Freeview Changes: GB News Is Coming, Music Channels Moving

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Three major Freeview changes have taken place this week, with the highly-anticipated upcoming news channel, GB News, getting a channel number and placeholder, and two popular music channels – NOW 70s and NOW 80s – changing places AND their national coverage limits.

As usual, these changes mean some viewers will need to retune their Freeview devices (see more details below), in order to keep the Electronic Programmes Guide (EPG) up to date, though some devices do this retune automatically (See our recommended Freeview recorders here).

The Freeview service, which was established back in 2002, is the United Kingdom’s terrestrial television platform.

It provides free-to-air TV channels and radio stations (via a Freeview aerial – see the ones we recommend), including more than 80 standard and HD channels (See our full Freeview guide here).

Family watching Freeview Play 1200
Photo: Freeview

NOW Music Channels Changing – Again

Earlier this year, amidst a major Freeview reshuffle, music channels Now 70s and Now 80s changed their channel numbers.

Now 70s, the ’70s hit songs channel moved to Channel 78, while only being available in the Manchester area.

Now 80s, The 24/7 ’80s party channel, moved to Channel 76, with UK-wide availability.

This week, however, the two music channels swapped placed – with the 70s channel going UK-wide, and the 80s channel moving back to Manchester.

NOW 70s freeview channel

So:

Now 70’s is moving to channel 76, and will now be available in most of the country (though still depending on your reception at your house).

Now 80’s is moving to channel 75, and will now only be available in Manchester.

GB News Launches On Freeview (Almost)

GB News is a brand new British news channel that is set to air a mix of “news, opinion and debate”, and is chaired by former BBC presenter Andrew Neil, who will also be one of the prominent presenters on the new channel.

GB News logo

The channel will eventually be available on all the major TV platforms in the UK – Freeview, Freesat, YouView, Sky and Virgin Media, but its exact launch date isn’t known yet.

At least some of GB News’ content will also be available on-demand, via streaming, the company has said in the past.

Starting this week, however, the GB News channel is now “live” on Freeview Channel 236 – with a “Coming Soon” message.

With its Freeview channel now in place, the official launch is most likely imminent, possibly in a matter of weeks.

Retune Your Freeview Device

As always, these Freeview changes may require a retune on your device – otherwise, the changes might not show up for you.

Some devices do a retune automatically, but others require a manual retune.

You can find more information on how to retune your device, on Freeview’s retuning help section.

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