PDC Live

Details of Country and Network Information (CNI) Field

Each television channel needs to be uniquely labelled so that a programme can be identified without regard to a particular tuning convention or if it is broadcast on a different channel from that originally advertised.

PDC uses the 16-bit Country and Network Identifier to label channels. Each channel, and perhaps even each region of a channel, has its own unique CNI. The CNI is composed of an 8-bit country code (0x2C = 44 for the UK) and an 8-bit channel identifier, allocated arbitrarily by some central body in each country---the ITC in the UK.

Network Identifiers

CNIs reported or observed so far include:
	2C02	Channel 5
	2C07	Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C)
	2C11	Channel 4
	2C12	Scottish TV
	2C1C	Anglia
	2C1E	ITV Network
	2C3E	BBC2

These numbers can also be seen on some of the Teletext PDC/engineering pages, for example, Channel 4's page 3AA (get to it by the RED link from page 399) and Anglia's page 6AA (RED link from page 699 in some areas).

	Channel 4   0   1  2C  11  00  06/08  13:00   1
	Anglia      0   1  2C  1E  00  00/15  31:63   1 
                           ^^  ^^
Please look if you are in a different region and tell me what you see!

BBC Proposals for CNI Codes

BBC Engineering Information sent me a sheet with 64 new CNI codes proposed for BBC regions. I am not quite sure what the second column represents; it does look like the UK code in decimal followed by the network code in hexadecimal, but perhaps it refers to some other sort of identification scheme. The column headed ``PDC'' shows the bottom 8 bits of the CNI.
	Service			16_bit NI	PDC
	BBC2			4440		40
	BBC1 NI			4441		41
	BBC2 Wales		4442		42
	BBC1 future1		4443		43
	BBC2 Scotland		4444		44
	BBC1 future 2		4445		45
	BBC2 future 2		4446		46
	BBC1 future 4		4447		47
	BBC2 future 5		4448		48
	BBC1 future 6		4449		49
	BBC2 future 7		444A		4A
	BBC1 future 8		444B		4B
	BBC2 future 9		444C		4C
	BBC1 future 10		444D		4D
	BBC2 future 11		444E		4E
	BBC1 future 12		444F		4F
	BBC2 future 13		4450		50
	BBC1 future 14		4451		51
	BBC2 future 15		4452		52
	BBC1 future 16		4453		53
	BBC2 future 17		4454		54
	BBC1 future 18		4455		55
	BBC2 future 19		4456		56
	BBC World		4457		57
	BBC Worldwide future 1	4458		58
	BBC Worldwide future 2	4459		59
	BBC Worldwide future 3	445A		5A
	BBC Worldwide future 4	445B		5B
	BBC Worldwide future 5	445C		5C
	BBC Worldwide future 6	445D		5D
	BBC Worldwide future 7	445E		5E
	BBC Worldwide future 8	445F		5F
	BBC Worldwide future 9	4460		60
	BBC Worldwide future 10	4461		61
	BBC Worldwide future 11	4462		62
	BBC Worldwide future 12	4463		63
	BBC Worldwide future 13	4464		64
	BBC Worldwide future 14	4465		65
	BBC Worldwide future 15	4466		66
	BBC Worldwide future 16	4467		67
	BBC Prime		4468		68
	BBC1 future 19		4469		69
	BBC2 future 18		446A		6A
	BBC1 future 17		446B		6B
	BBC2 future 16		446C		6C
	BBC1 future 15		446D		6D
	BBC2 future 14		446E		6E
	BBC1 future 13		446F		6F
	BBC2 future 12		4470		70
	BBC1 future 11		4471		71
	BBC2 future 10		4472		72
	BBC1 future 9		4473		73
	BBC2 future 8		4474		74
	BBC1 future 7		4475		75
	BBC2 future 6		4476		76
	BBC1 future 5		4477		77
	BBC2 future 4		4478		78
	BBC1 future 3		4479		79
	BBC2 future 2		447A		7A
	BBC1 Scotland		447B		7B
	BBC2 future 1		447C		7C
	BBC1 Wales		447D		7D
	BBC2 NI			447E		7E
	BBC1			447F		7F

Country Identifiers

The EBU has a standard system of country identifiers which is used (in modified forms) in several applications, including the Radio Data System (RDS) and PDC.

The 8-bit code can be divided in to two 4-bit chunks. Both chunks are significant, but if the top four bits are all ones, then the bottom bits represent a group of countries rather than a single country.

The countries allocated codes as of 1990 are:

Most sig. | Least significant four bits:
  4 bits: |  0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   A   B   C   D   E   F
----------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
    0     |  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
    1     |  *  DDR ALG AND ISR  I  BEL BLR AZR ALB AUT HNG MLT  D  CNR EGY
    2     |  *  GRC CYP SM  SUI JOR FNL LUX BUL DNK GIB IRQ  G  LBY ROU  F
    3     |  *  MRC TCH POL CVA  *  SYR TUN MAR LIE ISL MCO  *   *   E  NOR
    4     |  *   *  IRL TUR  *   *  YUG UKR HOL  *  LBN  *   *   *   S   *
    5     |  *   *   *   *   *   *   *  URS POR  *   *   *   *   *   *   *
    6     |  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
    7     |  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
    8     |  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
    9     |  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
    A     |  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
    B     |  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
    C     |  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
    D     |  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
    E     |  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
    F     | gp0 gp1 gp2 gp3 gp4 gp5 gp6 gp7 gp8 gp9 gpA gpB gpC gpD gpE gpF
----------+-----------------------------------------------------------------

The codes used above are almost but not quite the ISO 3166 codes. My guesses and the correct ISO 3166 code if my guess is right are shown below:

EBU	ISO3166	Name		Full name
---	-------	----		---------
ALB	 =	Albania		Republic of Albania
ALG	DZA	Algeria		People's Democartic Republic of Algeria
AND	 =	Andorra		Andorra
AUT	 =	Austria		Republic of Austria
AZR	???	Azores
BEL	 =	Belgium		Kingdom of Belgium
BLR	 =	Relarus		Republic of Belarus
BUL	BGR	Bulgaria	Republic of Bulgaria
CNR	???	Canary Islands
CVA	VAT	Vatican		Vatican City State (Holy See)
CYP	 =	Cypruss		Republic of Cyprus
D	DEU	Germany		Federal Republic of Germany
DDR	---	Germany		Democratic Republic of Germany
DNK	 =	Denmark		Kingdom of Denmark
E	ESP	Spain		Kingdom of Spain
EGY	 =	Egypt		Arab Republic of Egypt
F	FRA	France		French Republic
FNL	FIN	Finland		Republic of Finland
G	GBR	United Kingdom	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
GIB	 =	Gibraltar	Gibraltar
GRC	 =	Greece		Hellenic Republic
HNG	HUN	Hungary		Republic of Hungary
HOL	NLD	Netherlands	Kingdom of the Netherlands
I	ITA	Italy		Italian Republic
IRL	 =	Ireland		Ireland
IRQ	 =	Iraq		Republic of Iraq
ISL	 =	Iceland		Republic of Iceland
ISR	 =	Israel		State of Israel
JOR	 =	Jordan		Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
LBN	 =	Lebanon		Lebanese Republic
LBY	 =	Libya		Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
LIE	 =	Liechtenstein	Principality of Liechtenstein
LUX	 =	Luxembourg	Principality of Luxembourg
MAR	MTQ	Martinique	Department of Martinique
MCO	 =	Monaco		Principality of Monaco
MLT	 =	Malta		Republic of Malta
MRC	MAR	Morocco		Kingdom of Morocco
NOR	 =	Norway		Kingdom of Norway
POL	 =	Poland		Republic of Poland
POR	PRT	Portugal	Portugese Republic
ROU	ROM	Romania		Romania
S	SWE	Sweden		Kingdom of Sweden
SM	SMR	San Marino	Republic of San Marino
SUI	CHE	Switzerland	Swiss Confederation
SYR	 =	Syria		Syrian Arab Republic
TCH	???
TUN	 =	Tunisia		Republic of Tunisia
TUR	 =	Turkey		Republic of Turkey
UKR	 =	Ukraine		Ukraine
URS	???
YUG	 =	Yugoslavia	Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

If anyone should have a more up-to-date list, or some suggestions for the missing countries, please let me know.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Jim Main for much of the information on this page.
This page was created on 12 August 1996. It was last updated 11 April 1997.
Please send comments to Robin O'Leary pdc at ro dot nu
Copyright (C)1996--2004 Robin O'Leary. All rights reserved.