It’s a sad fact that HD channels on Sky have always been harder to find than the boring old SD ones. Wonderfully, the company has realised this is a problem and has decided to fix the oversight by moving some channels around.
Where Sky One HD is currently languishing at 170 on the programme guide, for example, it’ll switch with the SD version of the channel, at position 106. Only Sky+HD subscribers will see any change, so those stuck with standard definition won’t see any difference in the line-up.
The change, which takes place on 1 February, will affect 40 channels in total, including those from MTV, FX, Universal and the ludicrously named SyFy. Sky’s Sports and Movies channels will also make the move, as you would expect, given their importance to the company.
Sky is taking the opportunity to make some other EPG changes too. Living, for example, is now going to be called Sky Living and will move to channel 107, next to Sky One. The newly announced premium channel Sky Atlantic will reside at 108, giving viewers some pretty nifty channels in the first eight slots on the guide.
The only bad news is that Sky has no ability to act on behalf of the likes of the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, so those channel positions 101, 102, 103 and 104 can’t simply be switched to HD versions unless those companies choose to make the change themselves.
We can only hope they do, because having some of the most important HD channels buried in locations like 140 and 178 makes about as much sense as asking for advice from Peaches Geldof.