Jersey to miss out on the TV turnover
Thursday 21st January 2010, 2:56PM GMT.
The transmitter at Frémont will receive only the minimum number of channels
MOST digital TV channels will not be available via an aerial when the analogue signal is turned off in Jersey later this year.
Only 16 channels will become available when the new digital service is launched in November, compared with 55 in more than 90 per cent of areas in the UK.
Jersey television sets will not be able to receive the channels because the Island is not covered by any of the UK’s 80 large transmitters. The Frémont transmitter is among more than 1,000 across the UK which will receive only the minimum number of channels.
The analogue signal will be turned off in the Channel Islands on 17 November as part of the countrywide digital switchover. From that day, those who do not have a satellite dish will have to buy a Freeview digital box. The box, which costs about £25, will enable the viewer to watch digital TV via their aerial using their existing televisions.
Those on certain types of benefits will receive the box and support free. For more information on the switchover, log on to www.digitaluk.co.uk or call 08456 505050.
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“Those on certain types of benefits will receive the box and support free”
What types and why? Some of these people on benefits should not be actively encouraged to sit on the couch all day.
Since when was TV a life necessity?
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Laughed out loud!”techno Jersey” forever 30 years behind the uk misses out again.
How many will be looking at a blank screen for a few years before they realise the signals been shut off.
Like a local said to me recently,”im not” going Digital! “Thats not telling the time properly!!;-)
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Should we receive a two thirds discount on our TV licence to compensate?
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So Fremont’s ‘not big enough’ to handle all the channels?
Fair enough – hopefully it will be upgraded at some point in the future!
But who decided which of the channels take up the apparently small amount of capacity available via Fremont?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to give us another unique channel, rather than the timeshifted version of Channel 4? How about Film 4?
And BBC Parliament is a huge snore that 99% of the time is irrelevant to the islands. I’d rather ditch that and have CNN, which may still be irrelevant but at least it’s more interesting!
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Who cares. Most of it is dross anyway!
But yes Spring Heeled Jack does have a point. We’ve been missing out on digital channels the UK has received for years and that has had nothing to do with our infrastructure but is due to the fact the UK government left the islands last on their list to broadcast digital signals to. So yeah we should have been paying a reduced license fee for years. I don’t see why islanders should have to pay for BBC presenters and crew we cannot access.
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It’s not as if we knew this was coming, we only had a few years notice. Freeview is overrated with a poor interface compared to sky and limited channels, I am happy to pay a premium for Sky.
“Those on certain types of benefits will receive the box and support free”
I’m guessing most of these people have Sky anyway and don’t need the box.
As for Spring Heeled Jack’s discount on his TV licence, you want a discouunt for being able to receive 3 times the number of channels currently available at no extra cost – he must be a local.
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Does that mean I don’t have to pay for the tv licence now?
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@ PJ #7
Depends how old you are; if you’re under 75years old then you WILL still need to pay a licence fee.
And if you’re under 75years old you only have to pay for the licences of those over 75years old, you can opt out of paying your own by not having a TV… but there seems to be no way of opting out of recieving the demands to pay your licence!?
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“Those on certain types of benefits will receive the box and support free”
Who exactly?
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I think it should be pointed out that the reason we have been so late in receiving the DSO “digital switch over” is because of ongoing issues with French DTT channels using the same frequency band. Now that the French government has reached a final decision on their plan we can set a date at which the frequencies we require will be availiable 17th Nov 2010.
Also the reason we will receive less channels is because there is still not enough availiable bandwidth once shared with the French to give a full Freeview service and unless there is another radical change in how we watch TV there will be no change to this in the near future! Although we should be able to recive some french DTT channels, if that is any sort of bonus.
I do agree that we should have a reduction in our licence cost though, exactly how much area specific news/programming does the BBC create to demand the charge!
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As they can easily pick up any channels they like at Fremont with a simple satellite dish, there is no excuse that I find acceptable based upon how they get their programme feeds.
Is the real truth of the matter that they can’t get clearance from the French (as usual) for more than the current 4 frequencies?
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Surprise..surprise…with probably the most expensive civil service and beaurocracy in the world per capita, with more staff and departments than a stick could be thrown at……god help us if there is a hard and convoluted way to nause things up here…we seem to find it.
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