Telly lovers warned of BBC station changes on Freeview TODAY after recent closures – and there’s a new TV channel too
HOUSEHOLDS with Freeview will notice a few changes on their box today following a number of channel closures in the last year.
Some stations have shifted number completely, others have been rebranded and there’s even a new channel this month.
So, viewers will need to familiarise themselves to ensure they’re not missing their favourite programmes.
And it may mean you need to rescan your box too.
The biggest set of changes this time around is to the radio stations on Freeview.
All the local BBC stations have shifted number following the removal of some rival radio networks.
The likes of Magic, Greatest Hits Radio, Kiss and Absolute Radio disappeared from Freeview in April.
They haven’t shutdown completely, just on terrestrial TV, as owners Bauer said the amount of people listening to radio via their telly is now relatively small making up only 4 per cent of digital consumption.
It followed a similar move on Sky and Virgin Media last year, urging people to use their radio app instead.
As a result of the shake-up, Freeview has decided to reshuffle its radio stations a bit, affecting local BBC networks.
The network you receive for each number will depend on where you live but here are all the radio changes to be aware of:
- BBC Berkshire – 711
- BBC Bristol – 711
- BBC CWR – 711
- BBC Jersey – 711
- BBC Kent – 711
- BBC Leeds – 711
- BBC Manchester – 711
- BBC Newcastle – 711
- BBC Norfolk – 711
- BBC R Scotland – 711
- BBC Radio Ulster – 711
- BBC Radio Wales – 711
- BBC Radio Cymru – 712
- BBC Devon – 712
- BBC Radio Foyle – 712
- BBC H&W – 712
- BBC Lancashire – 712
- BBC R n Gaidheal – 712
- BBC Nottingham – 712
- BBC Suffolk – 712
- BBC Sussex – 712
- BBC Three Counties – 712
- BBC York – 712
- BBC Cornwall – 713
- BBC Cumbria – 713
- BBC Radio Cymru 2 – 713
- BBC Guernsey – 713
- BBC Humberside – 713
- BBC Leicester – 713
- BBC Radio London – 713
- BBC Shropshire – 713
- BBC Wiltshire – 713
- BBC Cambridge – 714
- BBC Lincolnshire – 714
- BBC Merseyside – 714
- BBC Oxford – 714
- BBC Solent – 714
- BBC Somerset – 714
- BBC Surrey – 714
- BBC Tees – 714
- BBC WM – 714
- BBC Solent Dorset – 715
- BBC Stoke – 715
- BBC Essex – 716
- BBC Northampton – 716
- BBC Sheffield – 716
- BBC Gloucestershire – 716
- BBC Derby – 717
New Freeview channel
There’s also a new channel landing on Freeview for July too.
It’s a streamed hybrid offering, so you’ll need your TV hooked up to the internet to watch.
The channel is called GINX TV and you’ll find it on number 296.
GINX TV caters to everything video gaming, which claims to be the “world’s first and largest gaming TV network”.
Channel rebrands
Finally, nine channels available on Freeview have undergone a revamp this month.
One you may have heard about, involving UKTV’s free channels Drama, Dave, W and Yesterday.
They’re all shifting to a unified brand U, meaning they are now called U&Drama, U&Dave, U&W and U&Yesterday.
The same applies to their hour shift +1 channels.
But coverage on the channels remains the same as before, and so do their station numbers too.
The only other rebrand is to That’s 60s and That’s 60’s MCR which have jumped 20 years to become That’s 80s and That’s 80s MCR.