Local TV - V Media coverage
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV Now a look at the provision of digital cable TV services for each of the big population areas in the UK adds another level of possibilities for Local TV coverage.
I am unable to obtain figures for the number of homes in any particular area that have cable TV services (the so-called penetration rates).
This is a map of the "cable coverage areas".
Finally a combined table of the Freeview Interleaved and Cable coverage areas.
Looks like very bad news for local TV for Hull, Lisburn, Worcester and Oldham - without satellite.
| Interleaved | # | City | BBC region HQ | ITV region HQ | population | FV | VM |
| Angus | 2 | Dundee | 154,674 | good | no | ||
| Belmont | 2 | Hull | BBC Hull | 301,416 | no | no | |
| Bilsdale | 2 | Middlesbrough | 142,691 | part | yes | ||
| Bilsdale | 2 | York | 137,505 | good | yes | ||
| Black Hill | 2 | Glasgow | BBC Scotland | STV Central | 629,501 | good | yes |
| ..& Craigkelly | 2 | Edinburgh | 430,082 | poor | yes | ||
| Caldbeck | 2 | Carlisle | ITV Border | 101,000 | good | no | |
| Caradon Hill | 2 | Plymouth | BBC South West | 243,795 | no | yes | |
| Crystal Palace | 2 | London | BBC London | ITV London | 7,172,091 | good | yes |
| Crystal Palace | 2 | Southend-on-sea | 160,257 | no | yes | ||
| Crystal Palace | 2 | Slough | 126,276 | no | yes | ||
| Crystal Palace | 2 | Watford | 120,960 | no | yes | ||
| Crystal Palace | 2 | Crawley | 100,547 | no | yes | ||
| Divis | 2 | Belfast | BBC NI | UTV | 276,459 | good | yes |
| Divis | 2 | Lisburn | 110,000 | no | no | ||
| Durris | 2 | Aberdeen | STV North | 212,125 | good | no | |
| Emley Moor | 2 | Leeds | BBC North | ITV Yorkshire | 443,247 | poor | yes |
| Emley Moor | 2 | Wakefield | 316,000 | good | yes | ||
| Emley Moor | 2 | Bradford | 293,717 | no | yes | ||
| Emley Moor | 2 | Huddersfield | 146,234 | good | yes | ||
| Emley Moor | 2 | Rotherham | 117,262 | no | yes | ||
| Fenton | 2 | Stoke-on-Trent | 259,252 | good | yes | ||
| Hannington | 2 | Reading | 232,662 | no | yes | ||
| Heathfield | 2 | Eastbourne | 106,562 | no | yes | ||
| Hemel Hempstead | 2 | St. Albans | 130,000 | good | yes | ||
| Kilvey Hill | 2 | Swansea | 169,880 | good | yes | ||
| Lancaster | 2 | Lancaster | 135,000 | good | no | ||
| Leicester | 1 | Leicester | 330,574 | no | yes | ||
| Londonderry | 2 | Londonderry | 105,000 | good | yes | ||
| Bristol KW & IC | 2 | Bristol | BBC West | ITV W Country | 420,556 | good | yes |
| Mendip | 2 | Bath | 90,000 | no | yes | ||
| Nottingham | 2 | Nottingham | BBC E Midlands | 249,584 | poor | yes | |
| Nottingham | 2 | Derby | 229,407 | no | yes | ||
| Oxford | 2 | Swindon | 155,432 | no | yes | ||
| Oxford | 2 | Oxford | BBC Oxford | 143,016 | good | yes | |
| Pontop Pike | 2 | Newcastle upon Ty | BBC North East | ITV North East | 273,600 | good | yes |
| Pontop Pike | 2 | Sunderland | 177,739 | good | no | ||
| Ridge Hill | 2 | Gloucester | 123,205 | no | yes | ||
| Ridge Hill | 2 | Cheltenham | 110,320 | no | yes | ||
| Ridge Hill | 2 | Worcester | 93,000 | no | no | ||
| Rowridge | 2 | Southampton | BBC South | ITV Meridian | 234,224 | good | yes |
| Rowridge | 2 | Portsmouth | 186,000 | no | yes | ||
| Rowridge | 2 | Bournemouth | 167,527 | no | yes | ||
| Poole | * | Poole | 144,800 | no | yes | ||
| Rowridge | 2 | Chichester | 108,000 | no | yes | ||
| Rowridge | 2 | Winchester | 108,000 | no | yes | ||
| Salisbury | 2 | Salisbury | 115,000 | good | yes | ||
| Sandy Heath | 2 | Northampton | 189,474 | no | yes | ||
| Sandy Heath | 2 | Luton | 185,543 | no | yes | ||
| Sandy Heath | 2 | Milton Keynes | 184,506 | no | no | ||
| Sandy Heath | 2 | Peterborough | 136,292 | no | yes | ||
| Sandy Heath | 2 | Cambridge | BBC Cambridge | 113,442 | no | yes | |
| Sheffield | 2 | Sheffield | 439,866 | good | yes | ||
| Stockland Hill | 2 | Exeter | 106,772 | no | yes | ||
| Sudbury | 2 | Ipswich | 138,718 | no | yes | ||
| Sudbury | 2 | Colchester | 104,390 | no | yes | ||
| Sutton Coldfield | 2 | Birmingham | BBC W Midlands | ITV Central | 970,892 | part | yes |
| Sutton Coldfield | 2 | Coventry | 303,475 | no | yes | ||
| Sutton Coldfield | 2 | Wolverhampton | 251,462 | no | yes | ||
| Sutton Coldfield | 2 | Dudley | 184,619 | no | yes | ||
| Sutton Coldfield | 2 | Walsall | 170,994 | no | yes | ||
| Sutton Coldfield | 2 | West Bromwich | 136,940 | no | yes | ||
| Sutton Coldfield | 2 | Sutton Coldfield | 105,452 | good | yes | ||
| Tacolneston | 2 | Norwich | BBC East | ITV Anglia | 174,047 | part | yes |
| The Wrekin | 2 | Telford | 138,241 | good | yes | ||
| Wenvoe | 2 | Cardiff | BBC Wales | ITV Wales | 292,150 | good | yes |
| Wenvoe | 2 | Newport | 116,143 | good | yes | ||
| Whitehawk Hill | 2 | Brighton | 256,600 | good | yes | ||
| Winter Hill | 3 | Liverpool | 469,017 | good | yes | ||
| Winter Hill | 3 | Manchester | BBC North West | ITV Granada | 394,269 | good | yes |
| Winter Hill | 3 | Salford | 221,300 | good | yes | ||
| Winter Hill | 3 | Preston | 184,836 | good | yes | ||
| Winter Hill | 3 | Blackpool | 142,283 | good | yes | ||
| Winter Hill | 3 | Bolton | 139,403 | no | yes | ||
| Winter Hill | 3 | Stockport | 136,082 | no | yes | ||
| Winter Hill | 3 | Blackburn | 105,085 | no | yes | ||
| Winter Hill | 3 | Oldham | 103,544 | no | no | ||
| Winter Hill | 3 | St. Helens | 102,629 | no | yes | ||
| Winter Hill* | 5* | Chester | 118,000 | good | no |
Help with TV/radio stations?
In this section
Thursday, 10 March 2011
P
Phil7:45 AM
Scarborough
Hi Brian, not sure how accurate that Virgin Media coverage map is. It indicates they cover Scarborough, when they most certainly don't.
| link to this comment |
Phil's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Phil: It was supplied by Virgin Media. I have not used it to compile the above table, which I used the Virgin Media Postcode checker system to check.
| link to this comment |
P
Phil8:08 AM
Scarborough
Hi Brian, yes I just looked on Virgin Media's site and they have the same map.
Thinking about it years ago one of VM's predecessors Cable & Wireless cabled the town and then decided not to offer any cable services. They were digging the roads up from months and gridlocked the whole town. Maybe that's where the mistake is coming from?
When they completed their cable laying and then didn't offer any services there was a rumour that it was all a ruse just to get cable up to the Middlesbrough area. Not sure if there's any truth in that though?
| link to this comment |
Phil's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Phil: That makes no sense at all. Cable services are fed from head-ends, not "via" streets in other towns.
I can't understand why Cable and Wireless would put in all the street ducts and then not use them to provide a service.
| link to this comment |
P
Phil8:29 AM
Scarborough
Oh right. Well it was only a rumour at the time. It is very strange.
They didn't just lay the cable in the town they did it in a lot of outlying villages as well. There was even an article in the local paper at the time saying we were about to get cable, but after months of traffic gridlock it never happened.
At a guess I'd say they are missing out on around 70,000 potential customers.
| link to this comment |
Phil's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Phil: They don't actually lay "cable" when they dig the roads up, they dig ducts that cables can be fitted into.
In the jargon these become "homes passed". The actual cable only gets installed when a customer requests service, usually this is dual cable - half coaxial for the TV and broadband services and half twisted pair for a phone line.
The cables go to the nearest "headend" which is usually a box in the street, sometimes a box in the ground.
The networks are "star networks" from the headend to the homes. The headends are connected back to the "central office" in the town using fibre-optic.
| link to this comment |
P
Phil9:22 AM
Scarborough
Oh right. Any idea why they'd dig ducts and not offer the service? Maybe they ran out of money half way through?
What would VM have to do to start offering their service then?
| link to this comment |
Phil's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Phil: I think when the companies consolidated they decided not to extend their network any more.
It could be that the work was incomplete and was abandoned at a point where the capital costs to provide customer service were more than the possible profits.
| link to this comment |
P
Phil1:28 PM
Scarborough
Yes, you could be right. Just a shame they half did the job and then gave up.
I have just emailed the VM cable my street department to ask. Obviously they know about it at some level, as their coverage map shows. We'll see if they get back to me.
Thanks for all the info. You have taught me a few things I had no clue about regarding cable.
| link to this comment |
Phil's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Phil: The cable companies didn't do themselves any favours when they did their installations. They dug up pavements, killed trees and blowing up the odd old lady's house.
Having local cable companies against a national satellite provider was never really going to work, and the rise of mobiles undid the ideas of profit from telephony.
Even in cities that "have cable" there are huge holes in the provision to this day.
| link to this comment |
Saturday, 12 March 2011
Josh
8:49 PM
Scunthorpe
8:49 PM
Scunthorpe
Braintist: How typical do you think it is that the house where my aunty lives is so close to getting Virgin Media's services but can't because the cable thingy ends at their neighbour's house and Virgin Media refuse to extend it to her house dispite being just literally next door?
| link to this comment |
Josh's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 14 March 2011
D
Des Collier7:05 PM
Brigg
BRIAN-Cable services around are also very hit & miss,parts of scunny itself has cable while the outlying villages(including where i live)have not even been wired up.
| link to this comment |
Des's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Des Collier: Yes, this is very true. In Brighton and Hove, for example, Cable and Wireless were forbidden from doing installations in the "Conservation Areas", of which we have quite a lot.
The purpose of the table was to calculate the areas where cable coverage is non-existent (or in the case of Milton Keynes, out of date).
| link to this comment |
Josh: Virgin Media have made a corporate decision not to expand their network beyond existing connected properties for financial reasons.
As I mentioned above, the cables networks are star-networks from the local head-end, so it isn't just a case of being able to "chuck a cable over the wall", but requires a connection back to the local box.
It is very frustrating in situations such as the one you list, but the current capital investment rules have lead Virgin Media to their current policy, however mad it might seem.
| link to this comment |
P
Phil9:43 PM
Scarborough
Hi Brian, got my reply back from VM. Just thought I would share it.
Thank you for your enquiry regarding Virgin Media providing digital services at your home.
Unfortunately this area is too far from our existing network to be cabled by our infill activity.
To cable this area would require a major network extension. At this time, there are no immediate plans to extend the network into new areas if this requires main build - as this is very expensive. As we find new ways of serving areas such as this that are outwith the existing network, we will look at your request further and may be able to include this in build programmes in future years. However at this time, we will not be able to provide cable service to this area.
I appreciate this is not good news, but be assured our team have investigated this and will continue to look for other solutions that may help us achieve this in the future.
| link to this comment |
Phil's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Phil: What is more-or-less as I said. But not helpfully for you.
| link to this comment |
Sunday, 20 March 2011
J
Jon5:54 PM
Hi Brian. Surely it's not as bad as you thought for Worcester? Most of the city is covered by Malvern, with good coverage predicted. The rest is divided between Sutton, the Wrekin, Bromsgrove and Ridge Hill.
| link to this comment |
Monday, 21 March 2011
Jon: Not with the Interleaved Frequencies available for Local TV.
| link to this comment |
J
Jon2:27 PM
Briantist: I don't understand... The Malvern map shows good coverage for Worcester. Would the local mux not go on C51, which is in the pre-DSO aerial group of C/D? What would be wrong with that? Sorry if I am missing something obvious -- I appreciate your time explaining.
| link to this comment |
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Peter: I'm sorry, but the map is provided by Virgin. I'm not sure what I can possibly do about that.
| link to this comment |
Hi all,
That map isn't 'coverage' it is a map of cable franchise areas where Virgin Media hold the licence. In reality the actual coverage will be nowhere near what the map suggests. In the 80s, the Cable Authority, and then in the early 90s, the ITC licenced various local/regional cable companies. Through various takeovers and mergers these are now Virgin Media, with the exception of Wright Cable on the Isle of Wight and Small World in Lancashire area.
Obviously a lot of areas where never licenced, or failed to launch as there is a lot of white space. Sadly most of it in rural areas!
| link to this comment |
Ash: The map was provided to me with the exact wording provided.
| link to this comment |
Hi Brian,
I am not having a go at you, I was just saying it's a franchise map, that's all.
Ash :-)
| link to this comment |
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Ash: OK. I did say that the table was compiled from using address hits on the Virgin Media database, and not the map.
| link to this comment |
Josh
1:57 PM
Scunthorpe
1:57 PM
Scunthorpe
@Briantist: If the UK was a lot smaller, say as small as Belgium or The Netherlands, I bet it would be much easier for us to have close to or even 100% cable coverage even in rural areas.
| link to this comment |
Josh's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Well - given the USA has cable in the middle of nowhere I think we could do it - trouble is we think underground all the time, whilst the US has cables above ground in many rural areas.
The comment regarding Kingston-upon-Hull - why wouldn't their local telco take on the supply of Channel 6?
| link to this comment |
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
James: Virgin Media do not own the service in Hull, and this page is about Virgin Media.
| link to this comment |
Sunday, 14 August 2011
A
Andy Pandy9:19 AM
Southampton Area, Virgin Media are pulling the plug on the existing services, going to the extent of having TV aerials fitted for thier customers. The system is in a bad state of repair some of the steel roadside boxes are badly rusted and are well beyond use, in addtion new Virgin customers get a phone line from BT, from this I'd say the Virgin system in Southampton is more or less abandoned. Unless you know something we dont!
| link to this comment |
Monday, 2 July 2012
hi, Caradon hill will have FV and VM, the ITV region is ITV Westcountry; please ammend.
| link to this comment |
tim: This article is about local TV ("Channel 6") not ITV ("Channel 3"). The table only lists ITV regions where the site hosts the broadcasting center. Otherwise see the Transmitters | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice page.
| link to this comment |
Monday, 9 July 2012
D
Des Collier6:03 PM
Brigg
Cable services in Hull are owned by KINGSTON COMMUNICATIONS if i remember rightly.
| link to this comment |
Des's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 27 January 2013
L
lynne12:33 PM
hi, i am having so many issues with sky, please can someone tell me if virgin tv is available in lincolnshire yet
| link to this comment |
lynne: Lincolnshire is a massive place, so I guess that the answer is likely to be "yes". However, perhaps you are looking to find out whether it is available at your property rather than in the County in general.
Cable networks (most of which have now been swallowed up by Virgin Media) go along streets where it is worthwhile, i.e. usually not in rural areas.
Sam Knows is a popular resource for such information:
SamKnows - Telephone Exchange Search
Where a street has been cabled there will be evidence in the form of cabinets and manholes with "CATV" on. The cabinets may have Telewest or ntl logos on.
| link to this comment |
lynne: Go to the Virgin Media website and enter your postcode into the box on the right, under the heading "Start building your bundle":
Virgin Media - Cable broadband, TV & phone plus mobile broadband & phone
| link to this comment |
Monday, 4 February 2013
Sunday, 17 March 2013
M
mike10:55 PM
With the recent changeover, we, in the worthing end of West Sussex have now to tune in to BBC south East ie East Sussex and Kent. Is there any way we can go back to BBC South
| link to this comment |
mike: See:
Brighton transmitters will be in BBC South East from 7th March 2012 | Digital switchover | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
BBC South East officially covers Brighton now.
The question is which transmitter are you supposed to be using (based on the direction of your aerial)? And can you receive from a transmitter that broadcasts BBC South, such as Rowridge or Findon?
| link to this comment |
Monday, 18 March 2013
K
KMJ,Derby11:10 AM
mike: The Findon relay had its coverage increased considerably at switchover. Try a manual tune on C44 for BBC South, after first checking in the 800s of the channel list in case it is already there. Failing that you might need an additional aerial, further advice could be given after a reception prediction check using your postcode or one of a nearby public building.
| link to this comment |
Tuesday, 4 June 2013
A
Arfur 1:35 AM
Scarborough is shown on the map because VM do have a VM Business Carrier Network route which runs through there: tlw105-VRB
| link to this comment |
