Full Freeview on the Saddleworth (Oldham, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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53.542,-2.021 or 53°32'30"N 2°1'16"W

OL3 5RU

The symbol shows the location of the Saddleworth (Oldham, England) transmitter which serves 11,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Saddleworth (Oldham, England) mast?

Saddleworth transmitter - Saddleworth transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 06/12/2021 Screen may go black on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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Which Freeview channels does the Saddleworth transmitter broadcast?

If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.

Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	V max	C45 (666.0MHz)	391m	DTG-3	400W
	1 BBC One (SD) North West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, 250 BBC Red Button, plus 16 others
PSB2 D3+4	V max	C39+ (618.2MHz)	391m	DTG-3	400W
	3 ITV (SD) (Granada), 4 Channel 4 (SD) North ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 North ads, 18 More4, 25 ITV4, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV +1 (Granada),
PSB3 BBCB	V max	C42 (642.0MHz)	391m	DTG-6	400W
	73 Shopping Quarter , 101 BBC One HD (England no regional news), 102 BBC Two HD (England), 103 ITV HD (ITV Granada), 104 Channel 4 HD North ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 204 CBBC HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	V max	C51- (713.8MHz)	391m	DTG-8	400W
	CCXTV, 12 Quest, 20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 42 GREAT! movies action, 45 Channel 5 +1, 56 5SELECT, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 60 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 CBS Reality, 68 Horror Channel, 74 Drama +1, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 203 CITV, 211 Ketchup TV, 212 YAAAS!, plus 16 others
COM5 ArqA	V max	C52+ (722.2MHz)	391m	DTG-8	400W
	11 Sky Arts, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 4Music, 36 pick, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 46 Film4 +1, 47 Challenge, 48 4seven, 57 Smithsonian Channel, 70 Quest +1, 75 Yesterday +1, 83 Together TV, 233 Sky News, plus 9 others
COM6 ArqB	V max	C48- (689.8MHz)	391m	DTG-8	400W
	25 Dave ja vu, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 41 CBS Justice, 44 HGTV, 68 CBS Drama, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 234 RT, 235 Aljazeera English, plus 17 others

DTG-3 64QAM 8K 2/3 24.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-6 256QAM 32KE 2/3 40.2Mb/s DVB-T2 MPEG4
DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Are you trying to watch these 11 Freeview HD channels?

The Saddleworth (Oldham, England) mast is not one of the extended Freeview HD (COM7 and COM8) transmitters, it does not provide these high definition (HD) channels: BBC Four HD, BBC News HD, CBeebies HD, Forces TV, FreeSports, More4 +1, Now 70s, PBS America +1, That's TV , Quest Red +1, RT HD.

If you want to watch these HD channels, either use Freesat HD, or move your TV aerial must point to one of the 30 Full Freeview HD transmitters. For more information see the want to know which transmitters will carry extra Freeview HD? page.

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Saddleworth transmitter?

BBC North West Tonight 3.1m homes 11.8%
from Salford M50 2QH, 20km west-southwest (248°)
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.

ITV Granada Reports 3.1m homes 11.6%
from Salford M50 2EQ, 20km west-southwest (248°)
to ITV Granada region - 80 masts.

How will the Saddleworth (Oldham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2009	2009-13	10 Apr 13	2013-17	30 Mar 2018
	B E T	B E T	B E T	B E T	B E T	B E T	B E T
C39					D3+4	D3+4	D3+4
C41				_local	_local	_local	_local
C42	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	BBCB	BBCB	BBCB	BBCB
C45	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	BBCA	BBCA	BBCA
C48				-ArqB	-ArqB	-ArqB	ArqB
C49_{tv_off}	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	+D3+4
C51_{tv_off}				-SDN	-SDN	-SDN	SDN
C52_{tv_off}	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	+ArqA	+ArqA	+ArqA

_{tv_off} Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
_waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 4 Nov 09 and 2 Dec 09.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4	2kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 400W
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-17dB) 40W

Local transmitter maps

Saddleworth Freeview Saddleworth DAB Winter Hill TV region BBC North West Granada

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area

May 1956-Jul 1968	Granada Television†
May 1956-Jul 1968	Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Feb 2004	Granada Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Saddleworth was not an original Channel 3 VHF 405-line mast: the historical information shown is the details of the company responsible for the transmitter when it began transmitting Channel 3.