Sidmouth digital TV transmitter (no analogue)

Sidmouth digital switchover schedule

Note: This is the only schedule for digital switchover. Digital services cannot be introduced before the dates listed for "testing purposes" as they will generally use the same transmission frequencies as the services they replace. Another alternative, available today, is Freesat.

April 2009 S M T W T F S - - - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 - -	BBC Two England analogue switched off. The following Freeview digital services will be available: 1 BBC One South West 2 BBC Two England 7 BBC Three 9 BBC Four 70 CBBC Channel 71 CBeebies 80 BBC News 81 BBC Parliament 105 BBC Red Button 301 BBCi 301 700 BBC Radio 1 701 1Xtra BBC 702 BBC Radio 2 703 BBC Radio 3 704 BBC Radio 4 705 BBC Radio 5 Live 706 BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra 707 BBC Radio 6 Music 708 BBC Radio 7 709 BBC Asian Network 710 BBC World Service
April 2009 S M T W T F S - - - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 - -	BBC One South West, ITV-1 Westcountry and Channel 4 analogue switched off. The following Freeview digital services will be available: Freeview HD coming soon 3 ITV1 Westcountry 4 Channel 4 5 FIVE 6 ITV2 13 Channel 4+1 14 More4 28 E4 33 ITV2+1 100 Teletext 102 Rabbit 106 Direct Gov 107 Gay Rabbit 728 Heart It will be necessary to perform a full rescan of your Freeview box on this day.
April 2010 S M T W T F S - - - - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 -	The following Freeview services will be withdrawn: Freeview HD coming soon The following Freeview digital services will be available: 50 BBC HD 51 ITV1 HD 52 Channel 4 HD It will be necessary to perform a full rescan of your Freeview box on this day.

Transmission frequencies

Before Sunday 15th November 1998

C39	C45	C49	C67
BBC One	ITV1	BBC TWO	C4

Sunday 15th November 1998 to Wednesday 8th April 2009

C39	C45	C49	C67
BBC One	ITV1	BBC TWO	C4

After Wednesday 22nd April 2009

C48	C52-	C56-
Mux D3+4	Mux BBCA	Mux BBCB

Colour bands denote aerial groups: Red:A Yellow:B Green:C/D Brown:E Grey:K Black:Wideband

Notes

'Out of group' frequencies are marked with a star. Analogue power output 12 Watts, post switchover average digital multiplex output will be 6 Watts.

To receive signals from this transmitter, the aerial must be mounted for vertical polarization - the elements going from top to bottom.

Before switchover, the public service broadcasting multiplexes were 1, 2 and B; afterwards they were first PSB1, 2 and 3 but now called BBCA, D3+4 and BBCB. The commercial multiplexes A, C and D had initial post-switchover names COM4, 5 and 6; now they are SDN, ArqA and ArqB. At switchover BBCA, ArqA and ArqB will switch from 16QAM to 64QAM mode transmission, so five multiplexes will transmit in the 64QAM (2/3) 8k mode. BBCB is used for Freeview HD (DVB-T2, 256QAM), and has a pre-switchover service on selected main transmitters.

After switchover an existing group E aerial will provide all digital TV services.

See full list of analogue transmitters for a complete list of shutdown dates.

itv1 - Beacon Hill transmitter area*

Date	Incumbent ITV company
29th Apr 1961 to 31st Dec 1981	Westward Television
1st Jan 1982 to 31st Dec 1992	Television South West (TSW)
1st Feb 1983 to 31st Dec 1992	TV-am (breakfast)
1st Jan 1993 to date	Westcountry Television
1st Jan 1993 to date	GMTV (breakfast)
Note	For digital switchover this region is now known as Westcountry.

* The Sidmouth transmitter was not an original ITV VHF 405-line transmitter: the historical information shown above includes the details of the company reponsible for the Sidmouth transmitter when it began transmission.

405-line VHF black and white TV

From the Sidmouth transmitter, BBC One was broadcast on VHF C4. In the United Kingdom, 405-line television was used from 1936-39 and 1946 until 1982-85.

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