All change for some Freeview users in Guernsey at the beginning of March, as a local transmitter has to move to a new location. Some locals aren’t happy about it.
The St Peter Port TV relay needs to move from its current location at the edge of a car park off Hauteville as the site is being redeveloped. The relay will move to a new mast over the valley at the edge of Mt Durand Car Park during the 1st and 2nd of March. During the transfer, TV services will be temporarily unavailable.
The new site will cover around 2,000 homes, although about 125 homes are expected to lose their signal due to the change in location. It covers an area of Guernsey’s capital unable to get a signal from the island’s main transmitter at Les Touillets.
Planning permission was granted in early 2021, but not without 46 letters of objection, many from neighbours concerned the mast would be detrimental to their properties. There was also distrust of transmitter company Arqiva’s computerised coverage prediction. At 18 meters height, the new mast will be lower than the original mast, and around 2 metres lower than a typical 5G monopole common back in the UK.
Under the terms of the planning application, the top of the mast has to be painted in a colour other than white. Arqiva won’t be allowed to add new antenna to the site, e.g. for mobile services without prior approval.
Channels available from the new site
The site will carry all the main UK public service channels from Freeview multiplex PSB1, PSB2 and PSB3 (HD) in line with all TV transmitter sites in the Channel Islands. This includes the Channel Islands-specific versions of BBC One and ITV, plus BBC local radio via Freeview. The new site will inherit the same frequencies as the old relay:
- PSB1 – UHF channel 24 (BBC standard definition TV, plus radio)
- PSB2 – UHF channel 27 (ITV and offshoots, Channel 4 and offshoots, plus Channel 5)
- PSB3 (HD) – UHF channel 21 (Most of the main channels in HD)