European cable television frequencies

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These tables detail the frequencies used in European cable networks. Cable networks use frequencies which are used by different users terrestrially, like the military, police radio, etc. Because of the late introduction of cable television in Europe, older television sets generally could not receive the special cable-only channels, so some countries (like Germany) still have the rule that the public TV stations must be located either in Band I or Band III. The Hyperband was allocated later than the other cable-only channels, so television sets produced in the late 80s and early 90s may lack this band.

In most cable networks, the UHF band is unusable because its frequency is too high, so TV stations are only allocated within Band I, III, the Mid-, Super- and Hyperband. Even in modern cable networks, only some UHF channels (like only channels 21–26) may be usable. This leads to a high level of congestion in many European cable TV networks, especially as analogue transmission, which is still commonplace in cable television in Europe, is being migrated to digital transmission.