Half Baked Proposal:
DTT / DTR Channel [Re]numbering v2.5a


Notes

This document is now out of date. Please visit the index to find the newest version instead.

This is a second attempt at a natty numbering system for the UK's Digital Terrestrial Broadcast system. Channels and Stations are correct as of 2005-06-01.

Changes since original version:

  1. 44x and 55x have been reassigned rather than being implicitly reserved for use by Channels 4 and 5 respectively. This makes sense as the likewise 11x, 22x and 33x ranges overlap with the radio station numbering.
  2. Some of the radio stations have been renumbered to make way for the new x00 Datastream category.
  3. Various other renumberings to accomodate the fact that channels 800-899 and 900-999 are reserved for duplicates and special transmission use.
  4. The notes sections at the bottom of channel lists have been updated to reflect any changes.
  5. Regional differences have been incorporated using information from here.

Changes since version 2.2:

  1. E4 moved from TopUp TV:442 to TV:42 since that channel is now free-to-air.
  2. Channel Four's E4+1 and Live videostream added to their section along with E4.
  3. 44x marked for Future Expansion of TopUp TV now there are no analogue-terrestrial related channels on that platform.
  4. 665 added as a placeholder for an upcoming TopUp TV channel.

Jump To: TV | Radio | Datastreams | TopUp TV | Adult

TV

Group#Channel NameSubgroup
1, 1x : BBC Primary
2, 2x : BBC Secondary
1 BBC ONE BBC's "Big Four"
2 BBC TWO
13 BBC THREE
14 BBC FOUR
(15  701) BBCi Streams
(16  702)
(17  703)
19 BBC NEWS 24 x9
22 CBBC Channel BBC Children's
23 CBeebies
29 BBC Parliament x9
3, 3x : ITV Channels 3 ITV 1 / Channel TV / UTV / STV / Grampian ITV's "Big Three"
32 ITV 2
33 ITV 3
34 Men & Motors Due for rebranding to ITV 4
39 ITV News Channel x9
4, 4x : Channel 4 4 Channel 4 / S4C (Wales) C4 Main
(44 resvd. for More 4)
(41) Channel 4 (Wales) /
Tele-G (Scotland)
42 E4
43 E4+1
(45 705) C4 Live Streaming
(49) S4C~2 (Wales Only) x9
5 : five
5x : Reserved
5 five
6, 6x : Other Organisations 6 ftn
62 abc1 (not Wales)
64 UKTV Bright Ideas UKTV FTA
65 UKTV History
67 Sky Travel Sky FTA
68 Sky Sports News
69 Sky News
60 Community Channel x0
7, 7x : Music Channels
7 TMF
72 The Hits
8, 8x : Shopping Channels 8 bid tv sit-up shopping
82 price-drop tv
83 QVC
84 Ideal World
80 Teachers' TV x0
9, 9x : Interactive Text 9 Teletext Teletext
92 Teletext Cars
93 Teletext Holidays
94 Teletext on 4
99 BBCi BBC Interactive
90 YooPlay Games x0
0 : TopUp TV Gateway 0 Xtraview Pay Per View
  • x9 : News Channels
  • x0 : Information Channels / Games
  • Note that zero is used as the digit after 9 rather than the digit before 1, thus resulting in 0 and x0 being sorted to the end of their respective groups.
    • BBC TWO is an exception to this sorting, as it should follow BBC News 24, but instead has been placed between BBCs ONE and THREE (which makes more sense).
  • A single digit is used for the first channel in each group, rather than a number of x1. This allows the viewer to jump to the first channel in any category with just one button press.
    • Digits 1 to 5 have been left attached to their usual analogue stations:
        BBCs ONE and TWO, ITV1, C4 and five.

Jump To: TV | Radio | Datastreams | TopUp TV | Adult

Radio

Group#Station NameSubgroup
1xx : BBC Radio
111 BBC Radio 1 BBC's "Big Seven"
plus ancillaries
112 BBC 1xtra
122 BBC Radio 2
133 BBC Radio 3
144 BBC Radio 4
155 BBC Radio 5 Live
115 BBC 5 Sports Xtra
166 BBC 6 Music
177 BBC 7
(117) BBC Radio Ulster / Scotland / Wales (region only) Other BBC Radio
(118) BBC Radio Foyle / Gaidheal / Cymru (region only)
188 BBC Asian Network
199 BBC World Service
2xx : eMap Digital Radio
211 The Hits Radio Numbered in order of appearance in current FTA listing
222 Smash Hits
233 Kiss
244 heat (not Wales)
255 Magic
266 Q
277 Mojo (not Wales)
288 Kerrang!
3xx : Misc. DTR
311 oneword ...
322 Premier Christian Radio
333 3C
344 Jazz FM
355 talkSPORT
  • Each channel number here has no more than two different digits to aid in the 'dialling' of the station. Also note there is a maximum of one change of button. (e.g. 121 would not be a good choice as that is two button changes; 1 to 2 then 2 to 1).
  • oneword set to 311 since 'one one' is mnemonical for 'one word'
  • talkSport set to 355 to tie in with BBC Sport's 155

Jump To: TV | Radio | Datastreams | TopUp TV | Adult

Datastreams

Group Prev # Next Channel NameSubgroup
x00 : Datastreams 0 400 - 4TVInteractive 4TV EPG
  • 400 makes more sense than 100 for a company called 4TV

Jump To: TV | Radio | Datastreams | TopUp TV | Adult

TopUp TV

Group Prev # Next Channel NameSubgroup
44x : Future Expansion - 44x -    
55x: Other Org.s, Kids 5 551 552 Cartoon Network Misc. Children's
551 552 6 Boomerang
66x : Other Org.s, General 65 661 662 UKTV Gold UKTV Extra
661 662 663 UKTV Style
662 663 665
667
UKTV Food
663 665 667 British EuroSport? Possible new for TUTV
663
665
667 668 Discovery Channel Discovery
667 668 669 Discovery Real Time
668 669 67 Bloomberg xx9
77x: Movie Channels 72 771 791 TCM Turner
  • Each channel number here has no more than two different digits to aid in the 'dialling' of the station. Also note there is a maximum of one change of button.
  • Note that the channel numbers here begin with a repeated digit that where possible, matches with an FTA category above.
  • The Prev and Next columns indicate where these TopUp TV channels should be inserted with respect to each other and the above channels.
  • Channels from 664 to 669 may be moved to 44x should UKTV decide to bring more channels to the TopUp TV platform.

Jump To: TV | Radio | Datastreams | TopUp TV | Adult

Adult

Group Prev # Next Channel NameSubgroup
79x: Adult Channels 771 791 792 Television X Paid Service
791 792 8 Red Hot Pay Per View
  • Each channel number here has three digits that are relatively hard to hit by accident. (Also - 79 is telephone code for 'SX'...)
  • No special consideration has been given to whether a channel is TopUp TV or not.
  • The Prev and Next columns indicate where these channels should be inserted with respect to each other, the TopUp TV channels and the ordinary digital channels.

Jump To: TV | Radio | Datastreams | TopUp TV | Adult