Short-lived Freeview channel CCX TV, that launched less than a year ago, is shutting down on February 1, and will be replaced by a +1 catch-up channel.
The news is especially sad for fans of The Bold And The Beautiful, which was finally brought back to the UK, on CCX TV, after being gone for ten years.
Established in 2002, Freeview is the United Kingdom’s digital terrestrial television platform. It provides access to free-to-air TV channels and radio stations, including more than 80 standard and HD channels.
Freeview is, as the name suggests, free – but you do, however, need to pay the yearly TV licence fee in most cases.
In order to be able to watch Freeview channels, you need two main components: A TV Aerial (see the ones I recommend here), and a Freeview box.
CCX TV launched in April 2020 on Freeview / YouView channel 23, and was owned by shopping channel operator “Ideal Shopping Direct”.
Its original broadcasting hours were 7am to 10pm. In the mornings, it aired shows from sister-channel “Create and Craft”, which was owned by the same company.
In the evenings, it aired new episodes of the popular long-running American soap opera, The Bold And The Beautiful, to the delight of its many UK fans who had to wait ten years until new episodes officially arrived at our side of the pond.
Then, in October 2020, CCX TV’s licence was bought by UKTV, the BBC broadcaster which is owned by the BBC.
In December, CCX TV was moved from channel 23 to channel 73, as part of a five-channel Freeview shakeup.
This week, however, without much fanfare, viewers of CCX TV started getting messages on their screens, informing them that the channel will shut down on February 1.
The channels’ official website also has a message about the upcoming closure:
To our loyal viewers, we are sorry to announce that from the 1st of Feb, CCX TV will no longer be available to watch. Thank you so much for all your support over the years.
The channel’s slot will be taken by Drama+1, which is the +1 hour catch-up version of UKTV’s Drama channel (Channel 20 on Freeview), which mostly airs classic British dramas from the past four decades.
Drama’s +1 version was already available on Sky and Virgin Media TV, and will now be available on Freeview as well.
Regarding the closure, Freeview tell us that “As Freeview is an open platform regulated by Ofcom, decisions such as these are made by the relevant broadcasters, in this case, UKTV.”
CCX TV’s closure comes a few months after another short-lived channel, “Merit”, was shut down as well. Merit, which was operated by ITV Digital Channels, was available on Freeview Channel 34 and was an evening-only channel that aired cooking and gardening programmes like Britain’s Best Back Gardens and The Hungry Sailors.
It was shut down just two months after its launch.
I am so disappointed that the channel CCXTV has been taken of freeview. In particular as I am not able to watch the Bold & Beautiful anymore. This is so upsetting as another channel is not showing this show. Why is this. This is a popular show, bring it back please.
Me too!😞 I think it’s disgusting of them. I don’t think any channel is showing it!
Yes
I am absolutely gutted my bold and beautifull taken of the air I had to pick up from 10 years ago I loved them all on there ,why cant soaps like eastenders be taken of.to say I’m disappointed is putting it mildly
Have you .managed find which channel bold and beautiful on please. Fab loved it
Stop making exceptions by only giving Manchester special treats with music choices like NOW 70s and 90s and Clubland and just only giving the rest of us regions only NOW 80s cause it’s very very unfair cause this is England and we should all be treated the same and I can’t get it on channel 271 cause my Smart tv is a 2020 make
CCXTV has really informative programmes, a pleasure for us senior citizens to watch during the day, especially these days.
Great choice of historical articles featuring prominent people and subjects. Are you sure you can’t keep it?
Absolutely correct…it has been a blast of much needed clear and fresh air to the very tired and stale fare offered by the usual channels…that’s probably why they are closing it down.
The problem was that it doesn’t know what channel it caters for….. the programs were stale ie. Trippers day….. good in it’s day…… but we have moved on since then.
Once again the viewer do not matter, God forbid you put it to a vote. Just once it would be nice be asked what impact this change have on your life. Well for me it will be devastating, why you ask. I like many others am Severely Disabled and Housebound so for me the box ( or flat screen ) in the corner of the room is my only form of entertainment. It may be just a TV channel to many viewers, however if it’s the one I watch the most, then it can be quite traumatising. And another thing if like me your Freeview box is a Humax Fox T2 doing a retune is an absolute nightmare, why, because when you do a retune you lose every single programme that was set to record in your planner. Which means I have to use my Tablet to photograph all the pages of set channels so that I can put them in again after the retune. And being Severely Disabled this can take many hours. And we had to do a retune only a couple of weeks ago. Not a happy viewer.
There has been & still is some good stuff on CCXTV so I’m very sorry to see it go. However I watch a lot on Drama too so the Drama+1 channel will be handy for me but I’d have preferred to have both these & less music channels. What I learned today is that the BBC own UKTV – that was a surprise…. or should I say shock horror?! Don’t mind “advertising” on there do they!!
UKTV is a subsidiary of BBC Studios which in turn is a commercial arm of the BBC designed to produce and distribute programmes. BBC Studios was formerly part of BBC Enterprise which covered worldwide distribution (e.g. to commercial channels especially abroad and DVD/Blu-Ray production) and the profits go back into funding the BBC.
I am sorry for those viewers who watch CCX TV for it’s closure.
However for me the main bugbear of Freeview is how is it that viewers of Freeview in Manchester are getting ALL the music channels?
Everyone would love a choice of music channels as the rest of Freeview viewers in the United Kingdom have only NOW 80’s.
We did have Vintage and NOW 70’s but they just disappeared without any warning.
NOW 70’s was only on Freeview nationwide for about a month or so.
However yet again viewers in Manchester apparently still have it.
Come on Freeview let us ALL get more music channels please.
Thank you.
If you have a smart tv, you can watch Now 70’s via the internet by connecting your tv to your broadband via the phone line by tuning into Channelbox 271.
But you can’t get it on Smart TV that was made in 2020
I have a Smart tv that was made 2019. What your point you trying to make, just connected to the internet.
I did it don’t work at all and I emailed Channelbox about it and they said it stopped working on the 2020 Smart tv make which was out of there hands
I will miss watching CCX especially LEVERAGE ,great show it will be missed a long with other programs R.I P. CCX
To my surprise and disappointment, CCXTV is shut down. Which means, no more Bold and the Beautiful. I was watching this overseas and I enjoyed every episode. To be able to see it here in England was of great joy. Now, it has been taken away from us. First Days of our Lives and now Bold and the Beautiful. It will never be the same again without these programmes.
I absolutely agree. Some of these American soaps have large followings and the BBC doesn’t give a damn. I am sick of all the tired, old British drama repeats. How convenient for them. Disgusted.
I am devastated I won’t be able to watch Bold and the Beautiful now CCX tv is closing down,I adore the cast,and love the storylines and the build up for things coming out,especially the Hope and Liam getting baby Beth back storyline!😢
Iam gutted too no bold and beautiful hoping it would come to another channel they also took of days of Sony channel iam so gutted
Totally agree! I am furious!!