Ofcom investigation finds lack of site-specific plans to deal with such major incidents and delays in communicating with affected viewers.
The Bilsdale transmitter fire on 10th August wiped out TV and radio reception to over half a million homes across parts of North Yorkshire, County Durham and Teesside.
Ten months on, households across the area are relying on a series of temporary relay masts and towers to provide them with a signal. Some households have switched to online TV or satellite. In the worst hit areas, viewers were without a TV signal for months. Some areas only had their TV signal restored just before Christmas.
Ofcom has now published its full incident review, revealing a lack of specific plans, mixed communication and a viewer support service most viewers said they hadn’t used.
No site-specific plans
Ofcom found transmitter company Arqiva didn’t have site-specific plans for emergencies at Bilsdale. Instead site-specific issues were left until something occurred. The investigation found this was a problem, as Bilsdale mast is located in a site of specific scientific interest (SSSI). As a result, there were long delays in getting the relevant permissions to build a temporary mast.
It took two months before the temporary mast at Bilsdale Quarry went live. This was subsequently replaced by a more weather-resistant tower in February. A new 300 metre+ mast is due to be completed next year.
Communications
The report also confirms multiple licensees found they were getting information from other media outlets instead of from Ofcom. They reported the information was not quickly forthcoming from Arqiva.
Arqiva meanwhile told Ofcom it had “took the lead” in providing information to viewers, local stakeholders and responding to media questions. But the regulator found that until that happened, there was no central source of information for viewers.
Ofcom found that on attending meetings set up to brief stakeholders, on occasions “information flowed into the meetings after it had been made publicly available.”
And Ofcom noted viewers were left in the dark as to how they could benefit from coverage from the growing number of temporary transmitter sites. It said “without this information and advice, viewers would not be able to take advantage of the coverage that the temporary transmitters were progressively delivering.”
Viewer support fail
In addition to its incident review, Ofcom commissioned a survey to gauge viewer feedback on how they were affected.
It found only 4% of those responding to the survey said they had received any help from the official support scheme with retuning their TVs. The majority said they have received no help or have had help from friends. Overall, 54% of households that responded to the survey felt communication had been weak. 65% of respondents were unhappy with the speed of restoration of services, with nearly threequarters of younger households unsatisfied.
What has Ofcom recommended?
The regulator says terrestrial broadcast industry stakeholders should review the circumstances and response to the Bilsdale fire and consider what worked well, and also where there are weaknesses and areas that need improving.
It has also said that Stakeholders should ensure they include in their reviews appropriate consideration of the following:
- Resilience provided by their technical infrastructure architecture;
- Adequacy of plans for recovering services in case of major failures, including the
need for site-specific plans; and - Status of communications and support plans to ensure they are adequate and
proportionate for foreseeable eventualities.
Finally, Ofcom says Arqiva and relevant Agencies and Government Departments need to talk about issues relating to planning and legal access to land.
Arqiva’s work to prevent another Bilsdale
Arqiva has now spent over £40million on the restoration of services at Bilsdale. This includes the cost of viewer support, building temporary transmitter sites and the rebuilding of the main mast.
The company has previously indicated water ingress into third-party equipment is likely to be the cause of the fire.
The fire was made worse by the tubular design of the mast, allowing the mast to act as a chimney, through which the fire spread. Other masts are of an open lattice type.
There are four other transmitter masts of the same type, including one at Waltham, serving the East Midlands.
Arqiva says it has put into place additional fire precaution measures to product them against fire.
As well as additional inspections, Arqiva is planning on implementing a number of modifications to aspects of the masts and their interior cabling and equipment to reduce the likelihood of a fire occurring, and also limit the damage caused should a fire break out.
Bilsdale – temporary transmitter sites and manual tuning frequencies
By: RXTV staff