Talk:List of DTT channels in the United Kingdom

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No "Shopping channels" category?

Why are all the shopping channels listed under "General Entertainment"? Is this Wikipedia page commercially sponsored or something? Grand Dizzy (talk) 00:45, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

The genres used in the article correspond to those used by DigitalUK when managing the channel listings for DTT. Channels are listed numerically in these genres, as shown on page 13 of their LCN Policy document. The addition of any additional genres in the article would be arbitrary, and subject to differing opinions by editors. Eladkse (talk) 11:56, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

Thank you for the answer, that's very informative. If we were talking about channels such as "reality" or "documentary" channels, then I would definitely agree that it would be impossible to separate them into their own category, as not all such channels fit neatly into such a category, thus any distinction would be arbitrary. But when it comes to shopping channels, there is a very clear distinction which is obvious to all people: that these channels do not contain any regular programmes. This distinction is pretty black and white and clear-cut.

There is no Wikipedia policy against dividing information into useful and valid groupings. Every single sub-heading on Wikipedia could be said to be an 'arbitary' division of information. Therefore I maintain that it is reasonable to put the shopping channels in their own category. If we were to be completely strict about using DigitalUK's categories, then there should be no "Local TV variations" category and all those channels should be listed under "General Entertainment". But they have been quite rightly set apart on the grounds of common sense. I believe the exact same grounds apply to the shopping channels. Grand Dizzy (talk) 00:04, 13 January 2018 (UTC)

The reason local TV and radio variations have been split into a sub-sections of General Entertainment and Radio for ease of understanding, because they are large groups of channels which share a small number of LCNs. These sub-sections are complimented by additional text explaining how they are distributed on DTT.

You assert that there is a distinction between a 'shopping' channel and 'normal' channel in that they do not contain any regular programmes. I disagree - on the contrary, these channels do carry regular programs and programming strands. They just happen to be teleshopping. Further, a great number of 'normal' channels carry teleshopping at certain points of the day; so per your above, not all such channels fit neatly into such a category and any distinction is arbitrary.

This article is primarily a technical one, with a lot of focus on the specifications of the channels and multiplexes on DTT. The article isn't about the content of each channel, so we don't need to make distinctions based on the content. I see no distinction between the two from a technical point of view. The sections in the article are used because they are what used by the operator of DTT to determine the numerical LCN placements - a technical determination. Eladkse (talk) 18:28, 13 January 2018 (UTC)

I appreciate your points, particularly the last one. If we regard this article as being more of a technical one, from the perspective of broadcasting, then it makes sense. Whereas I was looking at the article more from the side of the actual entertainment and content, from the perspective of the end user. There are obviously a lot more Wikipedia readers who will fall into the latter category, though which approach to the article is "correct" I could not speculate.

I don't wish to challenge this any further, but I will close by stating that I believe the majority of viewers would agree that the question of "what constitutes a shopping channel" is extremely clear-cut, and can be very distinctly defined as those channels which show only commercial presentations. Grand Dizzy (talk) 18:30, 14 January 2018 (UTC)