A method and system is provided for detecting the presence of a DVB (digital video broadcasting) transmission. The method includes receiving an RF (radio frequency) signal in a selected channel (1101); creating signal samples from the received RF signal (1102); creating averaged samples from the signal samples, each averaged sample being an average of a predetermined number of signal samples that are separated by a minimum pilot pattern repetition period from one to the next signal sample (1103); correlating the averaged samples with a reference sequence (1104); and comparing a correlation result with a threshold correlation value (1105).