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Will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters?

The short answer is no; as that seems unreasonable, here is a longer answer.

The short answer is no; as that seems unreasonable, here is a l
published on UK Free TV

The digital terrestrial service that is known today as Freeview, started life in Parliament as the Broadcasting Act 1996.

Part I act gave the regulator, then the Independent Television Commission, the authority to establish digital terrestrial television services in the UK, and paved the way for a "six multiplex" service. One multiplex was reserved for the BBC, a second jointly between the "Channel 3 licence holder", Channel 4, Gaelic programming in Scotland plus Teletext UK as the "national teletext provider"

One half of the third multiplex was passed to Channel 5 and the S4C Corporation, with the remaining three and a half being put up for a public auction. The ITC duly awarded the remaining three multiplexes to "British Digital Broadcasting" in 1997, which was a combination of two big ITV companies at the time, Carlton and Granada.

British Digital Broadcasting, ONdigital and ITV Digital

On Sunday 15th November 1998, the services was launched under the name "ONdigital", a mixture of free-to-air and pay services, and rather dwarfed by the launch six weeks earlier of the much superior Sky Digital service.

ONdigital renamed itself ITVdigital on 11th July 2001, but the woollen monkey toy in the adverts proved more popular than the service, and the service closed on 1st May 2002.

It became clear (especially to BBC director-general Greg Dyke, pictured right) that the digital terrestrial service was popular with viewers, but it was unsuitable as a pay-TV platform.

ITVdigital handed back three multiplex licences to the ITC, and the ITC then re-awarded one to the BBC and the other two to Crown Castle International, a company formed when the BBC's engineering division was sold off.

A company, DTV Services, formed to publicise the new service, which was now called Freeview.

Sky joined in, and purchased slots on the new service (from CCI) for Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Travel. Also there from the start of Freeview was Flextech Television "ftn", music channel TMF, UKTV's UK History and UK Bright Ideas, and shopping channel, QVC

Digital switchover process

When it was decided that the analogue television signals would be turned off, the BBC, as it funded by a universal fee decided that it must provide the two multiplexes of services to all homes.

Ofcom, now the regulator, decreed that the multiplex shared by Channel 3 and Channel 4 (called "Digital 3 and 4 Ltd") must also provide service to all homes that had analogue. This was because Channel 4 already provided this level of coverage, and as the licence holder for Channel 3 has "public service obligations", the broadcasting of multiplex 2 should also extend to all existing TV masts.

However, for the commercial multiplexes, Ofcom simply invited Crown Castle Ltd and S4C Digital Networks (SDN) to apply to extend their networks. Ofcom, having granted the multiplex licences already, felt it had no legal power of compulsion to insist more homes were served, and in December 2006 announced that no application had been received - at this point Ofcom no longer planned for additional frequencies for the commercial multiplexes.

Both commercial operators decided that the cost of providing the equipment, installation and ongoing operation of services from the 1,000 smaller transmitters would cost more than any additional revenue they could get from the TV channels that rent their broadcast capacity, as the work would only expand the actual number of homes broadcast to by 9%.

Since this time, S4C Digital Networks multiplex was bought by ITV plc, and Arqiva acquired the CCI multiplexes. For this reason the commercial multiplexes are known as SDN, ArqA and ArqB.

The map shows the locations where Freeview Light service is generally the only Freeview reception option.

See also: Where are the public service (Freeview Light) transmitters?









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Comments
Thursday, 20 July 2017
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:40 PM

Richard Keirle: I suspect you're referring to the Logical Channel Numbers (LCN) rather than frequencies changing, although there is still no shuffling of LCNs every few weeks. When channels close, other channels will take their number (with priority given to other channels belonging to the same broadcaster, then neighbouring channels), if this didn't happen there would be lots of gaps in the channel list (and Freeview would have run out of numbers in the entertainment section long ago). The only times that there is a requirement to return is when a channel moves to a different multiplex (although if you don't watch that channel it won't affect anything else if you don't retune) or to enable you to receive a new channel which has been added. If you decide not to retune when channel numbers (LCNs) change, your channels will simply remain on the old numbers until next time you retune.

LCN changes will never stop happening because they are necessary when new channels are added and closed ones removed. It is worth nothing that there is a major change taking place on 2nd August where channels in the News, Childrens, Streamed and Adult sections will move to new numbers (see
Freeview Channel Change Day 2017 announced - a516digital
for details) although if you don't retune, those channels will simply continue on their old numbers until the next time you retune.

Most newer TVs and set top boxes take care of these changes automatically, avoiding the need to retune manually for most changes.

link to this comment
StevensOnln1's 3,671 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 10 January 2018
A
Alice Stevenson
4:57 PM

Hi there
I feel compelled to comment on the paltry freeview channels currently offered in the Dumfries and Galloway region of Scotland. I myself live in Kent and enjoy upwards of 70 available channels. My sister however in Scotland receives significantly less.

For the life of me I cannot understand this discrepancy between the 2 halfs of the country. So many times I've seen programmes I know she would like only to be reminded the channels aren't available to her.

In this day and age I find this completely unacceptable. They are in fact being treated as second class citizens. It's almost as if they are being pushed into paying for additional broadcasters to have a little bit of enjoyment the rest of us take for granted.

Much as I love Scotland this poor service would deter me from taking up residence there. Very disappointing state of affairs.

Kind regards
Alice


link to this comment
Alice Stevenson's 1 post GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:32 PM

Alice Stevenson: Scotland's cities (where most of the country's population live) have almost exactly the same channels available on Freeview that you have in Kent (these channels are broadcast from 80 transmitter which cover around 90% of UK households). The channels which are not available at your sister's location are operated by commercial broadcasters who do not think it is viable to broadcast their channels from smaller transmitters that cover relatively few homes. This is the reality of commercial broadcasting and has nothing to do with anyone being treated as second class citizens and doesn't affect anywhere close to half the country. Nearly all of the same channels are available free to air on satellite for the one off cost of a Freesat box, dish and cabling (if not already present) with no ongoing subscription cost. No one is pushed into paying for Sky or cable, it is down to individual households if they wish to pay for additional subscription channels, no one has to pay to get the channels available on Freeview (other than the TV Licence).

link to this comment
StevensOnln1's 3,671 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 20 March 2018
E
E.Montague
1:30 PM

I live in the transmitter area of Millburn Mews , G83 and the service we have is appalling!
we have around 22T.V. channels most of which consist of Ceebees & Big Bang Theory, as we pay the same T.V. licence fee as everyone else in the UK. we should receive the same channels despite the previous comments of commercial broadcasters, this is completely untrue as "How do you explain a few miles away in Dumbarton" G82 area , they receive a lot more channels. When this particular Mast was manned we had no problems, now we have to wait 24 hours+ as is the case today, we have had no television of radio since yesterday afternoon and yet when you investigate on-line(that is not available to everyone) you read the signal is very good.
It is high time people like myself got together with a petition to the BBC or whoever the authority if now to reduce our t.v .licence as we Second Class citizens in comparison to the rest of the UK. We do have a choice which is to remain unattached to any contract with Sky or Virgin, despite what Alice Stevenson's comments saying no-one has to pay, that is correct. Therefore give us what the rest of the UK receive for the same licence fee!!!

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E.Montague's 1 post GB flag
M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:23 PM

E.Montague: We've heard this lots of times on this website, and the answer is simple - your not 2nd close citizens and you are getting exactly what you are paying for with your licence fee.

You want more channels? Move or get Freesat. The commercial reality is that your not worth broadcasting to by most channels - the cost is too high per person. Thats a business reality. Get Freesat, and you can watch them all.

As for your signal problems, thats almost certainly to do with your system - if the transmitter is working fine, then it has to be you.

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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 29 May 2018
I
Isbjorn
12:27 PM

Regarding the responses above regarding it not being worthwhile for 'commercial' operators to increase the number of channels/multiplexes:- well, that might be an acceptable argument for purely 'commercial' channels. BUT, and I would like to use BBC4HD as an example - BBC4HD is NOT a commercial channel, but West Cumbrians cannot receive it from the Whitehaven transmitter - instead we get repeats of the 'commercial' channels iTV, C4 and Film4, delayed by an hour (ITV+1, C4+1 and Film4+1) - so that appears to me as if the 'commercial' operators are 'pumping' their stuff, twice, on the public broadcast multiplex, instead of giving us free choice of new, BBC, material, which we licence payers DO pay for?

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Isbjorn's 1 post GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:11 PM

Isbjorn: The BBC do no have sufficient capacity available to broadcast BBC Four HD on the PSB3 mux, which is why it is on COM8. The capacity used for the channels you mention belongs to ITV and Channel 4 and would not be available for any BBC services (and it wouldn't be enough for a HD channel anyway).

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StevensOnln1's 3,671 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 30 May 2018
J
John Robinson
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

10:20 AM

Actually I think it's a fair question as to why BBC4 HD isn't on PSB3. The BBC transmit CBBC HD on PSB3 in the daytime, why can't they transmit BBC4 HD in the same slot in the evenings - just as they used to transmit BBC3 HD in that slot?

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John Robinson's 43 posts GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:47 PM

John Robinson: CBBC HD ends at 9pm but BBC Four HD starts at 7pm, so there isn't sufficient capacity available.

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StevensOnln1's 3,671 posts GB flag
Mark A
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:03 PM

Why 'o why have they got the Sewing Quarter on Freeview Light.
This channel is off air before 8am and off air after 4pm.
Most people that work or go to school are out from 8am to 4pm.

This channel is using bandwidth for 24 hours.
(Not a digital caption when off, like BBC 4)
And as for the program quality.....
it's less entertaining than channel 100.
See sewingquarter.com

Please Ofcom move this rubbish to the full Freeview transmitters only or just remove it.
And replace it with somthing better.
EG. Pick, Dave, Yesterday, Drama, CBS action, Movies4Men, Tru movies, Sky news, ...

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Mark A's 374 posts GB flag
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