Accurate maps of ITV regions

A very strange but useful fact:


I think this is the only time the public won against the IBA.

Depending on atmospheric conditions it was possible in the analogue days to get a signal from another region even if you were not in an overlap area. I remember on a couple of occasions I could get another region, while buried here deep in the Sutton Coldfield footprint, and that region IIRC was Yorkshire, as I believe it shared the same UHF "channel" there as it did in Central. It was there, ghosting on the picture and generating interference over the signal from Sutton Coldfield. That was the exception rather than than the rule though.

Talking of transmitters and atmospheric conditions I have a "memory" (I believe it to be a memory, unless I dreamt it up and took it as literal) of seeing an apology caption from Central during a Catchphrase transmission on a late Saturday afternoon/early evening that had a picture of a transmitter in the Central style and font apologising for the picture problems caused by heavy fog at some point. It's possibly late 1980s/early 1990s. I only remember it because I was hiding behind a chair at my grandparents house at the time... I've never been able to find the caption again which is why I can't be sure if I've dreamt it or not.

Although Sky do define specific boundaries by post code for regional broadcasts, they provide additional services in the 970s channel range for overlap areas which can pick up another region.

No doubt VM do the same for DVB-C transmissions, & BT/YouView certainly do that for DVB-T2 where the additional signals load in the 800 range.

As a result, it's very difficult to draw an exact map of boundaries.


I'm not sure that we should delve too deeply in to why a young Neil was hiding from his Grandparents . . .

Still true today with DTT, I have BBC 1 West Mids and ITV Central stored in the 800s which make
an appearance during appropriate weather conditions, and also London Live and That's Oxford.

My parents' aerial points west to the Wrekin and BBC 1 Wales has found its way into the 800s but not sure from which transmitter.

I used to get BBC1 South/TVS/Meridian from Hannington ranging from near perfect to snowy before DSO and Sudbury (BBC1 East/Anglia) in another room, but nothing since DSO.

Do they still that ? I thought ITV asked them to stop that quite a few years ago, the only ITV region that's an 'extra' is ITV London (available nationwide because it carries an AD track ?)

It's only all the other BBC regions that are carried in the 9xx range on Sky (and Freesat) ?

I think Yorkshire was available in Lincoln, certainly on analogue there were two ITVs available but only one BBC. London was also available on DVB-C as it was then the only one with Audio Description, may still be the same case.

That's a great map! Saved onto my hardrive.

That's probably because since DSO Sudbury's COMs are co-channel with Hannington's PSBs and vice versa !

For you it's just a mangled mess now, undecodable

Have a higher res version I've just taken with my proper camera, rather than phone

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kat4kahj7hrkyvl/DSC01148.JPG?dl=0

Sky Channel 973 is ITV London, though ITV HD (at least in Central region) does have Audio Description as well, so 973 may indeed be the option for AD on an SD picture.

Even if there was an option for another ITV region on Sky, it wouldn't been in the 970s anyway, as that block of 10 is the BBC 2 nations, ITV London, C4/C4+1 and the BBC 1 nations.

Not that it really matters because you can add all the regions via Other Channels anyway, though of course these days it's all the same programmes bar two hours or so a day



Channel 951 upwards you'll find all the regions on Sky from the BBC. One will be missing, mapped to your postcode on 101 instead. They're all free-to-air so any compatible receiver can get them.