky customers with older SD-only set-top boxes (at most c1% of all satellite homes). ITV’s closure of SD services on satellite follows the BBC’s closure of all satellite SD services earlier this year.

“There are no changes on Freeview and Virgin Media and satellite viewers with HD boxes are unaffected.

“You can upgrade your box by contacting your provider. If you are unsure if you have an SD-only box your provider will also be able to help.”

ITV

ITV 3, ITV 4 and ITVBe have been HD-only since the start of the year.

It’s not clear what’s happening with the ITV 1 + 1 SD channels.

ITV has been updating transponder arrangements for its HD channels in recent days, with some channels moving to higher capacity transponders. In theory, providing room for the ITV 1 + 1 SD channels.

There’s also change afoot regarding STV where, to date, most of the HD variants of the channel have been encrypted on satellite, blocking access to those without a viewing card.

Only the Glasgow version of STV has been free-to-air.

This week, the HD variant serving the old Grampian TV region went free-to-air. Edinburgh and Dundee strains of the service remain behind a paywall for now.

RELATED ARTICLE: Timeline: 2024 Week 36.

Acknowledgements