Freeview viewers in areas surrounding Dover may have to retune their TV sets on Wednesday, October 16 to continue watching programmes.

The channels are moving to new airwaves, which they say will allow for the future development of new mobile broadband services.

Engineering work at the Dover main transmitter begins shortly after midnight and Freeview channels will be off-air overnight until 6am.

After this, any viewers whose TV signal comes from the Dover transmitter can retune if they are missing channels.

This sees the final update for the Meridian TV region and it follows a decision by the UK Government to update transmitters region by region as part of a major engineering programme being carried out between now and 2020.

Other areas to be switched include parts of East Sussex and much of West Sussex.

The Dover area is among around 490,000 homes that are served by the affected transmitters.

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

A statement from Freeview said: "Retuning should be straightforward and some TV equipment will retune automatically.

"Some older aerials may need to be replaced to continue receiving all channels. Viewers may be eligible for free in-home support, including aerial work if needed."

Anyone who needs advice, or who finds they are still missing services after retuning, can visit the Freeview website at www.freeview.co.uk/tvchanges or contact the Freeview Advice Line free on 0808 100 0288.

Further information is available online at freeview.co.uk/tvchanges

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