Why Ryan BETTER move fast on DTT

Sponge Bob

Eamonn should start with Donegal , methinks

http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/hard-to-get-analog-aussies-over-tv-digital-divide/2007/08/05/1186252543127.html

I find the article is slightly incoherent overall but as WE are due an election in 2012 it would be best to draw the sting of the vociferous but disingenous Deflector lobby by targeting Deflector rich counties for the earliest DTT universal rollouts and switchoffs.

It would be very comredely if the green vote were not too string there and if Bertie could keep his own yahho yahoo councillors from talking ****e.

We also have a situation where 1/3 of households have digital TV from SKY ...NTL and especially Chorus are not really proper digital.

"Hard to get analog Aussies over TV digital divide"

It will be low on the radar at this year's federal election, but will be such an issue three years later that it will have the potential to win or lose government for the incumbent.
Senator Helen Coonan, the Communications Minister, last year announced that the analog television system, which three quarters of Australians still watch, will be switched off between 2010 and 2012.
Given that 2010 will be an election year, we can safely adjust that deadline to 2011 or 2012.
The state of play is that most Australians (71 per cent) do not have digital TVs or digital set-top boxes, so the minister formed Digital Australia to get the digital have-nots across the line in less than five years.

We should ask Jackie HealyRae to chair our version of it. Digital Ireland witha flat cap is very there Eh! :P

Digitising television, however, does not require more discussion about supply or content, but rather a deeper understanding of the demand characteristics of consumers.
Analysis based on data from 55,000 respondents in the Roy Morgan Single Source database shows that the country is split in two.
On one side of this digital fault line, 8 million adults are seriously uninterested in digital television.
That's 50 per cent of the adult population and not only do these analog Australians not care about digital television, they are also deeply uninterested in it.
On the other side of the digital fault line, 24 per cent of the adult population, or 4 million Australians, are actively interested in digital television.
These digital Australians are 71 per cent more likely than the analogs to already own a set-top box and 86 per cent more likely to buy one in the next year.
They're a walk in the park for the Federal Government, as are the balance who will follow the leaders.
The challenge for the Government is therefore to recognise that the digital fault line splits society into two psychological types, each with radically different attitudes to digitisation.

The challenge for Ireland is more basic. The completion of the analougue rollout begun in 1959 before the embarassing 50th anniversary is celebrated by this Sponge in under 2 years.


After that we can consider universal Digital , maybe .

This has profound implications for the creation of a digital Australia.
It affects the timing of achieving a digital Australia and the resource allocation on the digital journey.
The minister talks optimistically of an approaching digital tipping point — at which the country builds an ease of momentum to a digital TV future.
It is more likely that a digital barrier — a point of natural saturation — will block the uptake of digital TV.

here it gets a tad waffly

Rather than getting to a point after which it becomes easier to move to digital TV, a digital barrier will be reached in the next four years, after which the job becomes almost impossible.
The move from the current 29 per cent to, say, 70 per cent of the population will be a challenge, but relatively straightforward. Crossing the barrier and getting that proportion up to 100 per cent will be impossible if all Australians are treated as equals.
Take, for example, the intention of Australians to buy a set-top box in the next 12 months.
Digital Australians are 53 per cent more likely than the general population to buy a digital set-top box in the coming year.
On the other hand, analogs are 33 per cent less likely than the general population (and 86 per cent less likely than digitals) to buy a digital set-top box in the next year.
Understanding the different mind-sets of Australians and the different appetites for digital TV will result in better resource allocation, better targeting, better messaging, better political outcomes and a better result — sooner.
However, governments are used to adopting traditional views of the world.

before regaining its poise with some interesting advice.

For the Government and industry to rise to the challenge of the digital fault line and create a digital Australia in the required time frame, it needs to create one strategy, budget, campaign and approach for digital Australians and an entirely different strategy, budget, campaign and approach for analog Australians.
Without this approach, the digital barrier will stop the process in its tracks and the digitisation of Australia will become expensive and elusive.
In the most likely scenario, if the minister adopts the usual one-size-fits-all approach, digitisation would stall at 70 per cent of the population in 2010. That will make digitisation a major headache for whichever government is in power after this year's election and create an election-losing issue in the 2010 election.
Ross Honeywill is executive director of the privately funded consumer think-tank, the Centre for Customer Strategy,

but of course he forgets to mention that IF its turned off they have no choice, do they.

If Eamonn Ryan is to be taken seriously he will announce analogue cutoff in Donegal by the end of 2009 and figure out how to solve the Digital problem by then. If he cannot do that much then there is no hope for the rest of us...is there

lucernarian

This talk of the EU commission setting a deadline of 2012 for analogue switch-off is overblown. It's only a reccomendation, isn't it? And the deflector lobby will be ignored if the DTT network can provide the UK channels at little or no cost.

Sponge Bob

Exactly.

The main drivers are

1. better spectrum usage
2. co - ordination with neighbours plans
3. the 'UK Mux'. Frankly this needs to be sorted quickly and UPC are naturally interested
4. whether the BBC 'freeview' plan could be used instead of DTT in remote areas with crap coverage.

A 31/12/2009 deadline for full cutover and analogue shutdown in Donegal will focus minds and stop the waffling . It could be a template for the rest of the state.

If we cannot provide universal digital TV in Donegal by end 2009 we are ( as usual) deluding ourselves that we can do the whole state by end 2012.

Consider Donegal a microcosm of all the myriad issues involved .

If the local deflector lobby wants to go for the UK mux then fine with me , bang it out for bids and may the best proposal win

Antenna

Sponge Bob wrote:

A 31/12/2009 deadline for full cutover and analogue shutdown in Donegal will focus minds and stop the waffling . It could be a template for the rest of the state.

Sponge Bob,

one major problem...

Many people in Donegal can receive direct reception (not via deflections or cable systems) of analogue TV from northern Ireland.
Irish terrestrial TV broadcasters are never going to agree to an analogue shutdown in a place whilst many people there still have analogue reception from the UK. Believe me some sections of the community will just continue with the UK channels only and not bother investing in DTT until they have to buy a new TV or the NI analogue goes off as well (not for a few years after 2009).
Any loss of viewers in not something RTE would be too happy about.

Sponge Bob

If thinks dick along like at present we have an election in 2012 and nothing will be done until 2014/2015 because of that . So we should either frontload it or forget it . By then we will interfere with the Uk both on UHF and VHF3 of course.

If we cannot sort one county the size of Donegal by end 2009 we surely cannot sort the state by end 2012 can we ??

Its more to do with providing a decent universal service in Donegal ...for the first time almost and including universal tv3 :eek: ...than about analogue switchoff but we may as well get DTT up by then at least......or DSAT failing that .

fta keith

I hope Minister Ryan gets the DTT roll out soon with an MPEG4 DTT Receiver to receive some fta HDTV tv channels

Remember its only speculation I am stating here