100 day digital countdown

Don Frame

July 28, 2009

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11-year-olds Latasha Gorge and Alana Chaisty celebrate 100 days to digital switchover at Winter Hill

DOZENS of local schoolchildren assembled at the giant Winter Hill transmitter mast in Lancashire to mark the start of a 100-day countdown to region's digital TV switchover.

The Granada TV area is one of the first to make the switch from analogue, which will begin on November 4.

By 2012 the whole country will be receiving digital signals.

The youngsters were joined by the switchover mascot `Digit Al' at the 1,035 foot mast - the country's tallest television transmitter.

Winter Hill has the second biggest population coverage of any British television transmitter at around 7m people.

Digital UK, an independent body leading the switchover, has been sending leaflets out to homes highlighting what people need to do to ensure that they are prepared.

A series of roadshows starts in Manchester today, and a detailed 20-page guide to switchover is being sent to every household in the area.

On screen captions will also be shown, to remind viewers to get ready. These will be backed up by TV, press and radio advertising giving viewers the options for going digital.

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Showing comments 1 to 5 and replies | View All

Andy Gagae (28/07/2009 at 12:11)

emley moor is bigger at 1084ft

Mark,Radcliffe. (28/07/2009 at 13:21)

I've seen on Pizza packaging that on a Pizza margarita it had analogue cheese on it.Will this now be making the switch to digital cheese ?

Mr Angry, Bury (29/07/2009 at 11:05)

This is another massive con to get people to buy new equipment which they otherwise wouldnt need

Zimmerman, manchester (29/07/2009 at 17:52)

Since ive gone digital and bought all new TVs ect i get lots of interferance on my TVs the sound goes out of sync the picture goes blocky and some days the picture goes blank,and my DAB digital radio suffers the same problems sound goes on and off and distorts sometimes.these problems in forty years of analogue tv and radio i never had. The only reason we are being conned into the new digital age is they can control what you watch,they can switch channels off at will,another way of getting the TV licence off us all even those who evade the licence.

Phil Oldham (29/07/2009 at 22:56)

Mr Angry - what was the last con they brought out that FORCED you to buy new equipment? A catho tube ray? Colour?

Zimmerman - The signal strength will get a lot stronger when they switch off the analogue channels, if you think about it, currently, the one transmitter is emitting the analogue channels and umpteen digital TV and radio channels. Analogue channels require a lot more of the available 'bandwidth'..we are talking over 5x the airwaves per channel (if I remember correctly, although I stand to be corrected!). Hence why, that when these are switched off, the transmission equipment will be purely dedicated to digital broadcasting and provide a much better service.

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