what was the point of the freeview retune?

It is a bit of a ham-fisted attempt on the part of the regulator to tidy things up.

The regulator has deemed it so that everyone should be able to receive Five after switch-over. This requires a re-arrangement (i.e. swap) of the frequencies that ITV3/4 and Five broadcast on.

I say ham-fisted because, the way switch-over has been organised, you will need to retune then anyway.

That includes the several million who live in the Granada region where analogue switch-off is in two months time. Everyone of those sets will need to be retuned again at the beginning of December.

Just a bit of a tidy-up, really. The story was that it enabled (I think it was about 50 000) more people to get Channel 5. Quest, which has been "coming soon" for the best part of a year, finally got here as well. All the w*nk channels are conveniently next to each other in the 90s, which will make some peoples lives easier, in the early hours of the morning.

Additionally, in areas like the south-west, which went fully digital in May, it's freed-up room in the waveband, to allow for the HD services from the BBC, ITV & Channel 4 which are due to start on December 2nd, I believe.

It did nothing for me whatsoever. Pfft, waste of my time!