[Stooky Bill]

That is how it's always been because they are on the sky platform so the pages are linked.

OK I understand. 

How long does it take to convert a TP/mux from DVB-S to DVB-S2? 

It's just a case of changing a setting on the modulator, (assuming the modulator can do S2 of course, older ones can't) The same goes for any other settings such as FEC and symbol rate - it's a simple configuration change however... 

You can't change the settings while in transmit mode. Also after the settings are changed the receivers at home won't have the new parameters until they're sent out by Sky/Freesat. 

Crucially the modulator parameters - symbol rate, FEC, modulation standard etc decide what the data rate of the MUX is. If the encoder is putting out the old data rate and the modulator is expecting the old one then it won't transmit. So that needs to be changed at the same time (although in reality that would be all ready to go, either as a spare encode chain or a config ready to go)

It's not a process that can be done in a few minutes, and you wouldn't want to anyway. Plus there's always more than one uplink and encode chain, you'd want to test it all works before it's released to the public's boxes. 

My guess is that they'll point everyone's boxes away from a transponder, reconfigure it, test it and then point them back at the new services. That'll be why it's being done in a certain order

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Freesat doesn't have transponders, the BBC services are on the BBCs transponders.... except the two that currently aren't

I didn't realise that. On Lyngsat the BBC (and some ITV/C4) services are labelled as being on Freesat TPs.

All Freesat do is send out an alternative service metadata alongside the free to air channels. So the EPG on Sky boxes will use their meta data and Freesat will use theirs. 

The transponders themselves are leased to various uplink providers - Sky have a lot of course, as do Arqiva and Globecast, and the BBC has 5 or 6.