The Big Switchover

The digital switchover from terrestrial analogue television broadcasting in the UK to digital terrestrial broadcasting is planned to take place between the years 2007 and 2012.  The vast majority of switchovers will take place from 2008 onwards, with the exception of Whitehaven, Cumbria.  Whitehaven will be switched over in October of 2007 and is the first UK town to become fully digitised.

Preparations and Trials

The government and broadcasting industry have been dutifully working on preparations leading up to the digital switchover since 2001.  This was originally done through the project named Digital Switchover Project that eventually gave fruition to the Digital Television Action Plan. 

Trials were conducted as a result of the Digital Television Project to gauge how the public would adhere to digital programming over terrestrial television sources.  The first of these trials took place in 2003 and the second from 2004 to 2005.

The first of the trials, Go Digital, studied 300 households that changed from analogue television to digital television in 2003.  All of the houses were located in the Litchfield, Sutton Coldfield and Tamworth areas due to the excellent coverage there by all three digital platforms (terrestrial digital TV, cable and satellite).  The residents were given free equipment that converted all of the televisions in each house for the entire time of the trial.  Some were even supplied with PVRs (personal video recorders) to avoid the hassle of converting their existing VCRs (video cassette recorders) to be compatible with the new equipment.  Freeview had not yet been launched when this trial began so there was a more limited number of channels broadcast.  Even with the reduced number of channels being offered, less than 6% of the group had no interest in switching to digital television after the trials were over despite 20% of the participants claiming not to be interested before the trails.

The second trial, called "The Digital Switchover Technical Trial" was launched as an investigation into the possible technical issues that could arise for broadcasters as well as viewers when the digital switchover took place on terrestrial programming.  After just three months, the households that participated in the trials were surveyed and asked if they would prefer to remain on the digital broadcast services or be reverted back to analogue to which 99% of the 85% of participants that responded said that they wished to keep the digital programming. 

When will my region be converted to digital television?

Below is a list of regions and the timeframes in which they will be switched over:

Latest Information

Specific information on each region will be released at least three years before that region is to be switched over, however not all regions have had information released yet.  Included below is the information known so far.

Border

When the digital switchover is complete in the border television region, it will be the first full United Kingdom region to have successfully made the switch from analogue programming to digital programming. 

The Border region switchover is slated to take place during the last quarter of 2008 and will use the Selkirk transmitter to serve the Scottish Borders.  During the second quarter of 2009, the Caldbeck transmitter will be used to serve Cumbria, the Isle of Man and Dumfries and Galloway.

West Country

The Beacon Hill transmitter will serve south Devon, including Plymouth in the second quarter of 2009.  Additionally, undergoing the changeover during the same period, the Stockland Hill transmitter will be serving west Dorset, southeast Devon, and southwest Devon.  During the third quarter of 2009, the Huntshaw Cross transmitter will be serving north Devon and the Redruth transmitter will be serving the Isles of Scilly and west Cornwall.  Finally the Caradon Hill transmitter will serve the remaining portions of Devon and Cornwall.

Granada

The last quarter of 2009 will see the Winter Hill transmitter serving all of Granada, including Cheshire, Manchester, Merseyside and Lancashire.

Wales

Wales begins to come online and into the digital world in the third quarter of 2009 when the Carmel transmitter begins serving south Wales and Swansea and the Preseli transmitter begins to serve the southwest Wales region. 

During the fourth quarter of 2009, the Moel-Y-Parc transmitter will serve the northeast Wales area and the Llandonna transmitter will begin covering northwest Wales including Anglesey.

Finally, the first quarter of 2010 will have the Wenvoe transmitter serve southeast Wales, the Blaenplwyf transmitter serve both central and west Wales and the Long Mountain transmitter comes online to support east-central Wales.

To Avoid Confusion...

The changeovers will ultimately be conducted by postcode. Where digital receptions overlap, householders will be informed of their own date in advance by post.