If you woke to find your favourite TV channel has gone missing overnight, chances are you aren’t alone. Some free-to-air digital TV channels in the north coast are changing frequencies today.
The retune will affect viewers who receive their TV signal from the Mount Moombil, Mount Nardi or Mount Springbrook TV towers. This includes viewers from Coolangatta to parts of Port Macquarie.
The areas affected in our region include Coolangatta, Murwillumbah, Tweed Heads, Byron Bay, Nimbin, Ballina, Lismore, Casino, Yamba, Grafton.
The Department of Communications says most of the region will need to retune today but some areas may be due to retune at a later date.
The channel changes will free up broadcasting spectrum so it can be used for new services such as mobile broadband.
Once the channels have moved, viewers will need to retune their digital TV, set-top box or digital TV recorder to get them back.
Retuning is done using the remote. For most systems, viewers should press the ‘menu’ button on the remote, look for settings such as ‘channels’ or ‘auto-tuning’, then follow the prompts to retune. A video and three-step guide to retuning is available on the website.
Viewers might want to write down their favourite channel, program recordings or parental lock settings before they retune.
There may be some disruption to all TV services for several hours today due to work being conducted at the transmission site.
There may also be outages to all TV services over the next two days. Viewers will not need to retune again – the TV services will reappear once the work at the transmission site has been completed.
People living in apartments may be using a shared antenna system. If channels do not reappear after retuning, they should contact their property manager or body corporate.
Viewers who are having difficulty retuning their equipment should check their manufacturer’s handbook or manual for instructions on how to retune, ask a friend or family member to help, visit the retune website or call the Digital Ready Information Line on 1800 20 10 13, 8am to 10pm, 7 days.
If your TV is still working today and you want to find out your retune day, visit the website at http://retune.digitalready.gov.au/ and type your address into the ‘Get retune info’ box.
what a f***up – as the old saying goes “this mob couldn’t organise a root in a brothel …. no updates on what is going off when – my 87 year old mother thought the world was about to end last night and rang me at midnight asking what was going on … and now its gone off again … no warning on the screen from any of the channels. Free to air TV motto? Treat em like mushrooms … feed em s*** and keep em in the dark. It might be free but its clear the broadcasters just don’t care. I am going to retune to the internet – stuffem I say