When is the new mast going to be live?
The Bilsdale mast went live for Television services on Monday 22 May 2023.
Additional services, such as radio and mobile phone coverage will follow in the coming weeks and months.
Anyone who still has problems with TV services following a retune can use the contact us form on this website.
What happens once the mast is live?
Once the core TV services have been restored work will continue to install the additional services on the new mast, such as radio and mobile service. The Project Restore helpline will be available until Friday 07 July for households who have not had their pre-fire TV services restored.
Why did you write to some households but not mine?
We have written to fewer than 3,000 homes that we visited as part of Project Restore to make adjustments to the receive equipment. There is a small chance that some of these households will not automatically benefit from the signals coming from the new mast and we may need to revisit.
Will all previously received channels be restored?
The objective of the building of the new mast is to restore the same number and level of services that were present on the old mast. As was the case with Project Restore, we are prioritising restoring the core Freeview services first and foremost, so channels 1-5 in standard definition.
Radio and the other services that were present on the old mast such as mobile phone coverage will be fully restored in the coming weeks and months.
Will all radio channels be restored?
Our priority has been to restore the core TV services from a permanent, full size mast and work will continue to bring the full range of additional services, including radio, back in the coming weeks and months.
Why have you closed the helpscheme?
The Project Restore helpscheme was initiated in October 2021 to support viewers in restoring their core TV services (Channels 1-5 in standard definition) following the go-live of the first temporary mast. Channels 1-5 are the main Freeview channels containing public service broadcasting services and news bulletins.
Since then, we have taken over 26,000 phone calls, arranged more than 8,000 engineer visits and seen nearly 300,000 visits to the dedicated website, Bilsdalemast.co.uk.
On May 22, 2023 the new, full size, permanent mast at Bilsdale went live. This restored the core Freeview channels to the region, on the same frequencies and to the same signal area as the old mast.
At the time, we wrote directly to viewers where we had made a change to their aerial system so we could reverse it.
We provided a Help Scheme for a period from the launch of the new mast, to support viewers who might need help in restoring services.
That scheme closed in July as any new issues experienced are very unlikely to be related to the fire.
Any viewers experiencing new disruption to their TV signals can visit the Freeview website at www.freeview.co.uk/help for further help.
