Town wakes up to digital future

[gkd_uk]

The town of Whitehaven in Cumbria has become the first place in the UK to undergo the official switchover from analogue to digital TV.

BBC Two's signal was switched off at 0200 BST on Wednesday, with digital channels replacing it shortly after.

The other signals will go from 14 November, when 25,000 households will need Freeview, satellite, cable or broadband in order to watch television.

Analogue TV will be switched off in the rest of the UK by the end of 2012.

Any local residents who stayed up to watch the switchover would have been watching BBC Two's Learning Zone before the screen went blank.

Engineers spent 37 minutes switching off the analogue signal on BBC Two and switching on digital versions of BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, CBBC, BBC News 24 and Five.

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