Digital switchover in the United Kingdom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Digital switchover is the name given to the process by which analogue broadcast television in an area is converted to digital television. It is sometimes referred to as "analogue switch off".
In the UK, switchover will start in 2008 and end in 2013. Each television region will have its analogue broadcasts switched off at a certain time between these dates. The process is co-ordinated by an independent body, Digital UK.
The BBC has appointed Arqiva - NTL's former broadcast division - to develop and implement the new high-powered DTT network. The physical work on re-engineering elements of the network will commence during mid-2006, even though it will be 2008 before the first regions are switched over to digital. The scale of this project is enormous. Some 5,000 analogue transmitters on 1,150 sites will be removed and disposed of. The existing DTT system, comprising 500 transmitters, will be removed and replaced by 3,000 transmitters, to give near-national coverage. The capital cost to deliver the whole programme will be near £500m and will require some 600 man years of effort.
Contents |
[edit] Switchover Dates
These are the dates at which switchover will take place in each TV region. For the first regions, quarterly dates for each main transmitter have been published by Digital UK as below. Digital UK will publish the exact date for each transmitter approximately six months ahead of switchover.
Q4 2008 Selkirk, serving Scottish Borders
Q2 2009 Caldbeck, serving Cumbria, Dumfries & Galloway and the Isle of Man
Q2 2009 Beacon Hill, serving south Devon Stockland Hill, serving south-west Somerset, parts of west Dorset and south-east Devon, including Exeter
Q3 2009 Huntshaw Cross, serving north Devon Redruth, serving west Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Caradon Hill, serving much of Cornwall and Devon, including Plymouth
Q3 2009 Preseli, serving south-west Wales Carmel, serving south Wales
Q4 2009 Llanddona, serving north-west Wales, including Anglesey Moel-Y-Parc, serving north-east Wales
Q1 2010 Blaenplwyf, serving west and central Wales Long Mountain, serving east-central Wales Wenvoe, serving south-east Wales, including Cardiff
Q4 2009 The entire Granada region will switch to digital in this quarter, when the Winter Hill transmitter and its dependent relays – serving Lancashire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Cheshire, are converted.
Rest of the UK
- ITV West: 2010
- STV North (Grampian Television): 2010
- STV Central (Scottish Television): 2010-11
- ITV Central: 2011
- ITV Yorkshire: 2011
- ITV Anglia: 2011
- ITV Meridian: 2012
- ITV London: 2012
- ITV Tyne Tees: 2012
- UTV: 2012
- ITV Channel Television: 2013
[edit] Digital television multiplexes
The existing digital television network will be updated and improved, the existing digital multiplexes will change and will be divided into two sections, Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) and Commercial Broadcasting (COM).
- PSB
- Multiplex 1 will become PSB 1
- Multiplex 2 will become PSB 2
- Multiplex B will become PSB 3
- COM
- Multiplex A will become COM 4
- Multiplex C will become COM 5
- Multiplex D will become COM 6
[edit] Other changes
Other changes include the major UK transmitters being fitted with a reserve antenna, this will mean that repairs can be completed on the main antenna without turning off the signal. Some stations will also transmit the PSB multiplexes and the COM multiplexes from different antennae.
[edit] Digital radio
The present switchover plans are concerned only with television transmissions. At present, there are no plans to switch off analogue radio transmissions in the UK.[1]
