Digital Switchover: 7th September - 21st September

The Sutton Coldfield transmitter group and its 35 relays switch to digital in two stages. If you have Sky TV, Freesat from Sky or freesat on all of your TV sets you will not be affected by switchover.

However, if you haven’t yet got digital TV in your home or you have a service like Freeview, BT Vision or Top Up TV, there are two dates you will need to remember and you need to be ready before the first switchover date.

STAGE ONE – 7th September

BBC Two will go to digital and some new digital channels become available. This means that:

If you haven’t switched, you’ll lose BBC Two
The time of day you switch will depend on which relay transmitter you are watching
If you have Freeview, BT Vision or Top Up TV you’ll need to re-tune your equipment

STAGE TWO – 21st September

All the remaining analogue channels will switch to digital and the remaining digital channels will become available. This means that:

If you haven’t switched to digital, you will lose your TV service
The time of day you switch will depend on which relay transmitter you are watching
If you have Freeview, BT Vision or Top Up TV you’ll need to re-tune your equipment again.

What happens between the two switchover dates

If you have Freeview, BT Vision or Top-up TV for the first time, to watch the full range of channels between the two switchover stages you will need to switch between analogue and digital. Click here to see how to do this.

Do I need a new aerial?

Whether you need a new aerial for switchover will depend on the condition of your aerial and where you live, find out more. Some households watching main transmitters may need a wideband aerial to receive all the channels available. If you are watching the main Sutton Coldfield transmitter, after switchover you will need:

a Group B aerial to receive around 15 digital TV channels
a Group B aerial to receive more than 40 digital TV channels

What happens after switchover?

If you are watching the Sutton Coldfield transmiter group using Freeview, Top Up TV or BT Vision, you will need to re-tune your digital TV or box on this date after switchover to continue receiving all available services

Check if you are affected

"Stage One" could have been implemented years ago. Less than 5% of the population rely on analogue TV for BBC2 reception whereas millions would have benefited from earlier digital reception of the five main channels on the same channel frequency!

For some reason I'd lost ITV3 today? Coincidence?

Quick retune and it was back.

For some reason I'd lost ITV3 today? Coincidence?

Quick retune and it was back.

There are quite a few anomalies visible today and rescanning the channels doesn't always cure them.

By far the biggest change is that the old ITV1 is now where the old BBC2 used to be! This is pretty stupid since it will be shut down completely in two weeks time anyway.

Where I live reception of the main BBC digital channels is now actually worse than it was before despite the higher transmitter power. We also now have two of each of the minor BBC channels; BBC4, Parliament, BBC radio, etc. The duplicate channles are numbered 800 and above.

As usual the BBC have botched it and driven even more viewers into the waiting arms of Sky satellite.