TV Aerials
In simple terms, in order to watch terrestrial television, including digital or Freeview television, the aerial on your home is key to ensuring that the picture you see is crisp and clear.
Television in the UK has been around since the 1940′s, but almost 70 years later a huge change is about to occur – the move from analogue signalling to digital signalling. The digital switchover is going to occur largely through 2011. When switch to digital happens will depend entirely on where you live in the UK. The switchover will happen across the UK TV region by TV region. If you want to know when your region switches over to digital (important to know because your standard analogue TV will no longer be able to receive a signal through your aerial) you may want to look at the Digital UK website.
If you have an old TV aerial it may not be sufficiently strong to receive a digital TV signal. It is always worth getting your aerial tested sooner rather than later because once the switchover happens, there will be a massive demand for new aerials – and of course this may mean that you’ll have to wait for an aerial fitter to become available.
Do I need a ‘digital’ aerial?
There is no such thing as a digital aerial, per se. However, you will need an aerial which is sufficiently up to date and constructed in such a way that it receives a digital signal successfully. Lots of people are worried that they’ll have to have a new TV aerial installed to receive Freeview TV once their area switches over, but for the majority of people the aerial they have right now will be more than suitable. In reality, it’s only those people who want to get their digital TV service via Freeview who may need a new aerial. If you want to watch TV via an alternative method, such as cable TV (Virgin Media being the biggest in the UK ) or a satellite TV service from companies such as Freesat or Sky, you won’t need an aerial at all.
If you currently have Freeview TV installed and are receiving a good Freeview signal, your current TV aerial should still work after the switchover has occurred.
See http://www.cai.org.uk/ for more info on aerials and aerial fitters in the UK.