Several changes took place overnight, largely removing placeholder services and some obsolete services.

Service Removals:

ID-Ref		Service Name	Annotation	TSID	SID
49		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Meridian - West (South Coast)	101	10171
50		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Granada	101	10162
55		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Meridian - East (South East)	101	10172
56		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Tyne Tees	101	10170
58		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Anglia - East	101	10169
60		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV London	101	10161
61		Ulster TV	Placeholder - EoS - UTV - Northern Ireland	101	10175
62		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Cymru Wales	101	10165
63		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Central - West	101	10163
64		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Anglia - West	101	10176
65		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Yorkshire - Calendar North	101	10173
67		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Central - East	101	10164
68		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Meridian - Thames Valley	101	10168
69		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV West Country - West	101	10166
81		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV West Country - South West	101	10167
84		Channel 4	Placeholder - EoS - Northern Ireland Macro	102	10226
85		Channel 4	Placeholder - EoS - Scotland (inc Cumb) Macro - VM Scot	102	10227
86		Channel 4	Placeholder - EoS - North Macro	102	10225
89		Channel 4	Placeholder - EoS - Midlands Macro	102	10224
103		Channel 5	Placeholder - EoS	8	852
139		Sky Witness	Placeholder - EoS	3	354
141		Sky Crime	Placeholder - EoS	2	264
142		ITV2	Placeholder - EoS	21	2107
152		ITV3	Placeholder - EoS	4	452
163		ITV4	Placeholder - EoS	21	2110
173		Comedy Central	Placeholder - EoS	5	573
175		Sky Sci-Fi	Placeholder - EoS	3	353
180		More 4	Placeholder - EoS	8	851
182		E4	Placeholder - EoS	8	850
196		5 USA	Placeholder - EoS	2	210
214		E!	Placeholder - EoS	22	2250
234		National Geographic	Placeholder - EoS	3	352
255		MTV	Placeholder - EoS	4	451
292		Film4	Placeholder - EoS	4	455
392		Cartoon Network	Placeholder - EoS	4	456
395		Nickelodeon	Placeholder - EoS	7	760
443		Channel 5 Audio Desc	Placeholder - EoS - Networked	8	853
566		S4C Audio Desc	Placeholder - EoS - Wales - Networked	512	1212
1382		Sky Showcase	Placeholder - EoS	4	453
1386		Sky Sports News	Placeholder - EoS	7	775
1411		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Yorkshire - Calendar South	101	10174
1651		4Seven	Placeholder - EoS	3	350
1778		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Border - England	101	10177
1795		TNT Sport 5	Red Button Service (This was removed in error by Virgin TV)	23	2305
1797		ITVBe	Placeholder - EoS	10	1055
1889		Sky Sports Mix	Placeholder - EoS	7	757
1969		5ACTION	Placeholder - EoS	10	1052
2026		Channel 4HD	Placeholder - EoS - London Macro - VM South & Wales	102	10254
2118		Sky Comedy	Placeholder - EoS	3	351
2124		Sky Nature	Placeholder - EoS	4	454
2126		Sky Documentaries	Placeholder - EoS	5	572
2149		ITVBe +1	Placeholder - EoS - VM Scotland	3	326
2180		Sky Max	Placeholder - EoS	5	575
2182		Important Information	Information Slate - Inactive	514	1459
2183		Important Information	Information Slate - Inactive	514	1460
90025		Hidden 25	Inactive Transport Stream Marker - Deprecated	25	2551

 

- Any recordings made from these channels will no longer be playable.

 

Notes:

 

ID 566 S4C Audio Desc  -  Placeholder - EoS - Wales - Networked

- Although this has been a hidden placeholder service for some time, the PMT has remained, sharing the S4C HD elementary streams.

 

ID 1795 TNT Sport 5 - This service was removed in error by Virgin TV (see Mid Morning Update).

- This removal is odd as this was an active red button service of TNT Sport and not a placeholder.

- As an active service, the PMT & elementary streams are still present on TSID 23 SID 2305.

- TNT Sports 1 HD is showing a "channel unavailable" error message when the red button option is selected.

 

ID 2149 ITVBe +1  -  Placeholder - EoS - VM Scotland

- Although this has been a hidden placeholder service for some time, the PMT has remained, sharing the main ITVBe +1 elementary streams.

 

IDs 2182 & 2183 "Important Information"  -  Inactive Slates.
- These were the information slates advising users of the obsolescence of Liberate based hardware.

 

ID-Ref 90025 Hidden 25  -  Inactive Transport Stream Marker - Deprecated:

- This marker was added on 20/01/2021 when services were migrated from TSID 25 to TSID 20 as part of a housekeeping exercise. When another group of channels were added to TSID 25 on 16/04/2021 in a further housekeeping exercise, the marker became redundant. Rather than remove it, Virgin TV simply moved it from SID 2501 to placeholder SID 2551, where it remained until its removal overnight.

- Note that 90025 is an internal reference number and not the USID which was listed as zero for this service.

 

 

NIT Network Changes:

In another strange move, the regional transport stream TSID 101 has been removed from the NIT of TTA Knowsley DMC (Hayes_RHE).

TSID 101 carries fewer services nowadays and, with BBC regional services being moved onto national transport streams in London, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland, there are only local "city" stations remaining in those regions. 

As Scotland has no local stations available on Virgin TV, TSID 101 is empty on Scottish networks.

In Northern Ireland TSID 101 carries BBC Two NI HD, RTÉ 1 and RTÉ 2 and the Northern Visions local service.

Welsh Networks carry BBC Two Wales HD on TSID 101, together with TalkCardiff in Cardiff and That's TV South Wales in Swansea.

Some of the London networks carry adjacent BBC One HD regions and / or London Live on TSID 101.

Mid Morning Update: 

Service Restored:

ID 1795 TNT Sport 5  

- This service has now been restored by Virgin TV.

- TNT Sports 1 HD now displays the TNT Sport 5 service correctly when the red button option is selected.

Retention Periods:

ID-Ref		Service Name	Annotation	Days Held
90025		Hidden 25	Inactive TS Marker	1048
2183		Important Information	Information Slate - Inactive	819
2182		Important Information	Information Slate - Inactive	807
443		Channel 5 Audio Desc	Placeholder - EoS - Networked	659
566		S4C Audio Desc	Placeholder - EoS - Wales - Networked	652
84		Channel 4	Placeholder - EoS - Northern Ireland Macro	519
85		Channel 4	Placeholder - EoS - Scotland (inc Cumb) Macro - VM Scot	519
86		Channel 4	Placeholder - EoS - North Macro	519
89		Channel 4	Placeholder - EoS - Midlands Macro	519
2026		Channel 4HD	Placeholder - EoS - London Macro - VM South & Wales	519
49		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Meridian - West (South Coast)	400
50		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Granada	400
55		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Meridian - East (South East)	400
56		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Tyne Tees	400
58		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Anglia - East	400
60		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV London	400
61		Ulster TV	Placeholder - EoS - UTV - Northern Ireland	400
62		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Cymru Wales	400
63		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Central - West	400
64		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Anglia - West	400
65		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Yorkshire - Calendar North	400
67		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Central - East	400
68		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Meridian - Thames Valley	400
69		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV West Country - West	400
81		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV West Country - South West	400
103		Channel 5	Placeholder - EoS	400
139		Sky Witness	Placeholder - EoS	400
141		Sky Crime	Placeholder - EoS	400
142		ITV2	Placeholder - EoS	400
152		ITV3	Placeholder - EoS	400
163		ITV4	Placeholder - EoS	400
173		Comedy Central	Placeholder - EoS	400
175		Sky Sci-Fi	Placeholder - EoS	400
180		More 4	Placeholder - EoS	400
182		E4	Placeholder - EoS	400
214		E!	Placeholder - EoS	400
234		National Geographic	Placeholder - EoS	400
255		MTV	Placeholder - EoS	400
292		Film4	Placeholder - EoS	400
392		Cartoon Network	Placeholder - EoS	400
395		Nickelodeon	Placeholder - EoS	400
1382		Sky Showcase	Placeholder - EoS	400
1386		Sky Sports News	Placeholder - EoS	400
1411		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Yorkshire - Calendar South	400
1651		4Seven	Placeholder - EoS	400
1778		ITV1	Placeholder - EoS - ITV Border - England	400
1797		ITVBe	Placeholder - EoS	400
1889		Sky Sports Mix	Placeholder - EoS	400
1969		5ACTION	Placeholder - EoS	400
2118		Sky Comedy	Placeholder - EoS	400
2124		Sky Nature	Placeholder - EoS	400
2126		Sky Documentaries	Placeholder - EoS	400
2180		Sky Max	Placeholder - EoS	400
196		5 USA	Placeholder - EoS	243
2149		ITVBe +1	Placeholder - EoS - VM Scotland	239

The placeholder services were each held for the number of days specified in the above list, preserving any recordings for that period.

The countdown usually starts from the day the service is closed, or from the date the service is hidden from the EPG.

The countdown for Hidden 25 started when the transport stream was repopulated with services.

 

2 services remain with placeholder status:

ID 2059 E! HD (currently held for 58 days).

ID 1960 Viaplay Xtra (currently held for 34 days).

Recordings are generally preserved for around 3 months after a channel closure but Virgin has been known to remove placeholder services after shorter periods. 

Although this housekeeping exercise by Virgin TV has cleared out a lot of clutter from the SI data, the database shows several other services marked as inactive or deprecated. As these are mainly internal services, rather than channels, they could be removed at any time with no notice.

The anomalies from February 14th were reversed by Virgin.

 

Temporary Rebrands:

- 2 movie channels reverting to their usual names following promotional rebrands.

Temporary Rebrand:

- 1 movie channel promotional rebrand.

Temporary Rebrand:

- 1 movie channel promotional rebrand.

Temporary Rebrands:

- 2 movie channels reverting to their usual names following promotional rebrands.

Temporary Rebrands:

- 1 movie channel reverting to its usual name.

- 1 movie channel with a promotional rebrand.

2 services with a change of service name (markers of inactive transport streams):

USID		New Service Name	Former Service Name	Annotation	TSID	SID
9081		Hidden 10411	TS104 Dummy	Inactive TS Marker - Wrexham	104	10411
9315		Hidden 4501	TS45 Dummy	Inactive TS Marker	45	4501

 

This seems to be a move to give a consistent format to inactive transport stream markers, although "Dummy 38901" remains for now. 

The "Dummy" service names were originally favoured by Virgin. 

 

Hidden 4501 

- This is the inactive transport stream marker for TSID 45.

- TSID 45 was last used for the Sky Sports red button channels in 2019 before they migrated to TSID 9. 

- Legacy TSID 45 frequencies have long since been redeployed to DOCSIS.

 

Hidden 10411 

- This the inactive transport stream for TSID 104, the old regional HD transport stream.

- TSID 104 only remains in the NIT of the Wrexham (FF Manchester) network.

Temporary Rebrands:

- 2 movie channel promotional rebrands.

 

 

Further Information:

Inactive Transport Streams and their marker Service Names:

TSID		Service Name	Region	Narrative
25		Hidden 25		25 being the TSID.
29		Hidden 2950		2950 being the SID number used for the marker.
42		Hidden 42		42 being the TSID.
45		Hidden 4501		4501 being the SID number used for the marker.
101		Channel Update	Scotland only	A different approach here but TSID 101 is still used on all non Scottish networks.
104		Hidden 10411	Wrexham only	10411 being the SID number used for the marker.
389		Dummy 38901	No networks	38901 being the SID number used for the marker.
				Still using "Dummy" rather than "Hidden".
				Not in the NIT of any network, so the inactive TS marker is possibly redundant.

Clearly, the inactive transport stream marker names still lack a consistent format.

Several anomalies appeared in the SI data overnight. 

- These have been recorded as "possible errors" and are expected to be reversed relatively soon.

This seems to be an ongoing pattern as Virgin introduced these exact entries in December and January, only to reverse them at a later day. The changes are mainly to placeholders and internal test services and should have no impact on the end user.

Temporary Rebrands:

- 2 sports channels reverting to their usual names following promotional rebrands.

Temporary Rebrand:

- 1 movie channel reverting to its usual name following a promotional rebrand.

Temporary Rebrand:

- 1 movie channel promotional rebrand.

New Services - pre-launch additions to the EPG:

 

ID 2326 Sky Sports Tennis

- Added to the NIT of customer and all remaining networks.

- Now visible to customers on channel 537.

 

ID 2327 Sky Sports Tennis HD

- Added to the NIT of customer and all remaining networks.

- Now visible to customers on channel 520.

 

Pre-launch additions to the EPG in preparation for the full launch on Sunday February 11th.

 

As previously noted:

Sky Sports Tennis is available to Sky Sports pack subscribers on traditional cable platforms.

Sky Sports Tennis HD is available to Sky Sports HD pack subscribers on traditional cable platforms and to Sky Sports pack subscribers on Stream devices.

Channel Closure - SDT Root Flags:

ID 1960 Viaplay Xtra  -  Placeholder - End of Service.

- The SDT root flags were changed to indicate that encryption had been removed.

As the PMT and elementary streams had been removed on February 6th, there was nothing left to encrypt.

During the day:

 

Channel Closure - Housekeeping:

TSID 16 SID 1603  -  ID 1960 Viaplay Xtra  -  Placeholder - End of Service.

- PMT & Elementary Streams removed. 

The channel had been hidden from the EPG on February 3rd.

Temporary Rebrands:

- 2 movie channels switching to new promotional rebrands. 

- 1 movie channel reverting to its usual name following a promotional rebrand.

Channel Closure Slate Hidden From The EPG:

ID 1960 Viaplay Xtra  -  Placeholder - End of Service.

- Hide Flag added, removing the channel from the EPG.

- Moved from channel 553 to placeholder channel 1860. 

The changes have hidden the channel from the EPG, where it was last seen as a slate informing viewers of the channel closure. 

Channel 553 has been freed up, allowing it to be reused in the future.

Channel 1860 is in a special range, not visible to customers, which is used to store any service information retained to preserve recordings.

 

 

Temporary Rebrands:

- 4 movie channels switching to new promotional rebrands. 

1 of the changes was "delayed" on Virgin TV as the rebrand occurred on February 2 on the actual channel.

 

 

Further changes during the day:

Change of Subscription Package Activated (Stream): 

Channel 807  -  ID 1705 Sony SAB

The transfer from Asian Mela to Stream Inclusive channels became active during the day.

Changes to Subscription Packs: 

Channel 131  -  ID 1974 Sky HISTORY HD

Channel 133  -  ID   568 Crime+Inv HD

Channel 331  -  ID 1720 Sky HISTORY +1

Channel 333  -  ID 1972 Crime+Inv +1

- A change of subscription pack code from Documentary to Entertainment. 

No changes for legacy subscribers with the original packs or for Maxit / Mega pack or Stream subscribers.

Mixit subscribers with any of the personal picks will now be able to view these channels. 

Previously only available to subscribers with a package including the Entertainment & Documentaries personal pick.

Channel 807  -  ID 1705 Sony SAB

- Subscription pack codes added for M/Player/Mixit and above.

This channel should now be available to all subscribers. 

 

Further changes noted in the evening:

Channel 807  -  ID 1705 Sony SAB

- Subscription pack code added for Stream Inclusive Channels.

- Subscription pack code removed for Asian Mela.

Indicating a move away from the Asian Mela pack, with the channel to be made available to all subscribers.