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UK sets official date for digital cutover

15 March 2007 5:52 by Dave "Davedough" Horvath | 5 comments

If you live in or around the Whitehaven area of Cumbria, you will be the first of many to lose the analogue signal broadcast to your television sets. Beginning on October 17th, approximately 25,000 households will receive only digital signals from the stations as part of a nationwide digital television cutover.

BBC Two will be the first channel to switch from the aging analogue signal to its newer, crisper format, while the remaining channels are set to go dark on November 14th. All residents in the Whitehaven area will need some form of digital television, or invest in a set-top converter box by that time, and its expected that everyone in the UK will need to follow suit before 2012. Every television will need to be connected to Freeview, satellite, cable or broadband television by then to continue receiving transmissions.

New equipment, installation and support will be given for those individuals over the age of 75, have a disability and the blind, but will cost �40. There are fee waivers for those qualifying individuals who require income assistance.

Starting in early May, residents of Whitehaven will begin receiving captions across their screen explaining the cutover process. Beginning early October 17th, BBC Two will go offline and Freeview will begin broadcasting the digital versions of BBC One, Two and Three as well as News 24 and CBBC.

The rest of the UK will slowly begin cutting over after Whitehaven, beginning with Borders by the end of 2008. The remaining regions will then cutover incrimentally into the year 2012.

Source:
BBC

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pigfister (Inactive) 15 March 2007 7:45
are these freview boxes going to have to be HDMI compliant to watch hd as i seen ha freview boxes for sale in comet but not one of them had a HDMI connector on it? [ + quote]
thecraigc (Senior Member) 15 March 2007 9:54
umm... no! there are no HD freeview channels... [ + quote]
sssharp (Junior Member) 15 March 2007 12:16
Darn good thing we have HD OTA here in usa otherwise I would be watching nothing since I dont subscribe to cable/satellite receivers. I think the charge is too much for the few channels that I have interest in. [ + quote]
pigfister (Inactive) 17 March 2007 21:42
not yet but there will be so are people going to have to purchase all their equipment again? Originally posted by HDTV uk: http://www.hdtvuk.tv/2005/11/bbc_confirms_hd.html BBC confirms HD for satellite and cable viewers in 2006 Bbc_oneThe BBC has just confirmed that it is to offer High Definition TV to satellite and cable viewers at some point during 2006. It will also start what it is billing as �limited technical trials' of HD over digital terrestrial (Freeview), but acknowledges that there won't be the bandwidth to offer HD to consumers in this format until the digital switchover which starts in 2008 and finishes in 2012. Cable and satellite viewers will be able to see highlights of BBC ONE's peaktime schedule in high definition. The corporation is apparently in talks with the operators to secure this. The technical terrestrial trial will run in the London area at the same time and apparently won�t affect reception of existing Freeview channels. It hopes to provide a limited number of HD set top box receivers to triallists. Director of Television, Jana Bennett, will set out the BBC's vision for future free-to-air high definition television when she takes part in an industry event in London tonight. She said: "High definition may take time to grow in Britain, but as with the other technologies we helped to build, the BBC wants to prepare now to be able to deliver the benefits of HD to all its licence payers in the long term." The corporation also confirmed that the BBC has a target to move all production to high definition by 2010. Interestingly the report concludes by stating that current broadband infrastructure does not enable live HDTV to be offered. [ + quote]
d42mat (Newbie) 19 March 2007 5:18
This SUCKS! Sure you get a nicer picture (if you live in the right area and can even get it) BUT what the heck am I gonna do about the seven TV's in my house! At the moment I can pipe analogue signals to all the TV's in the house and everyone can watch what they want. I'm gonna have to fork out seven times for a fricking freeview box for each TV just to get the same thing I already have. B@st@rds! [ + quote]