Get ready to retune your TVs again - 27 February

Following a decision by Ofcom, channels in the UHF band currently used for digital terrestrial television (DTT) are being reallocated for the development of future mobile services. Freeview viewers (and those with other services that use Freeview channels, like YouView) will need to retune their TV equipment when changes take place in their area.

The biggest change in this area will be on 27 February 2018, when the main Mendip transmitter frequencies are changed. If you get your signal from one of the local relay stations you can find out changeover dates from this page .

Don't forget that you will need to retune Freeview digital recorders and Freeview set-top boxes as well. Further changes are due in the second quarter of 2019.

Survey - TV interference caused by phone masts

Since the summer, people have been contacting the Focus Team about problems with their Freeview TV signal following the installation of new 4G phone masts in the place of old 3G ones.

There is a service, at800, that was set up to help with these problems. However, they won't help if you have access to an alternative service on one TV - such as Sky or Virgin Media - even if you have other TVs in the house that can only use Freeview. We've also heard of a number of cases where the filters they've supplied have not been enough to fix the problem and people have ended up having to take time off work to wait in for engineers to visit.

We're trying to gather evidence of the extent of the problem and have created a short survey. If you've been affected, please fill it in here.

4G phone signals interfering with Freeview - an easy solution

As the latest 4G mobile phone systems are rolled out across our area, some Freeview viewers may experience interference. There's an easy and FREE answer to this. The mobile operators have set up an organisation called at800 (website link here) who can advise, send specialists to deal with the problem, or post you a free filter to fit yourself.

Houses that may be affected should receive a postcard from at800 explaining these free services. Even if you haven't had a postcard, you can contact at800 if you've recently started getting interference.

Here's a useful short video to explain this:

Get ready to retune your TV!

You have probably seen the notices appearing on your digital TV (Freeview) channels saying that you will have to retune your TVs etc after midday this Wednesday, 30 September.

It's not just TVs - set-top boxes, digital hard disk recorders and digital videos will need retuning too.

Not sure how to do it? Lost the instructions? No problem, look at the TV Retune website and select your product.

This is all connected to the transfer to digital TV - the old analogue channels will be switched off in a few months time.

If you ONLY use cable TV or satellite you shouldn't need to do anything. Retuning just applies to channels that you get via a TV aerial.

Freeview TV reception - update

Many thanks to our reader who sent in a link to the Digital UK Planned Engineering Works web page.

It's rather technical - it talks about "DTT Muxes", which isn't very user-friendly. However it shows that during May 2009 services from the Mendip transmitter will be affected as follows:

Digital TV - all channels - weak reception and short service breaks
Analogue TV - BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 - weak reception and short service breaks
Radio - Kiss 101 FM - short service breaks

Problems with Freeview TV reception?

Is anyone in the BS37 area having problems with certain channels becoming very weak or disappearing altogether? This is Freeview, rather than satellite or cable.

For some time our picture on BBC4, and sometimes other channels, has started to break up with flashing bars, or the TV has shown a message "weak signal" or "channel not tuned". Sometimes one make of equipment can view a channel, but another make can't.

If you've been having problems like this please leave a comment with a note of the channels involved and your postcode.

The Wombles have emigrated to the USA...

... in protest at the lack of investment in British children's TV programmes.

To sample the Wombles in America, watch their "Bad Ass Wombles of Central Park" video at http://www.britishkidstv.com/, where you can also sign the petition.

Background information from the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT) and BBC Wombles news item

Steve Webb on TV talking about e-petitions

There was an interesting item on the BBC's Politics Show West today. They were talking about electronic petitions. Their first example was the 8000-signature petition to save the Bristol to Bath railway path, popular with cyclists and walkers, from being converted into a rapid transit bus route.

The programme interviewed Steve Webb MP about the effectiveness and the disadvantages of e-petitions.

Then they spoke to the campaign to save Lacock Post Office, which was based on a conventional petition. Finally there was a discussion with Dr Lisa Harrison, Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of the West of England.

You can watch the broadcast item by going to this page and clicking on the "Latest Programme" button at the top right. It will be available for the next week - this item starts 6 minutes 20 seconds into the programme.

A YouTube video of Steve Webb's complete contribution can be seen here:


Steve Webb - Click the arrow to play the video.

New target for vandals - street cabinets

The metal cabinets you see by the roadside are either electricity, BT phones or cable TV/phones. A couple of weeks ago a BT cabinet in Harescombe was pushed right over during the night.

In the latest incident on Wednesday the Virgin (ex Telewest and Blueyonder) phone box between Blaisdon and Woodchester was damaged by fireworks and burnt out inside. Cable phones in the area are off until Sunday or Monday because of the repairs needed.

Steve Webb on the box!

This week Channel 4 is showing a short TV programme about how Steve is in regular contact with many constituents using new technology such as email. The programme is presented by Steve and features three local people talking about their experiences. It was filmed partly in Yate shopping centre and partly in Steve's constituency office.

The programme will appear in the ‘Political Slot’ which follows Channel 4 News, shortly after 7.50pm, and should be shown on Wednesday 31st January (though these things are sometimes changed at short notice).