Advanced options
Aerial installation is a classic rogue-trader habitat (no regulation, roof access, invisible work): the tells are we-can-come-today doorstep callers, quotes that grow on the roof (a GBP 80 job becoming GBP 400 of "essential" masthead amplifiers), and brand-new-aerial diagnoses for what's a GBP 60 realignment after a storm. Get a CAI-member installer, a fixed quote BEFORE the ladder goes up, and be suspicious of any amplifier you didn't have before: most houses in decent signal areas don't need one.
What The TV Aerial Cost Calculator Works Out
- Estimated cost: the typical fixed price for the job plus any extras. A standard new install on an accessible fascia or gable runs GBP 100-150, chimney or high access GBP 160-220, the storm realignment GBP 50-80, an extra room point GBP 80-110 and an aerial-and-dish combination in the low GBP 200s.
- Do you even need one? a streaming-first household on decent broadband may be pricing a solution to a departed problem, but Freeview via aerial has no monthly cost, uses no bandwidth and never buffers, which is why it remains the free backbone.
- Avoiding the rogue quote: no access before a fixed written quote, CAI membership or a deep local review trail, and no masthead amplifier without a measured signal level. Most households in reasonable coverage need no amplification at all.
- Extra room points (advanced): additional rooms cabled from the same aerial at GBP 50-80 each when done in the same visit, cheaper than the standalone extra-point job because the ladder is already up.
- Regional price adjustment (advanced): London and the South East typically run 15-30% above the national figures used here; parts of the North, Wales and Scotland can be 10% under. Labour lines scale; parts in the extras box do not.
- Fair price range and your quote (advanced): reputable fixed quotes cluster within about 20% either side of the typical figure. Enter the quote you have been given and the calculator grades it as fair, high (get a second quote) or walk-away, with suspiciously cheap flagged too, since the GBP 80 doorstep job is the one that grows on the roof.
- Cost per year of service (advanced): the installed cost spread over the aerial's expected life. A decent aerial lasts 10-20 years, so a GBP 120 install is well under GBP 1 a month, which is why it amortises to nothing against rolling subscriptions.
- Streaming instead, same period (advanced): the monthly streaming or pay-TV spend you would need in place of Freeview, over the same life, and the saving the aerial represents. The TV licence applies either way to live TV and iPlayer.