Freeview Users Are Losing Ten Channels Today And Need To Take Urgent Action

Freeview users have been put on alert as they are set to lose a number of channels today, 30 June.

Millions of households are being urged to retune their television sets because of major changes to the subscription service.

Technicians are cutting the COM7 Multiplex broadcast signal, replacing it with EE's 5G mobile technology.

But while some will be moving over, Freeview is ditching 10 channels all together, and users will have to make sure they act quickly if they want to continue watching them.

Freeview has recommended that customers run system updates in order to make sure they have the most up to date selection.

The channels affected are BBC News HD, PBS America+1, More4+1, QVC HD and QVC Beauty HD, Forces TV, Quest HD, CBS Justice, Craft Extra and FreeSports.

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Discussing the changes, a spokesperson for Freeview said: "Since the decision by Ofcom to make more airwaves available for mobile data, the Ofcom licence for some channels broadcasting on Freeview has expired.

"This means that affected channels are making changes to the way they are broadcast moving forward."

They went on: "Channels will be making changes to the way they are broadcast on 29th June 2022. You will need to retune your TV to continue watching these channels."

A spokesperson for the BBC added: "As a consequence of the closure of COM7, BBC News on Freeview will be available only in SD from the end of June 2022. However, you can still watch it in HD on BBC iPlayer."

Earlier this year, Ofcom announced it had revoked Russia Today's licence to broadcast in the UK, saying the channel was not ‘fit and proper' to hold a UK broadcast licence.

The decision was taken following an investigation by regulatory body Ofcom into the impartiality of its news coverage amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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In a statement, Ofcom said: "Today’s decision comes amid 29 ongoing investigations by Ofcom into the due impartiality of RT’s news and current affairs coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

"We consider the volume and potentially serious nature of the issues raised within such a short period to be of great concern – especially given RT’s compliance history, which has seen the channel fined £200,000 for previous due impartiality breaches."

The statement went on: "We also note new laws in Russia which effectively criminalise any independent journalism that departs from the Russian state’s own news narrative, in particular in relation to the invasion of Ukraine.

"We consider that given these constraints it appears impossible for RT to comply with the due impartiality rules of our Broadcasting Code in the circumstances."

Ofcom Chief Executive Dame Melanie Dawes, said: "Freedom of expression is something we guard fiercely in this country, and the bar for action on broadcasters is rightly set very high.

"Following an independent regulatory process, we have today found that RT is not fit and proper to hold a licence in the UK. As a result we have revoked RT’s UK broadcasting licence."