Freeview retune: one month on, problems persist

It’s a month since the Freeview retune caused chaos across the country and led to us receiving a raft of complaints about lost channels and failed set top boxes. So has there been a proper fix? And what about boxes which can no longer receive channels that worked fine before the retune?

It appears that in the four weeks since we reported Freeview’s apology over the retune fiasco, little has been done to make amends for lost channels and broken boxes.

Users are still faced with lost channels and extra costs arising from the Freeview retune. “Every [sic] since the retune we are now having issues with ceebeebies [sic] and cbbc – with two kids in the house it is very frustrating,” reader Kidsfm told us.

“Today Mr Aerial Fitter managed to squeeze me in at last, and installed a brand new shiny aerial for £240 *sobs uncontrollably*,” said Paula.

Lottie had a similar experience, stating, “I just bought a brand new box as I’ve recently moved house and apparently according to the freeview website in a very good area but cannot get ITV1 channel 4, channel 5 or e4, the channels I happen to watch the most!”

We put your complaints to Freeview’s Sara Jones. “People should go to the retune website and check what post code they live in and the signal that they are getting,” she said.”They should also attempt a full factory reset in order to get all the channels available to them.”

Jones also said you should contact your set top box manufacturer if problems persist, but quashed hopes that Freeview would take action itself to fix the problems. “There are no plans for another retune,” she told us. It seems that short of stumping for a new aerial or set top box, you’re not going to be able to fix your Feeview issues.

We’re chasing Humax and other manufacturers for further comment, so stay tuned for more.