Wyre Digital Switchover

Switchover Information for Wyre, Lancashire

We’re taking random areas of the UK to see what the options are like for TV after the digital tv switchover, both the channel availability for Freeview and the availability of Sky, Virgin Media and BT digital TV packages.

Wyre

The borough of Wyre in Lancashire is in the Granada TV region, and is served by the
Winter Hill transmitter – switched to digital in two stages, 4th November 2009 and 2nd December 2009. On the 4th November BBC2 went go digital and some extra channels became available – if you haven’t switched to digital you will no longer receive BBC2, and if you have Freeview, BT Vision or Top Up TV you’ll need to re-tune your equipment. On the 2nd December all of the remaining channels will go digital and the rest of the extra channels will appear – again, if you have Freeview, BT Vision or Top Up TV you’ll need to retune. Between these two dates you may need to switch from analogue to digital to get the whole range of channels.

Our three random postcodes in Wyre are FY7 7HY in Warren, PR3 1FA in Garstang and PR3 0RS in Brock, and when we tried these in the Digital UK postcode checker we found almost the same result for each – the methods of reception for a one off payment are Freeview, Freesat and Freesat from Sky and available subscription services are Top Up TV, BT Vision and Sky. Tiscali phone was also an option for the Warren postcode but not the other two. These are the results we got using the Sky, Virgin Media and BT postcode checkers.

Sky

For FY7 7HY in Warren we got “Great news, Sky Broadband is currently available in your area. Based on the postcode you have entered there is a good indication you are in a Sky Broadband network area, where Sky Broadband Base, Mid, and Max are currently available. In order to join Sky Broadband you will need an active BT compatible phone line.”
What does this mean? All of the services offered by Sky are available to you.

For PR3 1FA in Garstang and PR3 0RS in Brock we got “Sky Broadband Connect is available. Based on the postcode you have entered, there is a good indication that Sky Broadband Connect is available in your area. Fast download speeds of up to 8Mb and a massive monthly usage allowance of 40GB can be yours now with Sky Broadband Connect. Please note: broadband speeds vary with location and line quality. In order to join Sky Broadband you will need an active BT compatible phone line.”
What does this mean? It means you can’t get the regular Sky broadband services as your exchange hasn’t been updated yet, but you can receive the 8MB Connect service – this doesn’t affect your ability to get Sky TV in the usual way using a Sky TV box and Sky dish. You need either a BT or Sky phone line – Sky will install a phone line free of charge and then £10 per month is charged. You can still take out any of the Sky TV packages but only with the Connect broadband rather than Base, Mid or Max.

Virgin Media

All three of our postcodes came up with the same message – “Your home is not in a Virgin Media cable area so you can’t get our fibre-optic cable services, but you can get our National services. National services up to 16Mb! Our National broadband and phone services are available to all. Unlike our cable services, they’re delivered down your phone line – in just the same way other companies offer it.”
What does this mean? You can get Virgin Media broadband down your phone line but no cable TV services – they offer a Freeview box for £40 but this is not connected to the broadband (the way it would be with BT Vision), it’s just a Freeview box like any other you would get from a shop.

BT

Again, for BT the message was the same for all three of our test postcodes – “Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial check on your postcode indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a line rate up to 2Mbps. Our check also indicates that your line currently supports a potential ADSL Max broadband line rate of 6.5Mbps or greater. Your exchange is planned to have ADSL WBC (Wholesale Broadband Connect) by 31st March 2010.”
What does this mean? BT broadband is available to you and should be fast enough to be able to use BT Vision – you need a broadband speed that averages at least 2Mbps to use BT Vision so all of these postcodes should be fine but it’s advisable to check your own postcode to get your own particular line speed.

Freeview

Wyre is in the Granada TV region, where it is estimated by the government body Digital UK that 99% of households will be able to get 17 channels after switchover and 97% will be able to pick up more channels than that from the 47 TV channels (plus text and radio services) that will be available. A retune of your equipment will be required – more information on that here – and in some cases an aerial upgrade – see Digital Aerials page.

Freeview Channel Availability

Free Channels Available

• BBC1
• BBC2
• ITV1
• 4
• Five
• ITV2
• BBC3
• BBC4
• ITV3
• Sky3
• 4+1
• More4
• Dave
• ITV4
• E4, E4+1
• FiveUS
• Fiver
• Smile TV
• Smile TV2
• CBBC
• CBeebies
• CITV
• QVC
• BidTV
• Community Channel
• Teachers TV
• BBC News
• BBC Parliament
• Sky News
• Sky Sports News

Free Channels Possibly Needing Aerial Upgrade

• UKTV History
• 4 Music
• Virgin 1
• TMF
• ITV2+1
• Film4
• Ideal World
• Gems TV
• Lottery Xtra

Subscription Channels Available

• UK Style
• Top UP TV

Please note that our switchover pages refer to the switchover dates and channel information at the time of writing, which is generally pre-switchover, and for most areas circumstances will have since changed.

Switchover areas

• Caradon Hill Switchover
• Carlisle Switchover
• Carmarthenshire Switchover
• Cornwall Redruth Switchover
• Dumfries and Galloway Switchover
• Exeter Switchover
• Lincolnshire Switchover
• North Devon Switchover
• Preseli Switchover
• Sedgemoor Switchover
• Sheffield Switchover
• South Gloucestershire Switchover
• South Somerset Switchover
• Southwark Switchover
• Stoke Switchover
• Stroud Switchover
• Swansea Switchover
• Torbay Switchover
• Wenvoe Switchover
• Wyre Digital Switchover

Digital TV Packages

• Sky+ HD Starter
• Sky+ HD with Sky Movies
• Sky+ HD with Sky World
• Sky+ HD with Sky Sports
• Virgin TV L + Phone M
• Virgin Media TiVo Starter Bundle
• Virgin Media TiVo XL
• Top Up TV Favourites
• Top Up TV Complete Sports Pack
• BT Vision Gold Pack
• TV Essential + Broadband and Anytime Calls
• TV Unlimited + Broadband + Anytime Calls