CHANNEL 5 wants to boost its London transmitter to match the power used by
the capital鈥檚 commercial TV stations and the BBC. The Independent Television
Commission has endorsed the plan, on condition that C5 retunes any VCRs and
satellite receivers in Britain that have so far been unaffected by C5鈥檚 weak
signals. But the station is still waiting to get the go-ahead from international
regulatory bodies.
The government鈥檚 Radiocommunications Agency is worried because TV stations
elsewhere in Europe, notably France, already use the same frequencies as C5 for
broadcasting. If C5鈥檚 stronger signals leak across the Channel, they could spoil
French viewers鈥� pictures
(Technology, 8 February 1997, p 18).
The RA has written to all governments in Europe formally notifying them of
the proposed change. As an extra precaution, the RA has notified the
Radiocommunications Bureau of the International Telecommunications Union based
in Geneva, which is charged with ensuring signals from one country do not spoil
reception in another. The bureau will now contact European broadcasters direct
to make sure they understand the significance of C5鈥檚 proposal, and will make a
decision on whether to allow the proposed change at the beginning of next
year.
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C5 wants to begin experiments during the first quarter of 1998. The power of
the Croydon transmitter will be gradually increased from its current 250
kilowatts to the full 1000 kilowatts used by the BBC and ITV to see who
complains.
C5 has made no public announcement, but a spokeswoman says C5 hopes to reach
over 4 million new viewers by mid-1998.
C5鈥檚 obligation to retune videos ended three months after the station first
went on air, and its army of retuners has been disbanded. 鈥淏ut the obligation
kicks in again as soon as C5 increases the power,鈥� says the ITC. 鈥淚f they cause
interference they would have to recruit a new army.鈥�