I can't get Freeview yet, when will it start in my area?

Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV 2nd October 2014 at 12:19

See Your analogue shutdown date

General:In the UK there are over 1,100 TV transmitters. Around 40 of these transmitters serve very large areas with a single strong signal. However the majority are smaller transmitters that "fill in" the signals where the terrain is hilly.

82 of these transmitters carry the Freeview service at the moment. From my understanding, there is still considerable discussion going on about the technical challenge and the cost of upgrading these to carry Freeview.

The reason for this is because it may be considerably cheaper for some areas that are served by a large number of low-power transmitters to switched off, and satellite reception be provided to each home in these areas.

The cost savings of removing the transmitter from service, possible resale to mobile phone companies, and the savings associated with not having to do an expensive transmitter upgrade can be used to fund the equipment and installations of the homes served.

However, this may not be practicable in some areas, because the Astra satellites appears to be lower down in the sky in Scotland than in the South of England. This makes satellite reception more problematic in the very areas it may be supposed to be "filling in".

Because the Freeview service has been developed using low-power signals of frequencies that could not have been used for new analogue services, this also makes adding in Freeview services a technical challenge.

For example, if the people living in your area were given a six-month timeframe to switch over everyone from analogue to Freeview what would happen? This may have to be done so that the frequencies used for the analogue TV could then be reallocated for Freeview services elsewhere.

If new set-top boxes were subsidized, for example, how could this be done in a fair way? There are not just the technical issues, but also general training and assistance for those who need it too.

So is not so much that some areas are "forgotten", more "not yet assessed". I suspect that we will have to await the outcome of the research in the next year from the various government departments and bodies that have been given the task of organising the switchover to digital TV.

Meanwhile, you can still get a digital satellite box from Sky for £120 without subscription, and get the £23.50 card for itv-1, Channel 4 and five.

North Cornwall: You may be well advised to consider digital satellite, because I suspect that it going to be a long time (if ever) that the areas around the north Cornwall coast get "filled in".

Eastbourne: Because of the Freeview frequency plan, the transmitters around the south coast are on very low power, because the signals cannot interfere with TV transmissions in France and Belgium. Therefore you can be quite confident that Freeview will not be available in this area for some time.