Winter Hill Transmitting Station - Coverage

Coverage

The station's coverage includes approximately 6.3 million people. Although not the 'correct' television region, it is the preferred region for some in North Wales, mainly because it carries Channel 4 (as opposed to S4C), Channel 5 and a much more powerful digital terrestrial output than the Welsh transmitters. The region's ITV franchisees, Granada Television (weekdays only until 1968) and ABC Television (Associated British Corporation) weekends (launched in 1956), were on air much earlier than North Wales' franchisee, WWN (Teledu Cymru) which launched in 1962 (subsequently HTV Wales) giving viewers more choice than they would with the Welsh transmissions. ABC Television lost its franchise in 1968, when Granada Television commenced broadcasting seven days a week. Since the digital switchover, the Welsh transmitters are broadcasting DTT at a much higher power and Channel 4 and Channel 5 are now included in the line-up. However, because of terrain and rough landscapes of North Wales, many will find it easier to stay with Winter Hill (as small local relays will only broadcast a limited range of the digital channels).

In July 2007 it was confirmed by Ofcom that Winter Hill would be remaining a C/D group transmitter after DSO (digital switchover). One of the Winter Hill Multiplexes (Arqiva B or MUX6), broadcasting channels including Film4 and ITV4, was on reduced power (12.5 kW) until Sutton Coldfield went fully digital in September 2011. This compares with the other Winter Hill digital multiplexes which have broadcast with 100 kW since 2 December 2009. This significantly affected the Arqiva B multiplex coverage area until the Sutton Coldfield final switchover.

Apart from North Wales, the coverage area is what is expected, covering a large area of the northwest. More Relay Transmitters appear towards the east in Greater Manchester.