Digital TV News

Freeview homes must retune their digiboxes today

Wednesday 30 September, 2009

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

Over 18 million households in the UK with digital TV service Freeview must retune their set-top boxes and TVs later today if they want to watch channel Five.

The free digital service is being upgraded so more customers will be able to receive channel Five. Anyone who could already receive the channel will have to retune their digibox if they want to continue to receive it.

All television sets with integrated Freeview, digiboxes and digital recorders (DVR) will need retuning from lunchtime today, as well as BT Vision, Top Up TV and Tiscali TV set-top boxes.

The upgrade will eventually enable high-definition (HD) television to be broadcast on Freeview - something that is planned to be available on Freeview before Christmas 2009.

Ilse Howling, the managing director of Freeview, said: “These are significant and necessary changes which will immediately bring Freeview viewers new channels, introduce new homes to existing channels and prepare the platform for the future availability of Freeview HD.”

The upgrade will affect around 18 million homes, and it thought that about 25 million televisions and set-top boxes will need retuning. Customers with Freesat, Sky or a cable TV service from Virgin Media will not need to retune their hardware.

While more than 500,000 homes will be able to receive Five for the first time on Freeview, 460,000 households are expected to lose access to ITV3 and ITV4.

It is expected that around 20,000 older set-top boxes will stop working altogether, including:

• Daewoo models DS608P and SV900
• Labgear DTT100
• Triax DVB2000T
• Bush IDVCR01.

About 460,000 households are expected to lose access to ITV3 and ITV4.

To find out how to retune your digibox, consult your instruction manual or read our guide to finding new Freeview channels.

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