Antenna users: Your TV stations may be moving frequencies

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

If you are one of the more than 72 million Americans who rely on an antenna to watch free, over-the-air television, you'll need to rescan your television set when your local stations move to new TV frequencies. Rescanning is when your TV finds all of the available channels in your area.   

No new equipment is needed. If your TV is connected to cable or satellite service, you don’t need to do anything.

Plan to rescan! 

Select "scan" or "autotune" from your TV or converter box control menu to start the scanning process. You can usually find instructions by pressing the "set-up" or "menu" buttons on your television or digital antenna remote control. If you have difficulty, consult the owner's manual for more detailed instructions on how to run a channel scan, or contact customer service for your TV or converter box manufacturer.

After you rescan your TV set, the channel number for your local TV station will remain the same. If you haven’t rescanned your TV recently, you may discover TV channels that you didn’t know you were missing.

How do I know when to rescan?

TV stations must move frequencies at different times starting in the fall of 2018 through at least the spring of 2020, so if you watch TV for free using an antenna you may need to rescan more than once.

Stay tuned to your local TV stations or visit TVAnswers.org to learn more. Follow @TVAnswers (Facebook and Twitter) for the latest information.