Freeview Light on the Londonderry (Northern Ireland) transmitter
 | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 55.003,-7.370 or 55°0'11"N 7°22'11"W |  | BT48 0JS |
The symbol shows the location of the Londonderry (Northern Ireland) transmitter which serves 37,000 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 Londonderry (Northern Ireland) 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 Londonderry (Northern Ireland) 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 Londonderry 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 | C29 (538.0MHz) | 286m | DTG- | 2,000W |
 1 BBC One (SD) Northern Ireland, 2 BBC Two Northern Ireland, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 14 others | |||||
| PSB2 D3+4 | V max | C31 (554.0MHz) | 286m | DTG- | 2,000W |
 3 UTV (SD) (UTV), 4 Channel 4 (SD) NI ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 NI ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 UTV +1 (UTV), 71 That’s 60s, | |||||
| PSB3 BBCB | V max | C37 (602.0MHz) | 286m | DTG- | 2,000W |
 46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Northern Ireland, 102 BBC Two HD Northern Ireland, 103 UTV HD (UTV), 104 Channel 4 HD NI 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 Londonderry (Northern Ireland) 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 Londonderry transmitter?
BBC Newsline 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT2 8HQ, 1,052km northeast (50°)
to BBC Northern Ireland region - 46 masts.
How will the Londonderry (Northern Ireland) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1950s-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 4 Sep 2019 | ||||
| VHF | B E T | W T | W T | B E T | W T | ||||
| C2 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C29 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C31 | C5waves | C5waves | D3+4 | ||||||
| C37 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C41 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | |||||
| C44 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | |||||
| C47 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | BBCB | |||||
| C51tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | _local | _local |
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 10 Oct 12 and 24 Oct 12.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 5 | 10kW | |
| Analogue 1-4 | (-4.9dB) 3.2kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 2kW |
Local transmitter maps
Londonderry Freeview Londonderry DAB Limavady TV region BBC Northern Ireland UTVWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Limavady transmitter area
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Wednesday, 24 October 2012
P
pat8:01 PM
Londonderry
Does anyone know when the Derry transmitter will start broadcasting any channels on HD.
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pat's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
P
pat9:05 PM
Londonderry
sorry all sorted TV aerial problem
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pat's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mark10:35 PM
Seems to be some smart people on here that know things about digital tv. can anyone explain why Northern Irelands second biggest city only gets a few freeview channels only getting BBC1, 2, 3 ,4, UTV, CH4, CH5, ITV, 4+1, More4, E4 and UTV+1?
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Mark: It is those who cannot receive from a full-service transmitter who will be unable to watch the Commercial channels (those that don't broadcast from the Sheriff Mountain transmitter).
The reason for this is because there are two types of broadcaster: Public Service (PSB) and Commercial (COM).
The Commercial multiplexes (each multiplex is a single signal that carries multiple services) cover about 90% of the UK population from 81 of the largest transmitters (largest by viewer population). The cost for them to broadcast from the other 1,000 or so smaller relays would roughly double their cost of transmission whilst only adding 8.5% of the population to their a potential viewerbases.
Their objective is show advertising which they sell. They want to get as many viewers as possible for lowest possible cost. Doubling the cost of transmission to increase potential reach by around 10% doesn't make sense to them. They operate purely for profit and have no obligation to provide a "Public Service".
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Thursday, 25 October 2012
P
pat1:42 AM
Londonderry
Why are we not a full-service transmitter after all we are second biggest city in northern Ireland, maybe Derry is not large enough and Limavady is.
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pat's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mark11:31 AM
Londonderry
Yes that is my point why wasn't the transmitter put closer to Derry. And is it possible that we will ever get a few more channels or is it maxed out?
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Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
pat, Mark: I have already answered your questions above in the posting of Wednesday 24 October 2012 10:46PM.
Unless you can receive from a full-service transmitter (which is probably only Limavady, if any) then you will only ever have PSB channels.
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Mark: Transmitters are located where they are most effective which is generally on higher ground where they can be seen by the populations they serve. The purpose of any relay transmitter like Derry is to fill in gaps in coverage that the main transmitters miss out due to the terrain.
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J
Johnny2:21 PM
Londonderry
I'm wondering if anyone can help me. I retuned yesterday, which in itself was an anticlimax due to the pathetic amount of channels the Londonderry (NI's second largest city) transmitter recieves. I however noticed that I wasn't getting the UK HD channels despite picking up RTE2 HD from Saorview. I realise that my tv needs to be compatable with Freeview HD in order to pick these up. Does the fact that I am able to recieve the RTE HD channel not mean that my TV is HD compatable and therefore should be able to pick up the UK HD channels also?
Apologies for the tetchy tone of this post however it really grates me that these freeview plans have been years in the making, we have been the very last people to recieve the freeview service and then are landed with much less channels than seemingly 90% of the rest of the country.
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Johnny's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Johnny: (See above to my posting of yesterday @ 10:46PM for an explanation as to why you only have some channels.)
The only thing you can do is investigate the possibility of receiving directly from Limavady, although even then, the COM channels are on lower power and may be difficult. I looked on Streetview and can see a few aerials on Limavady, although as I say, the Commercial channels "may" be unavailable - that is, the fact that aerials point to Limavady doesn't mean that they are sufficient to receive the COMs.
Saorview signals are broadcast using DVB-T standard. These signals carry a HD picture which is encoded using MPEG4 format.
Freeview standard definition signals use DVB-T standard whereas Freeview HD signals use the newer DVB-T2 standard. Hence a receiver that doesn't have a DVB-T2 tuner cannot receive Freeview HD.
What is interesting is that Freeview standard definition pictures are encoded using MPEG2 and as such a lot of Freeview standard definition receivers don't have the capability to decode MPEG4 (used by Saorview). Evidently yours does. May I ask what is the make and model of the receiver you are using to receive Saorview? Also, is it a "Saorview" labelled product or a "Freeview" one?
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