Viewers may have to be paid to go digital

Government digital TV adviser Barry Cox has said that the Government may have to pay some people to switchover to digital television, following a similar scheme in Berlin, Germany. The "Voice of the Listener and Viewer" group supported the suggestion, stating "if people are paying a licence fee, they have a right to receive something in return".
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Test Drive BBCi

A promotional video loop, showcasing BBCi's new features, with a brief appearance by F1 racing driver Jenson Button:

Prompt shown on BBC One after pressing the red button

Ofcom takes over from ITC

The Independent Television Commission has been replaced by Ofcom, the Office of Communications. The new "super-regulator" will also take over from the Radio Authority, Oftel, the Radio Communcations Agency and the Broadcasting Standards Commission from December 29.

50% of households have digital TV

Digital TV, via satellite, cable and Freeview, is now in 50% of all households across the UK. Sky Digital makes up the bulk of this figure with over 7 million subscribers, but the strong growth of Freeview (with an estimated 2.5 million set-top boxes now in use) has also gone a long way to help reach the half way point. It is estimated that between 10 and 20% of the population will continue to refuse to switch to digital television in the future, however, and coverage of digital terrestrial is still a problem. Around one-third of the country are currently unable to receive Freeview.

Teletext on 4 launches

Teletext on 4 has now gone live on Channel 4 via the text button and on Freeview channel 50. The service has been testing via a secret code for the past few weeks but is now available to everyone. Some features new to Teletext include direct access to pages by entering a page number and a "Go to TV" option which will hide but remember the current page using the green button so the TV picture behind can be viewed (similar to Teletext services on analogue).

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BBCi: Christmas Comedy

BBCi: World Cinema Awards

Prompt on BBC Two after pressing the red button

Prompt on BBC Four after pressing the red button

F2P Games: Solitaire

Disney's "Daytime" to launch in January

Disney will launch their new channel "Daytime" on January 12. The channel will feature TV movies, US soaps and comedy, and will be available on Sky and cable as well as Freeview.
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Price-drop.tv launches on Freeview

Price-drop.tv, sister channel to Bid-up.tv has launched on Freeview channel 24. Broadcasting 24 hours a day, the channel features "reverse auctions" which can be viewed in glorious widescreen.
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BBCi: 'Amores Perros'

Prompt shown on BBC Four after pressing the red button

Off-air slides

Shown when UK Bright Ideas off-air (6pm-6am)

Shown when FTN off-air (6am-6pm)

BBCi changes

A few minor changes have been made to the BBCi text service today. Amongst the changes, each section (News, Sport, etc.) is now colour-coded, and the word "Loading" when a new page is selected now appears next to the time, rather than instead of it:

Screen shown when tuning directly to the BBCi channel

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