Freeview Light on the Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) transmitter
 | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 53.696,-2.444 or 53°41'47"N 2°26'37"W |  | BB3 3SE |
The symbol shows the location of the Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) transmitter which serves 15,000 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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) transmitter._______
Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: U&Yesterday, 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, DMAX, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, FRANCE 24 (in English), GREAT! action, GREAT! christmas, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, HGTV, HobbyMaker, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1, ITVBe +1, Legend, PBS America, Quest +1, Quest Red, Really, Sky Mix, Sky News, Talking Pictures TV, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, U&Dave, U&Dave ja vu, U&Drama +1, U&W.
If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.
Which Freeview channels does the Darwen 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 | V max | C45 (666.0MHz) | 312m | DTG- | 100W |
 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 | V max | C39+ (618.2MHz) | 312m | DTG- | 100W |
 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 | V max | C42 (642.0MHz) | 312m | DTG- | 100W |
 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 | |||||
Are you trying to watch these 44 Freeview channels?
The Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: U&Yesterday, 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, DMAX, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, FRANCE 24 (in English), GREAT! action, GREAT! christmas, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, HGTV, HobbyMaker, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1, ITVBe +1, Legend, PBS America, Quest +1, Quest Red, Really, Sky Mix, Sky News, Talking Pictures TV, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, U&Dave, U&Dave ja vu, U&Drama +1, U&W.
If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Darwen transmitter?
BBC North West Tonight 3.1m homes 11.8%
from Salford M50 2QH, 27km south-southeast (159°)
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.
ITV Granada Reports 3.1m homes 11.6%
from Salford M50 2EQ, 27km south-southeast (159°)
to ITV Granada region - 80 masts.
How will the Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2009 | 2009-13 | 31 Mar 2018- | |||||
| B E T | B E T | B E T | B E T | B E K T | |||||
| C39 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | D3+4 | |||||
| C42 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C45 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C49tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | +D3+4 |
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 | 500W | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 100W |
Local transmitter maps
Darwen Freeview Darwen DAB Darwen 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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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldSunday, 30 June 2019
V
Virginia Moore10:23 PM
Darwen
Hello
My mother lives in Darwen postcode BB3 0HH and on a recent visit l discovered that she does not have these freeview channels listed below:
4Music, 4seven, 4seven HD, 5SELECT, 5Spike, 5STAR, 5STAR +1, 5USA, 5USA +1, Aljazeera English HD, BBC Four HD, BBC News HD, Blaze, Blaze +1, CBeebies HD, CBS Drama, CBS Justice, CBS Reality, CBS Reality +1, Challenge, Channel 4+1 HD, Channel 5 +1, CITV, Dave, Dave ja vu, DMAX, Drama, E4 +1, Food Network, Forces TV, Freesports, Home, Horror Channel, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1, ITVBe +1, Quest HD, Movies4Men, NOW 80s, Now 90s, Paramount Network, PBS America, pick, Pick +1, Quest +1, Quest Red, Quest Red +1, Really, RT HD, Sewing Quarter, Sky News, Smithsonian Channel HD, Sony Movie Channel, Talking Pictures TV, TCC, Together, True Entertainment, True Movies, Yesterday, YourTV.
Can you advise whether a booster aeriel would help my mother get these channels?
Thank you for your help.
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Virginia's: mapV's Freeview map terrainV's terrain plot wavesV's frequency data V's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 1 July 2019
S
StevensOnln19:20 AM
Virginia Moore: None of those channels are broadcast from the Darwen relay. She might be able to get those channels from the main Winter Hill transmitter once frequency changes have been completed there early next year, however a new professionally installed rooftop aerial will likely be required (not one of the cheap useless amplified indoor aerials).
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Saturday, 11 December 2021
V
Vivien Hamilton6:56 PM
Can you tell me if we will ever have full free view channels in bb32jx area. Many thanks
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C
Chris.SE11:19 PM
Vivien Hamilton:
Well it depends on where you are within your postcode. The short answer is No - from the Darwen transmitter. But maybe some parts of your postcode that haven't got line of sight issues to Winter Hill (it's only 7km from you) ie. trees, hills or nearby buildings in the way, may get good enough signals.
The issue is essentially that it's not considered cost effective by the commercial operators to add the transmission equipment to relay transmitters that serve only small numbers of viewers (and that's assuming frequencies to transmit on are available without causing interference elsewhere).
As far as getting reliable signals from Winter Hill, you really need an extremely good aerial installer that knows the area well (preferably CAI approved) to advise/install a new aerial. Winter Hill is in the opposite direction to Darwen for you. Have a look at your near neighbours' aerials to see if any point the opposite way, this will give you an idea. Ask them how reliable reception is if they do, as predictions for the 3 main PSB multiplexes are not as good as from your relay (but still quite good).
See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which channels are carried on which multiplex. (The 3 PSBs are BBCA, D3&4, BBCB HD).
The other option to consider is Freesat. A lot of modern TVs have built-in satellite tuners, so all you need is the Dish and LNB.
Personally I wouldn't rush to change anything unless you are happy about the budget. COM7 (at all main transmitters that have it which includes Winter Hill) will close by end of June 2022 (it was only a temporary HD multiplex). Whether anything will change with other multiplexes as a consequence is totally unknown at present (there's speculation but nothing definite), there's currently no room on the other multiplexes for COM7's channels so you might want to wait and see.
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Sunday, 23 October 2022
K
Karen Hughes2:02 PM
We have no signal. It went off a while ago so I checked on Facebook and other people are reporting the same problem
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K
Karen Hughes3:09 PM
Karen Hughes:
TIMESTAMP MULTIPLEX STATUS
From 2:31pm on 23rd Oct 2022 BBC A Off the air due to a fault
From 2:31pm on 23rd Oct 2022BBC B HD Off the air due to a fault
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C
Chris.SE5:31 PM
Karen Hughes:
That fault seems to have made it to that listed at the top of the page and also on BBC Transmitter Engineeering information | free and easy
You'd get similar information if you go to Advice about receiving TV and radio | RTIS and select Transmitter checker, then select Freeview and then enter your postcode and house number, and if need be, select the transmitter.
The current report is -
From 2:31pm to 5:57pm on 23rd Oct 2022 BBC A Off the air due to a fault
From 2:31pm to 5:57pm on 23rd Oct 2022 BBC B HD Off the air due to a fault
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Monday, 30 September 2024
Transmitter engineering
5:06 PM
5:06 PM
Darwen transmitter - Darwen transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 30/09/2024 Screen may go black on some or all channels [DUK]
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Monday, 7 October 2024
Transmitter engineering
5:09 AM
5:09 AM
Darwen transmitter - Darwen transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 07/10/2024 Screen may go black on some or all channels [DUK]
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Monday, 14 October 2024
Transmitter engineering
5:11 AM
5:11 AM
Darwen transmitter - Darwen transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 14/10/2024 Screen may go black on some or all channels [DUK]
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