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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
Monday, 24 December 2018
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:40 PM

Michael Hampton: You could look at getting Freesat for your mother, which would give her most of the channels available on Freeview (any many others) via free to air satellite (i.e. without paying a subscription to Sky etc)

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StevensOnln1's 3,671 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 16 April 2019
N
Nedbod
6:53 PM

StevensOnln1: Beware that Channel 4 no longer broadcast any HD sevices on Freesat and have also withdrawn their ALL 4 catch up service too.

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Nedbod's 6 posts GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:13 PM

Nedbod: I am well aware that Channel 4 HD and All4 were removed from Freesat last year, as I use it ever day on our main TV. It is still the best option for viewers who cannot receive the full lineup of Freeview channels and do not wish to subscribe to Sky or Virgin.

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StevensOnln1's 3,671 posts GB flag
Thursday, 9 January 2020
C
Chas Turner
7:18 PM

When will the channels of Forces tv , Smithsonian , PBS , Free sport come to be available to
Quenington Gloucestershire .
Grateful for any info
Thanks

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Chas Turner's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:32 PM

Chas Turner:

Well that will depend upon which transmitter you get your signals from. You might have a choice of Mendip or Oxford, maybe even Hannington. If the latter, you might be lucky to get any reception.
If your aerial is pointed roughly E towards Oxford or SW towards Mendip you might get all multiplexes, not so if it's pointing ~SE towards Hannington. But that's mostly guesswork. A full postcode is needed to look at the predicted reception at your location.

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Chris.SE's 4,363 posts GB flag
Saturday, 11 January 2020
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:47 AM

Chris.SE, Chas Turner:

Quenington is near Lechlade and Fairford. Therefore there is little possibility of them getting any useful signals from either Hannington or Mendip - they are just far too far away. Oxford may be possible though. Checking the post code for the Village Hall shows that the preferred transmitter is Oxford.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:36 PM

MikeP:

I do know where it is, I'm not stupid. And looking at reception for the Local Pub shows Good reception from Mendip!! So as I said, it's a bit of guesswork without a full postcode!

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Chris.SE's 4,363 posts GB flag
Sunday, 12 January 2020
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:06 AM

Chris.SE:

You obviously don't know the area very well. I lived in Swindon for some years and have a friend living in Lechlade, so I do know the geography of the area. Reception from Mendip will be vitually impossible because of the height variation and hills between Mendip and the area.

The tone of your remarks is unacceptable.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:34 AM
Cirencester

MikeP:

I find your constant contradiction totally unacceptable. Whilst we know that the Freeview coverage checker might have its shortcomings, the precise location can have a marked difference depending on which particular hills happen to be on the line of sight. That's clearly proven by the fact that small variations in postcode can give very different results.
I stated VERY clearly that the predicted reception for the local pub GL7 5BL was good for Mendip, I also said that as far as reception for Chas Turner, it was guesswork without a full postcode. That was ALL very CLEAR. To try and claim that is untrue is NOT ACCEPTABLE. I don't know what checker you used, but the Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker does NOT give "preferred" transmitters.

For the Village Hall GL7 5BS it gives the "most likely" transmitter being Oxford BUT it also gives GOOD reception for some muxes from Mendip, better than Oxford for COMs 7&8. If you don't specify the House name/no: the predicted reception for all muxes from Mendip is good, showing that there is significant variation even within this postcode!
For the Pub, The Keepers Arms GL7 5BL it gives the "most likely" transmitter as Mendip with reception of all muxes except COM7 being good with the SDN mux being considerably better than from Oxford. If you don't specify the House name/no: the muxes apart from COM7 are marginally better, so yet again showing variation even within this postcode.

As I'm sure you know, Mendip and Oxford are two different regions, so depending on Chas Turner's postcode & house name/no: he MAY have a choice, as I originally stated, and that choice may be dependant on his preferred region as well as reliability of reception, and as I said it is otherwise guesswork.
I made no technical errors in my comments, so I politely suggest you stop being a petty nit-picker.

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Chris.SE's 4,363 posts GB flag
Chris.SE's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:38 AM

Chris.SE:

Gom get a l;ife and accept that many others disagree with you. QED.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
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