Freeview users will lose their TV channels for six hours later this month - this is why and what you need to do

People with Freeview will lose six hours of TV this October because of a required update.

Viewers in Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire, Liverpool, and North Staffordshire will be affected by work on the Winter Hill transmitter as part of a major engineering project.

Around 2.7m homes are served by the affected transmitter, and as a result, viewers may need to retune their TV equipment to continue watching some channels.

Some of the channels are moving to new airwaves to make way for future development of new mobile broadband services.

When will it happen?

The changes will start with the Winter Hill transmitter, which serves our region, on October 23.

Shortly after midnight, Freeview channels will be off-air overnight until 6am.

Some of the channels are moving to new airwaves (Freeview)

After this, any viewers receiving their TV signal from the main Winter Hill transmitter who find they are missing channels can retune their TVs.

However, services from smaller, local relays may be disrupted until late afternoon.

Satellite and cable TV are not affected.

Equipment for other services that use Freeview channels, such as YouView, BT TV, TalkTalk, EE and Now TV may also need to be retuned.

Freeview will be running an information campaign to prepare people for the change, including advertising and on-screen messages.

How to retune your Freeview TV

Retuning should be straightforward and some TV equipment will retune automatically.

But some older aerials may need to be replaced to continue receiving all channels.

1. Press menu or home on your   remote control.
2. Select set-up, installation, settings or similar (if password needed, try 1234 or 0000)
3. Select first time installation (sometimes called factory reset, full retune or auto-tuning)
4. If asked to delete existing channels, press OK and your retune should start automatically.

Further changes will take place at the Winter Hill transmitter group in early 2020.

If you need advice or still that that you're missing services, then you can visit the Freeview website at www.freeview.co.uk/tvchanges or contact the Freeview Advice Line free on 0808 100 0288.