Next areas to be switched
The 2012 programme will commence in February with the Hannington and Midhurst (Meridian region) transmitters.
(The whole programme will end with the switchover in Northern Ireland on 24 October 2012.)

As at the end of 2011, most of Britain has switched. The only remaining areas are London and the South East, the North East and Northern Ireland. All completed regions have been archived to the bottom of this page.

What's all this analogue and digital stuff anyway?
The old-style analogue transmissions are in the form of variable radio waves. Imagine you're standing at the side of a street watching an emergency vehicle approaching with its siren going. As it passes you the pitch of the siren drops. This is because on approach the waves are being compressed (so the frequency is higher) and as the vehicle travels away the waves are being stretched (so the frequency is lower). If the vehicle accelerates, the effect will be increased and the pitch will drop further. So in a television signal, by varying the frequency of the wave form, the signal can be made to convey patterns that inside a receiver are converted into a picture. That's analogue in a nutshell.

Digital transmissions on the other hand are sent as a rapid stream of zeros and ones. Again, a suitable receiver can process those into a picture. An approximate analogy is morse code where patterns of long and short pulses equate to alphabetic characters, forming a message. Digital signals have been around for many years; CDs and DVDs all use digital technology for example. The big advantage for TV transmissions is that for any given bandwidth, far more digital channels can be carried than analogue and therefore it's far more efficient. It also offers the opportunity (not always taken up by the broadcasters) of much higher picture and sound quality, but the main advantage for the Government is that once the analogue signals have been switched off, it can sell off huge chunks of the existing bandwidth to buyers such as mobile phone companies who have an insatiable appetite for it and are prepared to pay handsomely to get it.

Background.
Over a period of 4 years from late 2008 to 2012, the traditional analogue TV signals are being switched off. They're being switched off region by region, with the full schedule shown towards the bottom of this page. When that happens, virtually all older TVs and video recorders will cease to work by themselves, and each one will need to be replaced or equipped with a separate digital set top box (STB). Your television remote control will be more or less redundant except for turning it on and off and adjusting the volume, and all channel settings will be done using the STB. Those people already equipped with satellite or Freeview equipment will be familiar with that and better placed to cope.

What will it mean for householders?
Those people with Sky+ (or freesat+ or for that matter Freeview+) already have a head start. They will probably be far more likely than the rest of the population to use digital signals exclusively, and they won't be bothered about setting timed recordings in the traditional way. Everyone else will have to change the way in which they watch, and especially record, TV programmes. Currently, a single aerial will feed any number of separate receivers (subject to signal strength), so video recorders and TVs can be daisy-chained together using the RF loop-through sockets.

All that will change. Each standard STB, whether it be a Sky digibox or a Freeview receiver, can only pick up one frequency at a time. This means a separate receiver will be needed for each and every analogue TV and video in the house. Not only that but each one will require its own connection to a power point. You also need to be careful about buying more than 1 of a specific make if they're to be used in the same room. The remote controls, especially with cheaper models, might affect both STBs with irritating results.

In some parts of the country, Freeview receivers will work quite happily with existing aerials but not everywhere. Except in areas where the digital switchover has already happened, digital terrestrial TV signals (DTT) are currently transmitted at relatively low power. Therefore in all but the strongest signal areas, it might be necessary to upgrade your aerial, adding further expense.

All new TVs available for sale are now capable of receiving Freeview, but unfortunately they still have to have analogue tuners as well, which makes them a bit more expensive than they'd otherwise need to be. Eventually, twin analogue/digital sets will disappear altogether, as happened with twin 405/625 line TVs in the late 60s, and prices will then drop further. Hard drive recorders are also now available with Freeview built in, capable of recording more than 1 channel at a time.

The good news is that DTT will give you many more free channels than the 5 available on analogue. Whether you will choose to watch any of them is a moot point but then lots of people said the same thing when the original 2 channels became 3 with the launch of BBC2 in the early 60s! (And there were even some people such as my parents who 10 years earlier thought that BBC television was quite enough thank you very much and could see no good reason for ITV to begin broadcasting! It simply lowered standards!)

And finally, apropos the above comments, in 2011 I saw this item posted on a satellite forum. I couldn't have put it better myself!

Ok, just to clear up once and for all, here are the different ways of receiving your TV programmes :-

What will it mean for caravanners?
All of the above points apply equally at home or away but there are some additional issues for caravanners. The first is that most modern caravans are fitted with omni-directional TV aerials such as the Status 315. These are easy to use as they require no aiming - they pick up signals from any direction. However because DTT signals are far weaker than analogue ones, at least until after switchover, a basic Status aerial will have difficulty pulling in any kind of usable signal. Moreover, weak analogue signals provide a picture which though 'snowy' might still be watchable; digital signals don't: the picture is either perfect or non-existent. The Status 530 steerable aerial will give better results but will still not be as good as an aerial mounted on the roof of a house.

After switchover, the digital signals will be boosted and reception should then be at least as good as the analogue signals were before the switchover. In any case, caravanners who visit different parts of the country will still need to use analogue equipment or an aerial capable of dealing with weaker digital signals.

To complicate matters, steerable aerials such as the Status 530 have another problem, which is that there is no easy way to establish with a digital receiver which direction the local transmitter lies. With analogue, you can establish the direction by trial and error but that doesn't work with Freeview. You need to know before you start which way to aim the aerial. Fortunately, just as with satellite TV, you can buy signal meters which will tell you when your aerial is pointing the right way. Places like Maplins sell them at prices starting at around £15, or just put aerial signal meter into Google. This might save you a few £s over the Maplins price but make sure that delivery costs don't wipe out any potential savings. One word of caution - many meters use satellite-style F connectors so you might need to buy a couple of F-to-coax adapters as well. 

The other thing to remember is that terrestrial signals are polarised either horizontally (for main transmitters) or vertically (for relay masts). With any kind of steerable aerial such as the Status 530 already mentioned, you'll need to turn it through 90º to match the incoming signal. So whilst you can do that on site by simple trial and error, you might want to look for roof-mounted aerials on nearby houses on your way to the campsite to see which way they are aligned.

Another issue is that of booster circuits on some caravan sites in weak signal areas. Many of the sites operated by the Caravan Club and the Camping & Caravanning Club for example are equipped with piped TV signals terminating at the mains hook-up bollards. My understanding is that the clubs are upgrading their systems on a site-by-site basis as each region is changed over, and you should visit their respective websites for further information.

Finally, people who currently just have an old TV in the caravan will in future have to remember to take a STB as well (which will of course need its own separate power socket adjacent to the TV). If you also take a video recorder with you, that will also need its own separate STB! Caravan manufacturers will be delighted - we'll all need bigger caravans .

High definition transmissions
Many people are now latching on to the idea of high definition TV, encouraged by TVs marked in the shops as 'HD Ready'. So let's examine what it means. First, it runs alongside the current digital transmissions - it doesn't replace them. So existing digital equipment will not be rendered obsolete and it's up to each household whether to invest in HD or not. Secondly, TVs advertised as 'HD-ready' won't pick up HD transmissions by themselves; they're simply able to handle the higher screen resolution. In order to receive HD signals, all TVs must either be linked to an HD set top box, or be equipped with an integrated HD tuner. Such integrated TVs are now becoming more widely available, with most manufacturers building Freeview HD models, and in some cases Freesat HD models. Indeed Panasonic is building a range of Viera TVs fitted with both types of tuner. No TV manufacturer has any current plans to build Sky or cable integrated models.

In the case of separate set top boxes, both Sky and Freesat also have HD recorders but there is a £10 per month charge for using a Sky HD box. Meanwhile, Freeview HD recorders were late coming to market but are now available.

One other thing to note is that 'HD Ready' doesn't necessarily mean the same thing for all TVs. If a TV is marked as HD Ready, it probably means it's only capable of 720p HD - not the highest resolution. To get the highest, you need to look for 'Full HD' or 'HD Ready 1080p'. For small TVs in a caravan, you might not need HD at all and certainly not full 1080 resolution but it could matter in the home, especially with larger screen sizes.

Smart TVs
Smart TVs are now appearing widely in the shops and national press adverts. So what are they? In simple terms, they are TVs capable of connecting to the internet, either by wi-fi or hardwired ethernet. They can then connect directly to online facilities such as Facebook or YouTube, or to catch-up services like the BBC iPlayer, providing much higher screen quality than is normally available on a computer monitor. Many are also being combined with 3D capability (though the 2 technologies are separate and you don't necessarily have to have both in the one TV). I have to say it's unlikely you'd derive much benefit from having a smart TV in a caravan! On the other hand, some years down the line smart TVs might become the de facto standard, so that you'll get the new technology by default whether you decide to use it or not.

Freeview Lite
I said above that the digital signals from the terrestrial transmitters will be boosted after the digital switchover but that's not the whole story. Even after switchover, not everyone will be able to receive the full set of Freeview channels. The reason is technical and I don't understand it myself. However it's to do with the way that frequencies are arranged so that they don't cause interference (between adjacent transmitters presumably). The Channel Islands are one such group and maybe it's their proximity to France that is the problem, but most relay transmitters elsewhere in the country are similarly affected. The end result is that not all transmitters will carry the full complement of Freeview channels (though they will all carry the 5 main channels), and this is what's known as Freeview Lite. If you're affected and any of the missing channels are important to you, you'll have to consider going for a satellite solution.

Switchover schedule
With each switchover, the schedule will be that at about midnight of the commencement date, analogue BBC2 will be switched off permanently at the main transmitter, and its relays if any. The other analogue channels may be subject to periods of shutdown as well, but most should be OK again by about 6.00am. Any transmitters not already carrying Freeview signals will have those switched on. On the scheduled completion date, all remaining analogue channels will be switched off and the digital signals will begin transmitting at full strength. It is likely that you will need to retune any existing Freeview equipment at both stages.

Further information can be obtained from the Government's own website, http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/.

Reception reports following switchover.
These are reports kindly supplied by people who have visited this website. They are offered for your information.

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