Digital TV – FAQs

Why are live broadcasts on the Red Button sometimes cut short?
For technical reasons, there needs to be a gap of up to 15 minutes between a live broadcast ending on a Red Button channel and another scheduled service starting. This gap allows us to check that the new service is ready and the correct content is in place. We also need to ensure that the links to the new service are available so that it is listed in the menu and appears on the screen when you press the appropriate button. Unfortunately, this sometimes means that we have to leave a live broadcast earlier than we would like to, and also that the screen is blank or displays a holding message for a short time.

Why does BBC One sometimes show London news instead of the news from my local region?
There are several possible answers:

• If you have satellite TV and an active Sky viewing card, you will receive your local BBC One region on channel 101. If your card is damaged or out of date, or you don't have one, channel 101 will usually show BBC One London region programmes. All BBC regions are available on other satellite channels: see BBC channel numbers in the Sky EPG.
• In the morning, BBC One and the BBC News channel broadcast almost the same Breakfast programme, but the regional news bulletins are shown only on BBC One. If you are watching BBC News you need to retune to BBC One.
• Local news and regional programming is complex and very occasionally a technical fault can occur which means that a regional studio centre cannot broadcast a local programme. When this happens, BBC One defaults to the London regional programme so that viewers don't see a blank screen.

Why do I sometimes see black lines on the left and right of the picture on my widescreen TV during BBC news programmes?
The BBC's national news studios have now been fully converted to widescreen, but some of the BBC regional studios have not yet been converted. These regions have adopted a 'halfway house' approach to fit in with the news programmes: they enlarge the traditional ratio picture they produce, and cut off the top and bottom of the picture to produce a 'nearly' widescreen picture. They cannot go the whole way in this process as there is a risk of cutting the tops off heads, for instance, so this means that thin black bands appear on the left and right of the picture on widescreen TV sets. Occasionally this can also occur in the national news when a news item has been bought from another broadcaster who does not yet use widescreen. The remaining BBC regional studios will be fully converted in due course. Even then, the black bands may still appear on bought-in news items, though fewer of these items are being used.

Why is there a time delay of a second or two between digital and analogue radio broadcasts?
The delay is because the digital and analogue signals are sent in different ways. Analogue signals are transmitted direct, but digital signals are compressed before being transmitted and are then uncompressed by your TV and turned back into pictures and sound. It also takes longer to transmit digital signals to a satellite and back to the ground.

I have a digital TV card for my PC - why is it asking for PID/SID numbers to tune it in?
All digital receiving equipment should do an automatic scan to find all the information required to tune in the services available. If your equipment is asking for information other than the general multiplex channel numbers, you will need to contact the card manufacturer for further advice.