Work will start in early February to move free-to-air television stations in Dunkley to a new digital frequency.

The final step in migrating Australia from the old analogue frequency to the new digital platform and is being carried out to improve services.

This is the end of the analog television era and by moving to a digital platform it will make way for new services including wireless broadband.

The first channel to move frequencies will be SBS Melbourne which is due to change on 7 February.

Some intermittent outages may occur while this work is carried out and work will be scheduled to minimise disturbance for viewers.

Residents will be notified before work starts and once free-to-air television channels have moved to the digital platform frequencies some viewers will need to retune their digital televisions, set-top boxes and digital recorders to continue to receive existing free-to-air digital channels.

Some equipment will automatically detect changes to the channels and retune itself and those who watch free-to-air channels via pay TV, they may find their set-top box retuned by their provider.

This is a big job with around 400 transmission sites nationally moving to new frequencies which will progressively occur until the end of the year.

Residents do not need to purchase new television reception equipment if they already have a digital television, receiver or set top box. Information on when work will be carried out in your street is available through the mySwitch tool at www.digitalready.gov.au.

Viewers can also register for an email or SMS alert to let them know when they need to retune their television and equipment.

Viewers watching free-to-air television through the Viewer Access Satellite Television service (VAST) will not be affected by these changes.

Further information and resources are available at www.digitalready.gov.au/retune, http://myswitch.digitalready.gov.au or by calling the Digital Ready Information Line on 1800 201 013 from 8:00am – 10:00pm AEST Monday to Sunday.