A lovely article in the Guardian newspaper starts with: 

"A quarter of Freeview households in Wales and Northern Ireland – and a fifth in the Meridian and Anglia regions of England – will not have full access to the digital terrestrial TV channels after analogue switchoff, according to media regulator Ofcom"

I attend a large number of meetings where this subject is covered. Yes, quite a few people won't get all the muxes, but that is for those commercial channels to decide if they want that extra coverage (much like it is their choice to exist or not). The three core 'PSB' muxes will be available to nearly everyone who currently receives a TV signal, and in many cases reception may be improved after switch-over.

An excellent example of sensationalist journalism based on selective statistics interpretation. So, after switch off people will have more services, but because of logistical reasons not all of the possible channels. However that's not good enough for some people and they feel it's their god given right to watch shopping channels.

One thing that this doesn't take into account is current research work which could help in the long run such as same-channel COFDM repeaters which could be wind or solar powered to fill in coverage and there will be more options in the next few years. Not to mention that satellite services are soon to be even more accessible to a wider range of consumers due to the opening up of competition in the market place.

Please save me from this world of head-line grabbing journalism... to paraphrase the classic line: "Lies, Damn Lies and Journalism."