If you live in a block of flats...

... an apartment block... a sheltered housing scheme... on-site staff accommodation... a care home... long stay hospital accommodation... social housing...

Well, it’s quite likely that your TV set will be connected to a...

Communal TV aerial distribution system

What is a communal aerial system?
Individual aerials and dishes are impractical and unsightly for some types of residential property. Usually there is a communal aerial system of some kind instead, which supplies TV signals to every property. This means that the aerial and satellite dish are not the responsibility of individual residents. (If people start spouting jargon you may hear them referred to as MATV, SMATV or IRS systems.)

Is your system ready for digital?
If you are concerned about the switch to digital the first thing to do is to find out if the communal system is ready for digital.

Small blocks of up to a dozen flats or houses usually have a simple TV system that is ‘transparent’ to all incoming signals. The system doesn’t know and doesn’t care whether the signals are analogue or digital. Even some quite large systems work this way. So from the residents’ point of view the situation is much the same as if each flat had its own aerial. In essence, if your analogue reception is really good then your digital reception (of the main channels at least) should be fine after switchover, and might well be fine before then.

Large systems serving scores of dwellings can be a bit more complicated. Many of them will work fine for digital just like the small systems, but some of them will need to be adjusted so that they carry the digital signals. This work can be quite expensive, although the cost per dwelling should be low.

All systems, large or small, need to be in reasonably good working order in order to work for digital reception. If the analogue reception is poor then the digital reception might also be poor, or even non-existent.

There are two obvious ways of finding out if your system is ready for digital.

1. Ask!
   Ask neighbours if they have digital, and if it works properly. Alternatively, ask the person or organisation responsible for maintenance (more about this later).
   
   
2. Try it!
   A set top box will only cost about £25 from a supermarket. Buy one and try it. Plug the aerial lead into the box, connect the box to the telly with the fat black SCART lead that comes with it, and off you go! (We have more detailed connection advice elsewhere on this site). If it works you can just sit back and watch TV. If it doesn’t, or it doesn’t work very well, maybe you should do something about it.

On this site we try not to suggest to anyone that there’s any great urgency about getting ready for the switch to digital, because in most cases viewers don’t actually need to do anything until just before the switch-over date if they don’t want to. But if you use a communal system that doesn’t work for digital it might be wise to start the ball rolling well before the switch-over date. You know how landlords and property managers can drag their feet, especially if they need to spend money!

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers or property experts; we are aerial installers.
The advice given here is simply the result of our experience in that field.

Who to turn to for information and help
with your communal TV aerial system