UK Digital Switchover

OK, thanks. So very roughly speaking the three new PSB muxes will take (some of) the space of of the current analogue channels, with the three commercial muxes taking (some of) the space of the existing digital muxes.


It'll be interesting to see what happens with S4C then at DSO - will they take the space of some BBC/C5 services in England and Scotland, or will they have the slot nationwide and broadcast something like QVC or Bid TV on their space outside Wales.


It is still grossly unfair though that even in sharing their second mux with S4C and Five, the BBC will still have at least twice the amount of gifted space in comparison to ITV and C4. I think it's pretty essential they get a mux each IMO.

The plan is for PSB-3 to carry a mixture of BBC, C5, and (on Welsh transmitters only) S4C. I assume the Scottish Gaelic service will also live on PSB-3 in Scotland.

Also, with the commercial muxes as ITV now own Mux A and Crown Castle Mux C & D, I assume ITV will get Com 1 and Crown Castle Com 2 and Com 3.


So what will be the situation with Five's currently gifted space on Mux A. Is all that accounted for in the move to the PSB3 mux, or will they still have a claim on part of one of the commercial muxes - and the ability to rent out space to services like Top Up TV (not that TUTV will last to DSO!).

ITV and C4 will share PSB-2, so it'll be very similar to the present day Mux 2.

I don't know about ITV's 'ownership' of Mux A. I think the licence for that expires post DSO in each region, or perhaps it becomes COM 1 ?

BBC, ITV, C4, C5, S4C, and whatever that Scottish Gaelic lot are called, are all considered to be Public Service Broadcasters, and therefore must have universal coverage (Obviously only in Wales and Scotland for the last two).

81 sites will carry PSB1/2/3 and COM 1/2/3. The remaining 1074 sites will only carry PSB1/2/3.

Not sure - but as most the stations on Mux A have contracts which don't expire until around 2010-2012, it seems pretty stupid for ITV to buy it if they're not going to be able to use it post 2012.

Similarly with Crown Castle - Ideal World signed a contract recently which keeps them on Freeview till something ridiculous like 2018, so channels on Mux A and Mux C/D must have guaranteed slots after DSO.

Just wondering if anyone can help me with regards to DSO. I live in the North West of England and receive television signals from Winter Hill. My house is just a few hundred yards from an electricity pylon which is directly in between the aerial and Winter Hill. Because of this, my analogue reception has never been brilliant. The actual quality of the image is excellent (i.e. no grain etc.) but it suffers from ghosting, which is most severe on BBC ONE. I have three televisions - one in the living room, one in the front bedroom and one in the kitchen at the rear of the house. I've tried a Freeview receiver with all three televisions and it works fine on both the living room and front bedroom. However, in the kitchen, it breaks up in bad weather because the signal strength is so low. I've thought about getting someone in to try and sort it out but do you think I should wait and see what happens with the analogue switchoff in 2009? Do you think the signal will become strong enough to work in the kitchen?

Wonder if the people of Whitehaven are especially aware:

1) That they will lose conventional teletext services? Despite the mass pre-publicity in 1992, many people didn't know Oracle was going until after it happened, and the ITC was inundated with enquries to this effect. In October many people are going to find a button they probably made much use of won't do a thing, which is not quite the same as one content provider being substituted for another.

2) That almost all of the extra channels will carry burnt-on channel branding? Funny how broadcasters never think it's important to tell you about DOGs, despite the wide dislike of the practice and proof that some on-screen logos cause damage to your expensive plasma TV?

The marketeers at Digital UK are, typically, not making much of these points. OK, those who know me will know how important I regard these issues compared with the majority audience, but on the teletext issue especially there ought to be more said, rather than just "hoping those country bumpkins won't notice".

The output power of existing DTT transmissions will be significantly increased as DSO hits each region. I wouldn't spend a great deal of time and money sorting reception now, if you're prepared to wait until DSO in Granadaland, and see what happens.

The teletext issue is indeed very important. I wonder however if they'll be able to have a larger system in place once they reorganise the muxes are mentioned earlier in thre thread.

I do think Teletext have actually done a pretty decent job on their digital services once they'd got the page numbered introduced and the content available on ITV and C4, rather than a seperate channel. Sky Text is quite easy to navigate too.


BBCi though is still not up to scratch IMO. It's got the content, but even since the addition of page numbers it's still tricky to navigate.

For example, with news stories if you identify three or four you want to read you either have to navigate through them all to find them or keep returning to the index, rather than just remembering a few page numbers. I think the 4-digit numbers has also overcomplicated things too.

I have a lot of family in Whitehaven and Western Cumbria, and as a result of the poor analogue and Freeview signal, an unusually high percentage of people do have Sky. Therefore, the teletext thing is not a big issue as they use the DSat version of BBCi anyways.

This is rather disturbing so my local relay will not carry all 6 mux's if the main transmitter is'nt ??