There was some good news for STV’s viewers in northern Scotland last week.
STV’s service covering the north east of Scotland and the Highlands and Islands finally went into HD on Freesat.
The area includes most of the former Grampian Television region.
Finally Freesat viewers in most of the north of Scotland can get their version of STV HD on 103 – not the Glasgow service further down the EPG.
It was the last principal Channel 3 region to appear on Freesat.
But there is a bit of a mystery concerning STV’s sub-opt service on Freesat in Dundee, Tayside and North Fife. Read on…
STV operates four sub-regions: Glasgow and the west, Edinburgh and the east, Tayside along with North Fife, and Aberdeen and the north.
Editorially there are two distinct STV News services with sub-opts for the Edinburgh and Tayside areas during the 6pm programme.
Sky customers all get the correct STV sub-opt in HD.
But only the Glasgow and Aberdeen HD services are free-to-air on satellite. The Dundee service has not been available at all on Freesat for several months.
STV still broadcasts two SD streams on satellite – the Edinburgh service and the Aberdeen service which, of course, was needed until last week.
The Edinburgh service still makes sense.
It means a Freesat viewer in the east of Scotland will get the correct local variant on 103. If they want to watch in HD they can switch to 111 to watch the Glasgow stream.
But the SD stream of the Aberdeen service is now completely pointless.
It can only be received on HD capable boxes – it Is not a nightlight for those with outdated receivers.
Oddly, it still appears on Freesat channel 103 in the Dundee opt’s area despite last week’s change further north.
So is this is an oversight?
Has someone at STV simply forgotten to change the SD stream over to the Dundee service?
Did Freesat forget to switch the channel numbers around in the Dundee area to put STV North HD on 103? (There is no compulsion on C3 licensees to put all their sub-opts on satellite.)
Mistakes can happen though I would like to think better of both STV and Freesat.
Or is there a plan? Is something bubbling away which meant there was no point temporarily switching the SD stream to the Dundee feed.
In an ideal world, all 4 of STV’s regions would be in HD on Freesat just like all the ITV 1 regions in the rest of the country.
If a way can be found to broadcast the Edinburgh and Dundee HD services in the clear, the SD services can be switched off.
The most obvious use of the freed capacity would be for STV + 1 which isn’t currently on satellite.
But for the moment, it’s all very mysterious.
The BBC and ITV 1 are no longer available in SD on satellite. Channel 4’s SD satellite service – a nightlight for anyone with a very old box – ends in the next few days.
So just what’s going on at STV?
Will the stream switch to Dundee in the next few days? Or is something more significant afoot?
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