Hampshire residents need to get digital TV to be able to watch Channel Five

Channel Five viewers across the south who have yet to make the switch to digital television will lose the channel in a week’s time.

As part of a reorganisation of TV signals across Hampshire ahead of the digital switchover, the analogue service for Channel Five, which broadcasts hit shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and popular Aussie soap Neighbours, will be turned off on March 25.

The move will mean that about 100,000 homes across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight will lose their fifth channel because they have yet to take up digital television through a Freeview set top box, Sky or Virgin Media’s cable services.

Residents in the county have been receiving leaflets through their doors warning them of the change in the weeks leading up to the switchover at the transmitter in Fawley and TV viewers who have a digital set top box will also have to retune their equipment to keep the signals.

The move is taking place ahead of the big digital switchover for the Meridian region which is planned for 2012 and is to protect viewers from interference from neighbouring areas in the UK and France where traditional analogue signals are being switched off later this year.

Latest research suggests that 84 per cent of homes in the region already watch digital TV on a main set, but one in three households still have an analogue TV in a bedroom or other room of the house.

David Scott, chief executive of Digital UK, said: “Making these changes now is vital to protecting existing services from interference and ensuring that the process runs smoothly in the Meridian TV region in three years’ time.

“Analogue viewers who make the switch to digital now will be able not only to continue enjoying Five but also many extra TV channels, radio and text services.

For digital viewers, retuning their equipment should only take a few moments and we are here to offer advice to anyone who needs it.”