Full Freeview on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 53.625,-2.516 or 53°37'30"N 2°30'56"W |  | BL6 6SL |
The symbol shows the location of the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter which serves 2,690,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.
Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) mast?
Winter Hill transmitter - Winter Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 18/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
_______
Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-2 16QAM 2K 3/4 18.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Winter Hill transmitter broadcast?
If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
| Mux | H/V | Frequency | Height | Mode | Watts |
| PSB1 BBCA | H max | C32 (562.0MHz) | 726m | DTG- | 100,000W |
 1 BBC One (SD) North West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others | |||||
| PSB2 D3+4 | H max | C34 (578.0MHz) | 726m | DTG- | 100,000W |
 3 ITV 1 (SD) (Granada), 4 Channel 4 (SD) North ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 North ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Granada), 71 That’s 60s, | |||||
| PSB3 BBCB | H max | C35- (585.8MHz) | 726m | DTG- | 100,000W |
 46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD North West, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Granada), 104 Channel 4 HD North ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others | |||||
| COM4 SDN | H max | C29 (538.0MHz) | 726m | DTG-8 | 100,000W |
 20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others | |||||
| COM5 ArqA | H max | C31 (554.0MHz) | 726m | DTG-8 | 100,000W |
 11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others | |||||
| COM6 ArqB | H max | C37 (602.0MHz) | 726m | DTG-8 | 100,000W |
 12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others | |||||
| LM | H -20dB | C40 (626.0MHz) | 572m | DTG-12 | 1,000W |
 from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Manchester, | |||||
| LL | H -17dB | C24 (498.0MHz) | 572m | DTG-12 | 2,000W |
 from 30th June 2014: 7 Bay TV Liverpool, | |||||
| LPR | H -20dB | C56 (754.0MHz) | 572m | DTG-12 | 1,000W |
 from 1st October 2014: 7 That's Lancashire, | |||||
| GIM | H -20dB | C57 (762.0MHz) | 572m | DTG-2 | 1,000W |
 Now 90s, Spotlight TV, Clubland TV, Country Music Entertainment , Classic Hits MCR, 77 That's 60s MCR, 78 TCC, 80 That's 80s, 86 That's 90s MCR, 88 TV Warehouse+1, | |||||
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-2 16QAM 2K 3/4 18.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Winter Hill transmitter?
BBC North West Tonight 3.1m homes 11.8%
from Salford M50 2QH, 22km southeast (140°)
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.
ITV Granada Reports 3.1m homes 11.6%
from Salford M50 2EQ, 22km southeast (139°)
to ITV Granada region - 80 masts.
How will the Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1956-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2009 | 2009-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 20 Feb 2020 | ||
| VHF | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E T | W T | W T | ||
| C9 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C12 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C24 | _local | ||||||||
| C29 | SDN | ||||||||
| C31 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C32 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C34 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C35 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C37 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C40 | LOCAL2 | ||||||||
| C48 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C49tv_off | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C50tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C54tv_off | -BBCB | -BBCB | -BBCB | ||||||
| C55tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | com7tv_off | ||
| C56tv_off | _local | _local | _local | LPR | |||||
| C57tv_off | GIM | GIM | GIM | GIM | |||||
| C58tv_off | SDN | SDN | SDN | ||||||
| C59tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C61 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C62 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | |||||
| C65 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves |
tv_off Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 4 Nov 09 and 2 Dec 09.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 500kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 100kW | |
| com7 | (-12.9dB) 25.7kW | |
| com8 | (-13.4dB) 22.6kW | |
| Analogue 5 | (-16dB) 12.5kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-17dB) 10kW | |
| LL | (-24dB) 2kW | |
| GIM, LM, LPR | (-27dB) 1000W |
Local transmitter maps
Winter Hill Freeview Winter Hill DAB Winter Hill AM/FM Winter Hill TV region BBC North West GranadaWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area
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Friday, 25 October 2019
C
Chris.SE12:04 AM
Helena Mountford:
Perhaps it might have been sensible to add that unless you have a Group T / Wideband aerial you may have difficulty in getting those Local multiplexes that have moved to UHF 21 & 24 and had a power reduction. The other mux is on UHF40 which you may be getting with an old group C/D aerial, but it'll also depend on where you are as predicted reception at your location may have changed. Whilst we know there are some errors in the DigitalUK documentation regarding the Local multiplexes, not being in your area I don't know what the differences are between the G-MAN and L-MAN multiplexes, there may indeed be nothing on UHF57.
We'd need a full postcode to offer any sensible advice on your best course of action.
Providing you don't have Satellite or Cable TV you might get free help by contacting the Freeview Advice line on 0808-100-0288 where they could offer to send an engineer to replace your aerial with a Group T / Wideband which is what you'll need to have satisfactory reception of all multiplexes after the retunes next year BUT you may have to wait until the BBC multiplexes move next year if you aren't predicted to get those local multiplexes any more.
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Tuesday, 5 November 2019
B
Buster5:26 PM
Please stop playing with signal strength on winter hill transmitter you could cause a riot in Liverpool
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C
Chris.SE5:55 PM
Buster:
This site is not responsible for the transmitters or broadcasters, it's an independent help site.
According to Planned engineering works | Freeview there is Planned Maintenance -
"Granada Winter Hill Main Possible weak signal"
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Thursday, 7 November 2019
J
js12:44 AM
Two weeks on from the local multiplex frequency changes and the Winter Hill NIT is still showing all three on 754 MHz.
The responsibility presumably lies with Digital UK.
The DTT NIT seems to have been reduced to a carrier bag for LCNs and daft messages like this one: "Database right of Digital UK Ltd 2019".
They never bothered to include a decent T2-Delivery-System descriptor that showed the frequency of T2 multiplexes, thus eliminating the possibility of automatic tuning of the correct frequencies via the NIT.
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J
js12:47 AM
Eighteen months on and the monkeys that call themselves "Digital UK" still don't know they are putting out garbage.
Clearly, they are too busy patting themselves on the back, for doing such a fine job, to notice.
Here is an abbreviated version of my automated error dump:
Invalid Character Codes in the EIT off North West multiplex BBC A. Date: 2019/11/06 22:51:23
It has become apparent through observation that invalid bytes in the Freeview EIT text strings are the low-order bytes of the Unicode General Punctuation Block.
Of course only bytes less than 0x20 qualify as invalid codes in the context of EIT text strings.
Since about April 2018, the following invalid codes have been found in the Freeview EIT text items:
0x01, substitute: {0x01} -> Unicode Character: "EM QUAD" (U + 2001)
0x08, substitute: { } -> Unicode Character: "PUNCTUATION SPACE" (U + 2008)
0x0B, substitute: {} -> Unicode Character: "ZERO WIDTH SPACE" (U + 200B)
0x10, substitute: {-} -> Unicode Character: "HYPHEN" (U + 2010)
0x13, substitute: {--} -> Unicode Character: "EN DASH" (U + 2013)
0x14, substitute: {---} -> Unicode Character: "EM DASH" (U + 2014)
0x18, substitute: {L'} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2018)
0x19, substitute: {R'} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2019)
0x1C, substitute: {L''} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201C)
0x1D, substitute: {R''} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201D)
There are 553 events with invalid codes in the current EIT.
The Culprits:
Format:
service_name, number of events containing errors
BBC Radio 4 Ex, 1
Blaze, 5
ADULT Studio 66, 32
Planet Knowledge, 15
Ketchup TV, 19
RNIB Connect, 3
TBN UK, 1
Sony Movies, 10
POP, 108
Sony Channel +1, 12
POP Max, 94
Tiny Pop, 63
Sony Movies +1, 2
Sony Channel, 14
Tiny Pop, 63
Sony Movies +1, 2
Sony Channel, 14
Tiny Pop, 63
Sony Movies +1, 2
Sony Channel, 14
PBS America, 16
Events with invalid codes in the eight-day EIT off multiplex BBC A at 2019/11/06 22:51:23:
#1: BBC Radio 4 Ex, Mon 11 Nov 22:30 - 23:00: title = "Bridget Christie Minds the Gap", description = "4/4. Bridget discusses Russell Brand, wearing an {L''}end FGM{R''} badge and the women problem in politics. With Fred MacAulay. From 2015.", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D
#2: Blaze, Fri 08 Nov 16:00 - 17:00: title = "Hangar 1: The UFO Files", description = "UFOs Over Texas: Texas has been a hotbed for extraordinary UFO activity for decades. Patterns point to Texas{R'}s unique role in a larger government conspiracy.", description error byte: 0x19
...
#553: PBS America, Tue 12 Nov 08:00 - 08:35: title = "The Aviators", description = "GlasAir, Legend Cub, Terminals: We fly the GlasAir, and explore today{R'}s most popular American-manufactured light sport aircraft, The Legend Cub. Plus, how are airport terminals designed? (S4 Ep8)", Huffman coded, description error byte: 0x19
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C
Chris.SE2:08 AM
js:
If you've noticed the absolute mess they've made with various aspects of amalgamating the DigitalUK site into the Freeview site as well as other changes to the Freeview site, then you won't be surprised about the lack of any clue regarding the EIT and NIT errors. This isn't my field, but wouldn't the NIT errors be down to Arqiva rather than DUK?
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Friday, 8 November 2019
J
js11:55 PM
Chris.SE: Yes, I noticed. It's a pity the links on ukfree.tv with embedded postcodes no longer work.
I spent some time yesterday trying to track down who is responsible for the DTT NIT.
If you remember the "split-NIT", the responsibility for that was said to be DMOL and DTG. See:
"Split Nit problem - report of my meeting with Freeview"
Split Nit problem - report of my meeting with Freeview
The DMOL site is dead but not quite gone - thanks to archive.org:
"What is DMOL
DMOL, DTT Multiplex Operators Limited, is a company owned by the operators of the six digital terrestrial television (DTT) multiplexes.
It is a business to business organisation and its purpose is to provide technical platform management for the DTT platform."
DMOL | Home Page
DMOL was absorbed by Digital UK, who now seem to have been absorbed by Freeview
I didn't find any specific official claims of responsibility for the NIT.
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Thursday, 14 November 2019
J
js12:45 AM
The Digital UK monkeys still haven't updated the NIT to reflect reality.
Neither have they fixed the EIT errors they are responsible for.
Also, it seems the BBC has not dealt with the root cause of these errors.
All the BBC errors, since the vast majority of their errors were eliminated, have been of the form: {L''}some text{R''}
Here is the latest (abbreviated) automatic EIT error report:
Invalid Character Codes in the EIT off North West multiplex BBC A. Date: 2019/11/14 00:15:58
It has become apparent through observation that invalid bytes in the Freeview EIT text strings are the low-order bytes of the Unicode General Punctuation Block:
Of course only bytes less than 0x20 qualify as invalid codes in the context of EIT text strings.
Since about April 2018, the following invalid codes have been found in the Freeview EIT text items:
0x01, substitute: {0x01} -> Unicode Character: "EM QUAD" (U + 2001)
0x08, substitute: { } -> Unicode Character: "PUNCTUATION SPACE" (U + 2008)
0x0B, substitute: {} -> Unicode Character: "ZERO WIDTH SPACE" (U + 200B)
0x10, substitute: {-} -> Unicode Character: "HYPHEN" (U + 2010)
0x13, substitute: {--} -> Unicode Character: "EN DASH" (U + 2013)
0x14, substitute: {---} -> Unicode Character: "EM DASH" (U + 2014)
0x18, substitute: {L'} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2018)
0x19, substitute: {R'} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2019)
0x1C, substitute: {L''} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201C)
0x1D, substitute: {R''} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201D)
There are 601 events with invalid codes in the current EIT.
The Culprits:
Format:
service_name, number of events containing errors
BBC Radio 4, 1
Blaze, 4
ADULT Studio 66, 32
Planet Knowledge, 22
Sony Movies Action, 4
Ketchup TV, 16
RNIB Connect, 5
TBN UK, 1
Sony Movies, 16
POP, 86
Sony Channel +1, 23
POP Max, 112
Tiny Pop, 58
Sony Movies +1, 4
Sony Channel, 24
Tiny Pop, 58
Sony Movies +1, 4
Sony Channel, 24
Tiny Pop, 58
Sony Movies +1, 4
Sony Channel, 24
PBS America, 21
Events with invalid codes in the eight-day EIT off multiplex BBC A at 2019/11/14 00:15:58:
#1: BBC Radio 4, Wed 20 Nov 13:45 - 14:00: title = "50 More Things That Made the...", description = "...Modern Economy. Economists in the 1920s argued in favour of Prohibition. But economics didn't yet have the idea of the {L''}rational criminal{R''}, which helps explain why the ban was so widely flouted.", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D
#2: Blaze, Sun 17 Nov 05:00 - 05:30: title = "American Restoration", description = "Escorter Service: A rare 'Escorter' from the 1964 World{R'}s Fair scoots into the shop for a restoration. Can Rick and the crew provide a restoration that's out of this world?", description error byte: 0x19
...
#601: PBS America, Thu 21 Nov 18:30 - 19:35: title = "Plane Resurrection - Series 2", description = "B25 Mitchell: The plane of choice for the {L'}Doolittle Raid{R'} needs a major winter overhaul to be ready for the air show season, but this little lady proves to be something of a diva. (S2 Ep5)", Huffman coded, description error bytes: 0x18, 0x19
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Thursday, 21 November 2019
J
js11:03 AM
It is now four weeks since the three Winter Hill Local Multiplexes changed frequency.
Digital UK has yet to update the NIT with the new frequencies.
Digital UK has yet to fix the EPG text, of which, a summary of the errors therein follows:
Invalid Character Codes in the EIT off North West multiplex BBC A. Date: 2019/11/21 06:29:38
It has become apparent through observation that invalid bytes in the Freeview EIT text strings are the low-order bytes of the Unicode General Punctuation Block:
Of course only bytes less than 0x20 qualify as invalid codes in the context of EIT text strings.
Since about April 2018, the following invalid codes have been found in the Freeview EIT text items:
0x01, substitute: {0x01} -> Unicode Character: "EM QUAD" (U + 2001)
0x08, substitute: { } -> Unicode Character: "PUNCTUATION SPACE" (U + 2008)
0x0B, substitute: {} -> Unicode Character: "ZERO WIDTH SPACE" (U + 200B)
0x10, substitute: {-} -> Unicode Character: "HYPHEN" (U + 2010)
0x13, substitute: {--} -> Unicode Character: "EN DASH" (U + 2013)
0x14, substitute: {---} -> Unicode Character: "EM DASH" (U + 2014)
0x18, substitute: {L'} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2018)
0x19, substitute: {R'} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2019)
0x1C, substitute: {L''} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201C)
0x1D, substitute: {R''} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201D)
There are 828 invalid codes in the current EIT:
invalid code, count, percentage
0x08, 13, 1.57%
0x10, 2, 0.24%
0x14, 10, 1.21%
0x18, 17, 2.05%
0x19, 738, 89.13%
0x1C, 21, 2.54%
0x1D, 27, 3.26%
There are 663 events with invalid codes in the current EIT.
The Culprits:
Format:
service_name, number of events containing errors
CBBC, 1
BBC World Sv., 3
Blaze, 2
Blaze+1, 2
ADULT Studio 66, 32
Planet Knowledge, 18
Sony Movies Action, 4
Ketchup TV, 29
CBBC HD, 1
RNIB Connect, 5
TBN UK, 10
Sony Movies, 10
POP, 122
PBS America, 12
Sony Channel +1, 22
POP Max, 115
Tiny Pop, 55
Sony Channel, 25
Tiny Pop, 55
Sony Channel, 25
Tiny Pop, 55
Sony Channel, 25
PBS America, 18
PBS America +1, 17
Events with invalid codes in the eight-day EIT off multiplex BBC A at 2019/11/21 06:29:38:
#1: CBBC, Wed 27 Nov 18:00 - 18:20: title = "Dragons: Race to the Edge", description = "When Thor Bonecrusher is needed to rescue hostages taken by the Bandits, Snoutlout tries to help but accidentally brings to life Thor's evil twin, Anti{-}Thor, who sides with the Bandits. [S]", description error byte: 0x10
#2: BBC World Sv., Mon 25 Nov 13:32 - 13:50: title = "The Why Factor", description = "How the so-called {R''}man box{R''} can inform male behaviour. We delve into the box to reveal its contents.", description error bytes: 0x1D, 0x1D
...
#663: PBS America +1, Thu 28 Nov 21:50 - 22:50: title = "Marked Man: Martin...", description = "...Luther King and the FBI: Documentary telling the true story of how the Civil Rights leader was subjected to a campaign of intimidation by J. Edgar Hoover{R'}s FBI.", Huffman coded, description error byte: 0x19
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Wednesday, 27 November 2019
G
Gary Malliber10:55 AM
Your Freeview channel list against each frequency is now out of date since changes were made at Winter Hill in November this year.
EG. I'm not getting anything at all on CH32 (Traditional terrestrial channels in SD) but I'm now getting them on Ch50. Sky News is now on Ch49 whereas it was on Ch31.
Any chance you can update the channels against frequency list when you're able ?
Our works TV distribution system works on Winter Hill channel numbers so we have to tune to the appropriate channel number (eg ch50) in order to tune in a specific broadcast channel (eg BBC1) which is why we rely on the above list on this website to guide us (we've not found a better one).
Cheers
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