Hundreds of thousands of homes in the South West will need to retune their Freeview boxes and TV sets tomorrow, thanks to 4G.
Around 900,000 homes in areas including Bath, Bristol and Stroud will be affected by the retune which starts at midnight tonight. BBC One, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Film4 and Yesterday will be among the channels affected.
The Mendip transmitter and its 30 relays along with the Stockland Hill transmitter and the two relays at Bampton and Culm Valley will retune tomorrow to make way for the eventual deployment of 4G mobile broadband.
Read Recombu Digital’s report on the 4G Freeview Fail
On March 27, the Mendip transmitter and its 30 relays will retune, as will the Bampton and Culm Valley relays for the Stockland Hill transmitter.
Work at the main Mendip, Bristol Kings Weston and Bristol Ilchester Crescent transmitters is expected to be completed by 6:00AM and viewers can retune at any point after this. Other transmitters and relays are expected to have completed their retune by late afternoon. Those who can pick up TV from more than one region may need to manually retune to pick up their preferred channels.
While the process of retuning your Freeview box or TV will differ slightly depending on what exact model you’ve got the overall process is more or less the same. Read our guide on how to retune your Digital TV receiver.
Retunes
The times when you’ll be able to retune at the Mendip relays are as follows:
After 6:00AM: Bristol Ilchester Crescent, Bristol Kings Weston, Mendip,
After 11:00AM: Chilfrome, Clearwell, Coleford, Crewkerne, Crockerton, Dursley, Hutton, Kilve, Monksilver, Pillowell HP, Pillowell VP, Portishead, Stroud, Woodcombe
After 3:00PM: Box, Bristol Warmley, Bruton, Chalford Vale, Chitterne, Corsham HP, Corsham VP, Countisbury, Kewstoke, Lydbrook, Ogbourne St George, Redbrook, Washford, Westwood
The Stockland Hill relays which will retune are:
After 11:00AM: Culm Valley
After 3:00PM: Bampton.
Temporary Outages
As well as some viewers needing to retune, there’s a number of homes which will experience temporary outages. While you won’t need to retune or do anything, viewers can expect disruption in the following places until the following times.
In homes connected to these Mendip relays:
7:30AM: Bath
11:00PM: Backwell, Bristol Barton House, Bristol Montpelier, Calne, Chalford, Cirencester, Frome, Marlborough, Parkend, Porlock, Siston, Upavon, Wootton Courtenay
3:00PM: Avening, Blakeney, Burrington, Carhampton, Cerne Abbas, Chiseldon, Easter Compton, Exford, Nailsworth, Portbury, Redcliff Bay, Slad, Tintern, Ubley, West Lavington
4:00PM: Roadwater
In homes connected to these Carmel relays:
11:00PM: Penderyn
What’s next?
Relays connected to the Winter Hill, Emley Moor and The Wrekin transmitters will need to retune on April 10, 2013.
Homes getting their Freeview from the Winter Hill, Darwen, Saddleworth, Bacup, Birch Vale, Whalley, Blackburn, Prestbury, Dalton Haughton Green, Dog Hill, Skelmersdale, Mottram In Longendale, Stavely In Cartmel, Austwick, Woodnock, Broadbottom and Whaley Bridge relays will need to retune at various points throughout the day.
Those on the three Emley Moor relays affected, that’s Skipton, Keighley and Cowling, will need to retune as well.
Finally, those who get their digital terrestrial TV from the Halesown relay of The Wreckin transmitter will also need to retune on April 10.
We’ve got a short list of upcoming Freeview retunes which we’ll expand upon once more information is available from Digital UK.
Image credit: Flickr user renault9gta
Leave a Reply