Annoying TV channel switching

I have a fairly ancient TV set. It does not have an internet connection, for example. If I am not watching BBC, every now and then, an alert box comes up saying that unless I press the OK button within a given number of seconds the channel will change to something else. This is intensely annoying, and I do not know how to stop this behaviour. Can I presume that it does this on the receipt of a signal? Or is it some random nonsense built into the firmware? In the former case there is some hope that the signal could be filtered out. Does anybody know?

The closest I’ve witnessed is that my (Internet-connected) TV will switch to standby mode if the user hasn’t done anything (e.g. change channel or adjust the volume) for an extended period of time, e.g. 4 hours. This is controlled via the “Auto TV Off” setting in the Settings menu.

Saying that it will change channel is extremely unusual. However, there may be an option buried somewhere in the settings menu(s) to disable the feature.

Did you buy the TV from the BBC? :)

Does the TV think that you’ve set it to watch a particular programme, i.e. a particular channel at a particular time?

I have a fairly ancient TV set. It does not have an internet connection, for example.

Wow – we have different ideas of “ancient”.
My ancient television, which may no longer work, only has RF input (not even a composite, never mind anything fancier), and tuning is achieved by rotating a knob on the front (doesn’t even have presets). It’s a cathode ray as well…

I’m not planning on getting a new TV, or any TV, but if I did then the tick box item for me would be a lack of internet, Android, apps, etc. TV manufacturers are worse than mobile phone ones at keeping firmware up to date, and we generally know that mobiles are obsolete before you’ve even opened the box…this Xiaomi I’m using? Android 10, patch level February 2021. Purchased (<cough>for €1</cough>) in December 2021. I rest my case.

is extremely unusual

That’s my thinking too.
I wonder if there’s some sort of demo mode or kiosk mode setting where, after some period of inactivity, the device will revert to a specific channel?

What sort of TV is it?

What sort of TV is it?

A Blaupunkt 32/133/-WB-11B-HDP-UK bought in 2015. I have the manual. It has various menus, among which is “Channel”. This has submenus “Auto Tuning”, “Analogue Manual Tuning”, “Freeview Manual Tuning”, “Channel Edit”, “Schedule List”, “Signal Information” and “CI Information”. I have not yet found anything relevant to the problem in hand, but I have not searched all that hard. There is a “Software Update (USB)” submenu of the “Setup” Menu.

Schedule list. See if you have scheduled something.

The only thing I can think of that might elicit this prompt is where the TV has a recording option, maybe to a USB attached drive. If you have somehow told it to record a program that isn’t on the channel you are watching at the time it would warn you to change channel before the start time of the recording – as there is only one tuner usually, so it can only record from the currently viewed channel.

Thanks for the suggestions. The Schedule list is empty. I did try to record to a memory stick once, but it didn’t. I have removed the stick, just in case its presence was relevant. Before changing channel it puts up a box saying "You have set a condition … ", though I have done nothing. I suppose I could try a factory reset.

It’s a cathode ray as well…

The last surviving one like that was a “portable” that sat on the chest of drawers in the bedroom.
It didn’t survive the descent from there when I tripped one night and bumped against it. Case and boards broken¹ but not the tube…

¹ Plus my big toe, which hurt/ached for a good six months