People who receive their television signals from Winter Hill in Lancashire might have to retune their sets.

Freeview channels are moving to new airwaves to allow for the future development of new mobile broadband services.

Winter Hill signals are watched in many hilly areas of the Isle of Man, notably around Onchan.

Others watch Freeview from relays on the island and directly from Cumbria, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The changes will take place in two stages on February 20 and April 22.

On February 20, engineering work will take place at the Winter Hill transmitter in the early hours and Freeview channels will be subject to disruption until 10am.

After this, any viewers receiving their TV signal from here who find they are missing channels, including BBC1 on button 1, can retune.

Other channels, including ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, will move to new airwaves on April 22.

Services from some small local relays will also be subject to disruption until late afternoon on this date. Satellite and cable TV are not affected.

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

Freeview says retuning should be straightforward and some TV equipment will retune automatically.

But some older aerials may need to be replaced to continue receiving all channels.

Kate Macefield, project director, said: ’Retuning usually only takes a few minutes but if anyone is unsure of what to do there will be plenty of help available on our website and from our advice line team.

’If this doesn’t bring your channels back to their usual spot then do get in touch as soon as possible - we don’t want anyone to miss out on their favourite Freeview programmes.’

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 www.freeview.co.uk/tvchanges