Is Ticker a FAST channel though? Thought they’d be proper linear.
They are. Most of the channels are “real”.
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Just turned on Al Jazeera on Fetch and this message is on the screen with the normal programming playing behind it
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Most likely Fetch will switch to the HD version this week.
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Al Jazeera HD is up and running on ch 275
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Im curious to know more about these fast channels.
I’ve been watching heaps of Now 80s lately. I leave my Fetch boxes tuned into that channel so when Im searching for a show or between recordings, I default to this channel. They have some great countdowns and feature a lot of guest hosts. I’ve seen some hosted by 80s singers like Rick Astley, Sinitta, Nick Heyward from Haircut 100 and Matt Goss from Bros. Also that UK Eurovision singer who performed again in Liverpool recently Sonia Evans. Also, a lot of British DJs who were big back then who aren’t that familiar to us. They were friends or acquaintances of a lot of pop singers and share good stories.
I’m assuming this UK channel is somehow repackaged for Australia. Is this sent straight down the line from the UK or does someone control it in Australia? I have noticed that sometimes there are UK ads played and at other times there are no ads where it looks like it should have had one. Then other times, they play a random 80s song where an ad should be but it gets cut short. 
Then today I noticed the host said they were half way throught their countdown but a few songs later, their show was over and another show started. A glitch or is this normal? A bit strange.
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The 3 channels are most likely the same channels which are broadcast on UK Freeview , as I can’t see any reference to Australia or international version. I’d like to see Fetch show the Now Dance channel too, Clubland TV, as this is the fourth one under the Now brand.
The Rock channel used to be a 90s channel as it was recently rebranded in the UK to Now Rock. They have 90s programming including Pop, R&B as well as Rock, so it’s not a 24/7 rock channel per se.
FAST channels are simply free ad-supported TV channels. However you can’t record or rewind, as opposed to the pay channels.
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Yeah, this behaviour can be seen on a lot of FAST channels across most of the platforms.
From what I have seen, there are two types of FAST channel. One is a truly linear channel with generic breakfillers. Ads are meant to be preloaded at the user end before the break starts and seamlessly transition to them when a break is triggered. The number of ads vary depending on the market and the user, so sometimes you see the breakfiller at the tail end of the ad break, or even between ads.
The other type, which is more common, is a playlist that is fed from a video library. When you go to tune in to the channel, you crash into whatever program is currently scheduled to play at that time, so it feels like a live linear channel. These types seem to have the most problems, with programs sometimes being mistaken for ads and timings sometimes being out by a few seconds. They haven’t really perfected the flow and because it’s largely reliant on end user equipment to work properly they probably never will.
Lots of FAST channels are tailored for certain countries. Apsattv’s playlists show the variants on some of the platforms. Streaming rights in different countries prevents a lot of the content providers from having global feeds. Now TV seems to be direct from the UK though.
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I loved watching Clubland on Zattoo before it became paywalled. Also at Christmas time, Now 90s would become Now 80s, and Now 80s would change to Now Christmas.
Pluto TV can have a lot of conniptions in regards to timings, ads popping up mid segment, parts of shows being cut off etc.
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Which is a shame as it impacts viewing so much. It all comes down to how quickly a device can pre-load the ad break. One would think Fetch boxes are more than capable of handling this, but then if the internet connection is average, the problem persists.
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In the UK they are playing 80s Movie Madness Day (Thursday 10pm Melb time) Can anyone with Fetch confirm they are streaming the same schedule please?
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Yes, from 9pm AET last night they did.
However, it ended at 7am this morning going by the TV guide.
It is being replayed this morning at 11am AET.
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I saw a Movie countdown around 7pm too so it could have been all day in Aus too.
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Haven’t you been able to purchase UFC PPV through Fetch? Sounds like that’s all done.
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So Fetch TV is still running the following channels:
MTV
Nickelodeon
Nick Jr
Who is providing the playout for these channels?
Is it Fetch themselves, Viacom or are these channels fed directly from the ASIA feed (Like The Food Network and Trvl Channel)?
Also MTV 80s is also in the wrong aspect ratio like Foxtel, so maybe this is a feed issue.
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The Fetch Nickelodeon is far superior to 10’s.
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Just noticed that it’s been renamed to Nick, and they’re using the splash logo with just ‘nick’ inside it. Probably a way to differentiate it from the FTA version.
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I’m surprised Fetch still has these. I thought the plan was always for them to ditch Foxtel & Fetch and operate via completely through P+ and 10 play? The fact that the Nickelodeon channel is still going means there basically running to diffrent versions which makes no sense.
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Sky NZ still has Nick, so the AUS/NZ feed is far from dead and Fetch would still have access to it (for now). Unless this means it has been folded back into the Asia stream, apart from any local advertising. It’s kinda a weird situation for sure though, and one that Paramount would likely find a tiny bother if not for the fact that it’s Fetch, not Foxtel, and therefore probably barely matters.
I guess if worse comes to worst, they’d probably have access to the base Asia feed, presuming Paramount still have deals with Fetch’s still-half-owner in Astro. But why they would let that happen for an extended period is beyond me.
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