RTE in the money (they even mentioned to P word!)

DMC

lostexpectation wrote:

shouldn' rte have some sort of international news analysis tv prog ala newsnight?

Doesn't Prime Time fills that role? RTÉ doesn't have the network of foreign bureaux that the BBC has.

Minor Edit: Post sechs tausend.

Telefís

But what about universality of provision? How could RTÉ possibly charge for access to its services via satellite? Would it just not have to swallow the pill and pay for the satellite hosting itself?
In any event, what do you mean byte and DMC that RTÉ will have to provide for those who cannot receive DTT - how large is this likely to be and why? Surely DTT has almost the same coverage as analogue, or near enough to it? And even if some extra areas need to be filled in, surely a few more transmitter sites would be a heck of a lot cheaper than being hosted on a satellite service indefinitely to cater for a small minority?

Also, the fact that so many homes now have satellite infrastructure installed in their homes isn't necessarily reason enough either to launch a sat service considering many of them will continue to use it for UK Freesat, forcing RTÉ to DTT in these homes. Is it possible that RTÉ could eventually host itself via encryption on the Freesat satellite so these homes could use the same dish and box?

DMC

Telef&#237 wrote: »

But what about universality of provision? How could RTÉ possibly charge for access to its services via satellite? Would it just not have to swallow the pill and pay for the satellite hosting itself?
In any event, what do you mean byte and DMC that RTÉ will have to provide for those who cannot receive DTT - how large is this likely to be and why? Surely DTT has almost the same coverage as analogue, or near enough to it? And even if some extra areas need to be filled in, surely a few more transmitter sites would be a heck of a lot cheaper than being hosted on a satellite service indefinitely to cater for a small minority?

RTÉ already do charge for access via satellite. Sky collect the money!

DTT coverage in the UK does not mirror analogue coverage. If it did, everyone who can get the 4 UK channels via analogue aerial would have Freeview boxes by now. That will change after 2012 when the UK turns off analogue, but not until then, and even at that, it wont be at the same power.
The UK has said that for places where DTT isn't feesable, then satellite will be provided as the alternative.

A signal from a geosynchronous orbit that covers 99.9% of the population is a heck of a lot cheaper than a few hundred relays serving blackspots in the middle of Kerry.

Telef&#237 wrote: »

Also, the fact that so many homes now have satellite infrastructure installed in their homes isn't necessarily reason enough either to launch a sat service considering many of them will continue to use it for UK Freesat, forcing RTÉ to DTT in these homes. Is it possible that RTÉ could eventually host itself via encryption on the Freesat satellite so these homes could use the same dish and box?

Misnomer. The "Freesat" satellite will be the same satellite (or group of satellites) that Sky currently use. 390,000+ Sky customers in Ireland.
If you get a FTA receiver from Lidl, for instance, you get the free channels that Sky also have, just none of the pay channels.
Satellite, unlike DTT, is more flexable in the amount of channels it can host etc.

What you have just said sounds like something out of the 80's. Why have satellite, cos the 2 RTÉ channels are good enough!? *boggle*

Telefís

What?! Where did I suggest that?
Also I was mostly asking questions, no need to get confrontational - 16:9 hasn't even been mentioned yet

RTÉ's purpose on Sky is not to gain access to more households (households that are still entitled to free-to-air access to RTÉ), but rather to increase the station's prominence in satellite homes and make it more relevant to, and fit in better with, these households and their viewing habits.

I have no objection at all to RTÉ being on satellite, and like others welcome the notion; as mentioned it is a highly flexible transmission solution. What is objectionable however is the notion that anyone should have to pay to view RTÉ via satellite, not to mention on top of their licence fee - it runs completely counter to the tenet of universality of provision. If the cost for whatever reason is too much for RTÉ to pay, well then the State should pay - also taking into account that all Irish television services are affected by this, not just RTÉ.

I am glad to hear that households could use the same dish used by Sky and Freesat for Astra. But is there an alternative EPG provider as yet to Sky? And could RTÉ be encoded just for Ireland? Sorry these questions have been asked before, but you often end up with conflicting answers!

To get back on the thread topic, the surplus funds will of course be ploughed back into the station but they shouldn’t go to DTT as that’s (mostly) up to the state to pay for. A greater investment in home-produced programming should be made, some put into reserves, and some spent on technical upgrades. HD is certainly looming its head at this stage, yet I’d imagine right now RTÉ are just investing in new Beta 16:9!

byte

Well, there'd be nothing to stop RTE dual-encrypting in both Videoguard, and one other format for FTV purposes. They don't neccessarily need to stick with Astra2/Eurobird position either. They could go for a cheaper option away from the bird primarily used for British TV (funny, myself and MYOB had a discussion on this one night).

They could use Sirius! Channel 6 is already there!

Of course, this is all speculation and nobody is gonna know for a long while. I'd doubt if even the Govt or RTE NL know what's gonna happen in the longer term.

Elmo

Haven't BT done a deal to start testing Digital TV in Louth and Dublin? (So much for decentralisation)

TV3, TG4, Today FM, Channel 6, Setanta Sport, Newstalk, City Channel will all have to pay to be on the RTE Digital Service when it is up an running surely this is the money that should be used to provide Digital services and not Government Subcidies? Plus the money that RTE would have to use to place their TV and Radio stations on the Digital service.

orginally posted by phen

If they were going to change its name wouldn't they have done that instead of changing the logo?

They basically have renamed RTE 2fm RTE Radio 2. It wouldn't be hard to use the new 2 and the word RADIO from the current RTE Radio 1 logo now would it. But I am sure RTE could find some body to take 500,000 of their hands for that idea. :rolleyes:

www.rte.ie/radio1
www.rte.ie/2fm

DMC

Telef&#237 wrote: »

What?! Where did I suggest that?
Also I was mostly asking questions, no need to get confrontational - 16:9 hasn't even been mentioned yet

LOL, I don't get narky at 3 in the morning No confrontation, but maybe I'm getting vibes that you may not fully understand fully the intricacies of transmission and broadcasting today, and how it all comes together and complements/competes. If I'm wrong in that assumption, correct me, but that's the signals I'm picking up. I'll try to fill in any gaps that you might be falling into.

From you post earlier, you advocated transmitters over satellite for use of getting universality of provision. As I said in my reply, as you correctly queried, satellite reception is now so widespread across the country that its not a small minority anymore. Well over 95% of those dishes are aimed at a satellite that caters directly for an Irish audience.

I agree totally that once DTT is in place, RTÉ via satellite must be free as well, not only for those whom DTT won't reach because of cost etc, but for the entire population who have satellite equipment.

Back onto topic, if RTÉ are going to have to pay Revenue for Corporation Tax, and that the EC investigation into competitiveness of the Irish TV market comes down on the wrong side for RTÉ, I'd certainly want the government to pay for DTT and provision of RTÉ et al free on satellite, how ever that might work.

Elmo

With TV3 earning up to 80 million in advertising revenue, The EU commission will not look too badly at a monopoly that RTÉ might have. Plus they would have to look at the other foreign TV stations spread accross the market, who take advertising revenue from the Irish public.

I could not agree with taxing RTÉ on their TV Licence fee.

DMC

Elmo wrote:

With TV3 earning up to 80 million in advertising revenue, The EU commission will not look too badly at a monopoly that RTÉ might have.

It's not that issue in this case. What they are looking at really is if RTÉ has recieved any money for something that isn't in the public interest e.g. from the government. Thats what the got NOS, the Dutch central PSB, into the bother of paying back €76.3m plus interest.

Here, really, the only directly state funded channel is TG4. On that basis, RTÉ might not get stung, but who knows what gems this investigation might find, like cross subsidising something thats pure commercial...

Telefís

Irish Times article here:

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2006/0617/3752246921HMRTELOOT.html


Thanks for the various answers DMC and byte - things are certainly unclear at the minute. And just as mentioned, speaking with someone in RTÉ in a role with influence in all of this, they were equally looking towards 2008 with uncertainty with what was going to happen, but optimism also to be fair, and the many possibilites hopefully afforded at that time. One thing was very clear though: the reduced role of DTT in the digital future. Satellite is certainly on the agenda - really at this stage it's only a matter of choosing someone to provide the various services in the long term.

And you're right DMC - I have a rounded but not detailed knowledge of transmission technologies. But to clarfiy I didn't avocate a transmitter-based system - only questioned its possible merits over the previously suggested exorbitant cost of a sat service, so much so that households would have to pay for its use. In that context, it's not a bad point to make, but the sat costs seem to have been 'somewhat' exaggerated shall we say...