UK TV Retune
Posted by: Mike-B on 14 February 2018
I'm posting this in Padded Cell as the Home Theatre occupants will probably be aware of this.
Ofcom are changing UHF TV channel frequencies to free up the 700MHz band (Channels 50 to 60) for the development of future
mobile services. They are moving multiplexes (channel groups) now located between 50 & 60 to somewhere between channels 21 & 48. Also some channels currently in the 21 to 48 area might be changed.
The first of these changes starts in some regions on 7th Feb & continues through Feb, March, April & May & depending on region more than one retune date is planned. The work will continue depending on region in Jul-Dec 2018 Jan-Jun 2019 Jul-Dec 2019 Jan-Jun 2020. Your local press should publish the detail, or your TV will tell you.
It might not affect you other than the need to retune, especially so if you have a wideband (group W or T) aerial. But if you have a narrow band aerial and/or you're in a fringe reception area, then you might need to get a new aerial. In a few locations you might need to have your aerial realigned to another transmitter; again your local press will have that info. The pic shows the various aerial groups, you can ID your aerial group by the colour of the plastic bung in the ends of the centre arm.
www services like digitaluk.co.uk/coveragechecker & others have useful info. Look at 700MHz clearance.
Gavin B posted:Anything going to improve as a result?
One word answer ........ NO
To expand a bit on that; well at least not for TV anyway. However eventually the freed up 700MHz band work that's going on from now ‘till 2020, together with the 800MHz band that was freed up in 2013 will, as from 2020/22, provide all the 4G & 5G services plus some other stuff ...... are u excited or what ....... 
I just found a map of the retune dates by region
Lost a few freeview channels - including 19 yesterday & 25 home...
The retune date for Winter Hill is 7th March [yesterday] ...usually my telly has an auto reminder for retune which shows in the middle of screen when tuning the set on, but the retune option didn't show, so went though menu to DVB Auto Setup to manually retune, it worked! ...all is back again now : )
What a kerfuffle! 
Debs
Hi Debs, yup its a kerfuffle all right. But just think, by 2020 you will have bigger & better 4G & 5G as well, bet you can't wait.
As its all worked OK for you I suspect you have a wide band (Group W or T) aerial as prior to the retune, Winter Hill services were mostly in MUX C59 to C50 end of the spectrum, this is the 700MHz clearance area. Since the retune its all between C37 to C29. I also suspect a lot of people will be complaining as they have a Group C/D aerial & will need to get them replaced.
Clive B posted:Like I really need 5G.
............... however the bigger picture includes the future of terrestrial TV (DTT). To quote Ofcom : ”while we cannot exclude the potential for more radical changes, our central view remains that DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) will continue to be a very important delivery technology for FTV (Free To View) television over the next decade. Furthermore, we do not currently expect a full switch-off of DTT until post 2030, unless there was significant policy intervention to support a more aggressive timetable for change." The Ofcom plan for delivering FTV television includes DTT, satellite and IP networks, either individually or in combination, and per the quote it reads like DTT will be phased out at some time.