Why You May Need to Retune Your TV

There are changes being made to TV transmitters in preparation for 5G mobile signals which will lead to some people losing their Freeview channels.

Ofcom and Digital UK are the companies in charge of coordinating this massive task that will mean re-engineering hundreds of TV transmitters throughout the UK. They have predicted that up to 20million households will need to retune their TV signals to be able to access all of the Freeview channels that are available.

Thankfully, the process of retuning your TV is exactly the same as when you first set up your TV. You can find the tuning setting in your TV’s settings menu and set it to search for all of the channels automatically.

If you are a customer of YouView, NOW TV, BT TV, TalkTalk or EE TV, you will also need to retune your TV.

What can you do if retuning your TV doesn’t work?

Some households across the UK will not be able to simply retune and Ofcom predicts this number will be up to 160,000 who will need a new aerial to continue receiving Freeview channels.

If retuning your TV doesn’t work, then it will be necessary for you to get a digital TV aerial installer to come out and install a new aerial for you. The issue you’ll be experiencing can be attributed to the changes being made to transmitters over the coming year.

However, it could be as simple as needing to have your aerial realigned and Ofcom expects up to 100,000 households to experience this issue. This procedure needs to be undertaken by a professional who is trained to ensure your digital TV aerial meets the correct standards.

There are some rare cases where people may need to change their TV platform entirely. For example, satellite and cable TV services like Virgin will be unaffected by the changes being made to transmitters.