Five tips for when you are buying a new TV to watch Freeview or Freesat

How long will Freeview and Freesat continue?

About us: Backed by the major broadcasters, Freeview and Freesat have the medium term as secure as might be possible. But what will they be showing in 2025?

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Just how free is UK television?

About us: Freeview? Freesat? Free and Easy? Where does the over 9 billion pounds a year for non-subscription TV come from?

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Why do less than one in five people with an HD set watch in HD?

High definition: Research has shown that after over a decade of high definition television (HDTV) broadcasts, only 17% of people watch high definition TV channels. This is when three-quarters of UK homes has an HDTV as their main TV set. Why is this?

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UK Free TV site improvements

About us: The ongoing - now 15 years - of updates to UK Free TV continues.

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Upcoming Freeview transmitter changes 2017 to 2020

700Mhz clearance: Listed in this article are all the UK’s main Freeview transmitters, for each one is a list of the channel frequency numbers, and below them the latest expected date of changes, and the various changes.

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Scottish Borders: changes to Freeview, retune on March 1st 2017

at700 Freeview changes: If you live in the Scottish Borders, your Freeview box should retune itself today: however older boxes sometimes need a helping hand to retune themselves. And some people might find their aerial needs changing.

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BBC salami-slicing returns to overnight services?

BBC Charter 2017: Tony Hall, the BBC boss, promised first that the licence fee settlement was "cash neutral" and then that there would be no "salami-slicing" of services. So why have overnight TV and radio services been cut?

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When will I get a new Freeview aerial because of even more mobile broadband?

4G and Freeview: What is going to happen during the 700MHz clearance? To make way for more mobile broadband in 2020, millions of Freeview viewers are going to need to act. A very few will need a new aerial. Will that be you?

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Which 45 masts transmit the 15 new national DAB radio stations?

Digital radio: Find out about the new radio station you can listen to on the Sound Digital National and trail local services in Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, London, Norwich, Portsmouth and Woking.

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BBC Local Radio on Freeview

Freeview news: The range of BBC local radio services on Freeview has been extended to provide coverage for almost all of them.

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All five public service channels now free to air!

High definition: It nice to see that all five of the designated public service broadcasting channels can now be viewed throughout the UK on Freeview, Freesat and Sky.

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#GreatBBC campaign launched

BBC Charter 2017: Two top British producers, Charlie Parsons and Lord Waheed Alli have created a campaign website called “greatbbc” to help prevent the BBC from being destroyed by the current Charter Review process.

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Yesterday, Drama and Really joining Freesat this month

Freesat: I'm very pleased to say that three of the UKTV channels will be joining Freesat very soon.

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Goodbye BBC Red Button!

BBC Charter 2017: The BBC is going to make saving this year of £150m because people are disconnecting their TV tuners and using the iPlayer online.

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Want to know how much the BBC spend in England, Scotland, Wales and NI per home?

BBC Charter 2017: Interesting figures from Broadcast magazine today - from their Nation and Regions Special - shows how much money is spent in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. I thought I would share...

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S4C and Welsh Exceptionalism?

BBC Charter 2017: Reading the report from Institute of Welsh Affairs Media Policy Group makes me wonder about how the next decade of broadcasting should deal with the nations, regions and languages of the United Kingdom.

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Freeview HD's VisionTV 20 channels now have Android and iOS apps

Watch TV online: If you have a Freeview HD box and are connected to the internet, you can view more than twenty specialist online channels from the VisionTV people.

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Will the World Radiocommunication Conference be the death of Freeview?

Freeview news: In just over a week, an important conference in Geneva, Switzerland is being held. One of the many things under discussion will be the future of free-to-air television up to 2030. Will the mobile broadband operators be able to get agreement to close down the UHF television band for reuse as 4G internet connections? Digital UK and other TV bodies are very concerned.

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Will we ever have Freeview Ultra HD or Freesat Ultra HD?

High definition: You can already buy Ultra HD television sets in the high street. If I buy one, how long will I have to wait for Freeview and Freesat to broadcast my favourite shows in the better format?

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Fixing the Freesat Freetime internet connection problem

Freesat: If you have a problem with your Freesat box not allowing you to get to the large selection of online TV shows, here is how to fix the problem. If you see "no internet connection" or no services listed under "On Demand", do this.

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New Freeview TVs and boxes to be HD only from 2016

High definition: From the start next year, the Freeview logo will only be on new TVs if they provide Freeview HD. From the end of next year, all new Freeview equipment will be HD.

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Time for the BBC to release the DOGs?

BBC Charter 2017: If 70 households really missed the BBC so much after 9 days, to the extent their £3.60 "refund" seemed like a bargain, shouldn't the BBC start better marking the output with "paid for out of the TV Licence" marks?

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How would you cut £613m from the BBC budget?

BBC Charter 2017: UK Free TV is making it possible for you to decide what to cut and what to keep. Use the tick boxes to select what you would cut from the BBC budget, and see your progress in the bar below. Please share!!!

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When you can't quite hear the TV, subtitles are critical

Sound: One great advantage of the digital TV services is that every TV set has access to subtitles.

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What would you like to see on Freeview in place of BBC three?

BBC Charter 2017: The BBC seems set to move BBC Three onto the BBC iPlayer. What should the BBC do with the channel's precious broadcast bits and top-page Freeview slot 7?

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New secure server for UK Free TV

About us: We have - at last - come to join in the world of HTTPS everywhere. This means UK Free TV can continue to provide location-based mapping, to be seen of kindly by Google as well as provide more security for the visitors.

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Lots of ways UK Free TV is little bit better today

About us: I am taking the opportunity of being bed-ridden for at least six weeks to sort out some upgrades, updates and bug fixes for this our 13 year old website. Here is what I have done.

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Go for it! What do you do on cutting the cord day?

Cord Cutting UK: So, you have your fast broadband, your wireless connections, prepared your devices and checked out what to watch online. Are you ready to take the final step?

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Cord Cutting UK Checklist: keeping it legal

Cord Cutting UK: The starting point for us here is doing things by the book. Some of the things you need to do to be a Cord Cutter UK can result in a proper criminal conviction if not done properly.

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New section on UK Free TV dedicated to cutting the cord

Cord Cutting UK: New section on UK Free TV dedicated to cutting the cord.

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Show me the 55 TV channels have moved to the new Astra 2G satellite

General satellite: There have been a large number of changes to the channels broadcast from the satellites that provide services to about half of the homes in the UK. What do you need to do?

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I would like you to know why Briantist has not been posting on UK Free TV

About us: During the 13 years I have been providing the UK Free TV web site, I always endeavoured to keep my personal life separate from goings on in the world of free-to-air television and radio.

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Should Ofcom regulate the BBC?

BBC Charter 2017: The BBC Trust seems to be not really living up to expectations. Would Ofcom be a suitable body to regulate the BBC?

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BBC Licence fee and new Charter: the political reality

BBC Charter 2017: Let's have an honest look at the current political situation and what it means for the BBC Charter renewal.

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Licence fee replacements: All-homes broadcast contribution?

BBC Charter 2017: Having looked at the Finnish income-based model, and the French council-tax add-on, the version preferred by the Select Committee Report is the German Model. Let us have a closer look.

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Licence fee replacements: broadcasting contribution via the Council tax?

BBC Charter 2017: Looking at the top three European replacements for the TV Licence, today we have a closer look at the French system.

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TV Licence replacement: is going to be French, Finnish or German?

BBC Charter 2017: Back in February 2015, the Culture Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons published their Future of the BBC report. It looked at three other systems in use to collect money for the public service broadcaster. Which do you like?

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New! 1000s of new DAB and FM radio coverage maps

Digital radio: One of the most requested feature upgrades here on UK Free TV is for the radio maps to show the transmitter coverage areas, as the Freeview pages do. So, please take a look at the upgrade.

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We ARE going to get BBC Local Radio on Freeview ... today!

Digital radio: OK, only a year after I speculated about it, the service has now started. You can now enjoy 10 BBC Local Radio stations.

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