[Stooky Bill]

I think they had 12422 on "short term rental" while they did the changeover, whilst 10803 is a "BBC" transponder anyway.

I assume they're clearing 12422 to hand it back to SES/Astra and stop paying for it.

Probably yes.

Though I would thought they'd keep 12422 long term and gave 10803 back to SES. 12422 is a wide TP (SR of 27500 instead of 22000/23000) and when the Nightlight ends in 2024 that could have been usefull to move BBC One South HD off the Sky transponder.

No because 12422 isn't the BBCs it's someone else's, they just use it occasionally. 10803 is their space uplinked by them

When the SD services end next year the BBC will be able to stop paying for a whole transponder. Renting the whole of 12422 just to fit in one service would cost more than just renting the small amount of space from Sky. Also by this time next year, it might well be that there'll be more space due to BBC4 and CBBC closing

They will have chosen 10803 for the nightlight for a reason. It'll presumably either be because their contract for it is first to expire, or it is the transponder that has the cheapest early termination fee.

Moving one of the existing HD transponders onto the slightly bigger 12422 would mean they'll still have a spare BBC owned transponder without anything on it, they currently only need 5 and a bit