Freeview Help: Coverage Advice

How accurate are coverage predictors?

Postcode-based predictors can only give an estimate of likely coverage. The database doesn’t know whether homes have basic or high-quality aerials, whether a person in that postcode lives in a house, ground-floor flat or a bungalow, or whether there are obstructions blocking a clear line to the transmitter – so it provides an estimate based on likely signal strength in the area. These estimates tend to be conservative.

Properties in a postcode that have decent aerials, correctly aligned, perhaps with an amplifier, may be able to get a decent signal when the predictor says that Freeview reception shouldn’t be possible.

It’s fairly safe to assume that if you get a fairly strong signal on the main 5 channels from the same transmitter as a transmitter that offers a digital TV signal, receiving Freeview shouldn’t be a problem in most cases. However, the only true way to find out 100% is to either borrow a friend’s Freeview box to try it out, or contact a TV aerial company and ask them to perform a signal test using your aerial.

Getting a good quality aerial of the correct group mounted on your roof and pointed directly at the appropriate digital TV transmitter gives you the best chance of getting a signal if you’re in a marginal area.

For aerial advice, see our aerial section.

• Satellite: Sky Digital offer a subscription as well as a Free to view service, and there’s also Freesat.
• Cable TV: From Virgin Media
• Via a phone line: From TalkTalk TV
• Broadband TV: Get your TV over the Internet

See our Digital TV options page for our rundown on the options.

Using the Wolfbane Coverage Predictor

The Wolfbane Digital TV coverage site offers some excellent information on receiving digital TV in the UK, but it’s designed for those with a technical understanding of how it all works. In this section, we’ll try to help interpret the results.

To start with, enter your postcode into www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe and view (or print) the results. They should look something like this:

Here’s what the results tell you:

• Transmitter: This lists the transmitters that you may be able to receive digital TV from. The first one in the list is likely to be your best bet. There’s a map of transmitters elsewhere on the Wolfbane site
• Multiplex: This lists the six multiplexes that are used to broadcast all of the Freeview channels (they are called 1, 2, A, B, C and D). Each of these has a UHF number, explaining where in the TV band these multiplexes occur, and it’s these UHF numbers which determine which “Group” of aerial you need. More on Groups.
• GP: The aerial “Group” needed for this transmitter More on Groups.
• Distance and bearing: How far away you are (in miles) from the transmitter, and the compass bearing (in degrees). The bearing is useful to work out where to point the aerial.
• Antenna suggestion: The site’s recommendation for what type of aerial is needed to get a signal – this can range from “set top aerial” (if you’re really close) to “extra hi-gain amplified” (if you need a good-quality rooftop aerial with amplification)

Wolfbane can only provide an estimated coverage prediction… there are no guarantees.