What is Digital TV?

TV is changing. We're in the early stages of what is called the Digital Switchover, which is the move from the traditional BBC and ITV channels through an aerial to many more channels, available in many different ways. By 2012, the old TV system (called analogue TV) won't be available, so if you want to carry on watching TV, you'll need to do it in one of the following ways:

Freeview

This uses a TV aerial like the old analogue TV, but receives the TV signal digitally. You'll either need a Freeview set-top box, or a TV with a built-in TV tuner (all TVs sold at Tesco now include a built-in Freeview tuner).

Sky

Sky uses a satellite to send the TV signal to a dish on the outside of your property. To get the most from Sky (such as HD or sports channels) you need to pay a subscription, but they do a selection of channels free through "freesatfromsky".

Freesat

Different from Sky, this is a non-subscription satellite TV service. Once you've paid for the freesat decoder box or TV, there is no subscription to pay. HD channels are also available on this service.

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