[article] Unholy trinity bid for DTT muxes

Zaphod

Eircom can provide their knowledge on gouging customers, Setanta can help with the tax dodging avoidance elements and TV3 can contribute their Reithian insights into quality television.

Irish Times - 04.04.08

Eircom and Setanta in digital TV consortium


TELECOMS GROUP Eircom and local television broadcasters TV3 and Setanta Sports are believed to have formed a consortium to bid for the three commercial digital terrestrial television (DTT) multiplex licences that are being offered by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. Ciaran Hancock , Business Affairs Correspondent, reports.

It is understood that the consortium has decided to bid for all three licences. Each digital terrestrial television multiplex will be capable of carrying up to eight digital channels and the operators will be able to charge households a fee for receiving the stations via a set-top box.

The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has indicated that it will consider applications for all three licences and for individual multiplexes. The regulator said it had an open mind at this stage as to how the DTT multiplexes should be operated.

The consortium combines Eircom's network infrastructure and telecoms expertise with content provided by both TV3 and Setanta, which has a large portfolio of pay sports channels, including live rights to Premier League football in England.

TV3 is owned by private equity group Doughty Hanson, which is also a substantial shareholder in Setanta. Doughty Hanson has previously indicated its desire to use TV3 as the launchpad for new channels here.

About 27 per cent of 1.5 million Irish households do not have a pay-television service and the BCI has estimated that these will be the likely customers for DTT, along with people who want a set-top box for their bedrooms.

Digital television is currently available in Ireland through cable operator UPC, which owns NTL and Chorus, and satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

DTT will replace the existing analogue signal, which is due to be switched off sometime between 2012 and 2015. RTÉ has already been awarded a licence by the Government to operate a free-to-air DTT multiplex that will carry its own channels and other terrestrial services, including an Oireachtas channel.

It is not clear if TV3 will feature on the free-to-air multiplex operated by RTÉ if its consortium is successful in winning the commercial licences.

RTÉ is also believed to be lining up a bid for the commercial DTT licences, possibly as part of a consortium.

Other operators thought to be weighing their options include UPC, which is owned by Liberty Global; Sky Ireland; Smart Telecom; Denis O'Brien's Communicorp radio group; and telecoms player BT Ireland. The BCI recently said it expected fewer than 10 applications for the multiplex licences.

According to industry sources, mobile operators Vodafone and O2 have decided not to enter the bidding.

The multiplex contracts will run for 12 years and could go live from 2010 onwards. They will offer a range of interactive services and support high-definition broadcasts that are not possible through the current analogue frequency.

The closing date for applications is May 2nd with an oral hearing of presentations pencilled in for May 12th.The BCI said it would appoint external consultants to help evaluate bids and it expected to select the licence winners on July 21st. Applications will cost €50,000, with 80 per cent of this fee refunded to unsuccessful groups. A regulatory fee of €225,000 a year has been proposed.

According to industry sources, RTÉ is planning to charge €3 million to carry each multiplex on its transmission service. Operators will also have to pay a spectrum charge to Comreg, the telecoms regulator.

Each household in the Republic will have to buy a set-top box to receive DTT.

Multiplex operators will be required to provide 90 per cent* population coverage at launch.

*Which will be closer to 60% when Eircom are done massaging the figures.

Mossy Monk

Oh goody. DTT will have the likes of Liverpool and Celtic TV if Setanta win. Channels like that should stay on satellite and cable.

PauloMN

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Channels like that should stay on satellite and cable.

Why?

Mossy Monk

Space on DTT will be small enough without putting club channels on it. Satellite and Cable offer more than enough bandwidth for channels like that.

watty

Nothing with less than 5% viewing should be on DTT.

Which rules out Sky1

Very limited bandwidth.

DMC

If they propose an TV3 +1 channel, I shall post several mail sacks containing several cats to Ballymount.

probe

It is sad to see that eircom (a company that has a monopoly pipeline into virtually every home and place of business in the country – which is capable of carrying unlimited amounts of television) is busy drawing up a bid for a DTT license – to gild the lilly of its telecommunications monopoly.

“Each household in the Republic will have to buy a set-top box to receive DTT”! The DTT reception component is standard kit in virtually every new TV sold in Europe.

Not only does Ireland suffer from a grossly incompetent telecommunications regulatory system – the country’s newspapers of record seem to be determined to keep the readers that keep them in business as ignorant as possible.... :-(

.probe

channelsurfer

surely this has to be the potential nightmare scenario if they win these muxes. tv3 will definetly not allow utv on any mux it owns either fta or subscription unless they block out everything that they (a quality irish channel seemingly.... with hardly any original irish content) reguritate back to the irish public from the itv network.

byte

channelsurfer wrote: »

tv3 will definetly not allow utv on any mux it owns either fta or subscription unless they block out everything that they (a quality irish channel seemingly.... with hardly any original irish content) reguritate back to the irish public from the itv network.

Maybe that's partly why they put themselves in the running! To ensure UTV don't get carried.

BowWow

I'll see your Unholy Trio, and raise you my Deadly Duo!.................

Sunday Business Post - 6th. April 2008

RTE and UPC team up for digital licence bid
By Samantha McCaughren, Business Correspondent

RTE and cable operator UPC are believed to be forming a consortium to bid for a licence for digital terrestrial television (DTT).
The collaboration marks a major U-turn for UPC, which recently made a complaint about RTE’s role in DTT to the European Commission.
A number of sources said RTE and UPC had joined forces in recent weeks and were close to doing a deal on a licence application.
There are expected to be several serious contenders for the DTT licences and it emerged last week that TV3, Setanta and Eircom had teamed up for an application. A spokesman for RTE said the broadcaster was talking to a number of parties but would not make any comment in relation to UPC.UPC, which is owned by Liberty Global, also declined to comment.
‘‘Like all interested parties, we are currently reviewing the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland’s [BCI] guide to submissions and therefore it would be premature to make any comment at this point,” said a spokeswoman.
Other applicants are expected to include Sky Ireland, BT and British company Arqiva. Denis O’Brien’s Communicorp is also believed to be in the running, as is Smart Telecom. RTE has been proactive on DTT and sent a letter to the European Commission outlining how it believed DTT should proceed.
On foot of this, UPC lodged a complaint with the commission over concerns that licence fee money could be used to part-fund DTT. Its position was that state money should not be used to support a service competing with commercial digital services.
Applications to the BCI must be submitted by May 2 and a decision is due to be made on July 21.

Zaphod

DMC

I presume its down to user discretion to decide which one is the Nazi?

byte

RTE and UPC together... hmm, sounds like a better partnership than TV3/Eircom/Setanta.

It could, in theory, allow UPC to stop using MMDS, as DTT will have greater coverage.

bk

Perhaps I'm just dreaming, but if UPC aren't completely greedy, then a RTE/UPC partnership could actually be the best for all of us and be closest to Freeview.

UPC would love to stop carrying the analogue channels on cable as it would leave lots more room for many more digital and HD channels and for broadband. But it can't because most of its customers would go mad if they dropped it, the majority of UPC's customers are still on analogue.

UPC could agree to give away the basic 17 to 30 channels for free (or small fee) in return for every DTT set top box including a cable and DOCSIS modem so that UPC can up sell DTT customers on more channels, HD channels, sports and movie channels, VOD, BB and phone. While they could then turn off the analogue channels on cable, pointing out that they are available on DTT.

Also UPC would benefit from shutting down their expensive to run and completely unreliable MMDS service that is being slaughtered by Sky anyway, probably in return for more DTT capacity.

While initially this might seem quite mad, when you step back and think about it, this is the direction that the market is going in anyway, whether UPC like it or not. In the UK the market has already gone this way, the success of freeview means that Virgin Media give away the basic channels for free now and once freesat launches later this year, Sky and UPC will be forced to follow suit or lose a lot of potential business.

The only question is will UPC be brought kicking and screaming to it or will they get some vision and get out in front of it and benefit from it. It would be a major publicity boost and get their boxes in many peoples homes.

The money isn't in basic channels any more, it is in upselling to HD, sports and movie channels, VOD, BB and phone.

Maybe I'm just dreaming.

BTW it would be an ironic twist if it did happen, given RTEs historic involvement in building the original cable network in Dublin that later became NTL and then UPC.

L1011

Which half of UPC is this now? Theres the cable/broadband division and theres the content division - who own the Zone Reality/etc channels, Extreme Sports TV and some more brands as-yet unlaunched in Ireland... and who expressed interest at getting on DTT during the initial advertisement of the trial - including a quote along the lines of 'this side of the company doesn't care about cable'

scath

Aw this plays right into a DTT-Cable combo deal. You could even retail DTT cable boxes in the TV shops with the cable end sold at the same price as the DTT box ie subsidised to enc. Doubt Sky would be too happy about that. Of course nothing to stop DTT-Sat boxes being retailed aswell and that means UPC via pay DTT in the satellilte homes. This makes good sense for UPC. Only thing now is drop UK channels from cable UPC once launch begins for the boxes ie pre-advertise to all UPC customers and let RTE go ahead with previous reciprocity deal. Then you'll have FTA Uk channels via UPC/RTÉ. This makes good sense and as one of ye said, drop mmds for more DTT spectrum


So who's left then:.

So who'd left. Sky Ireland and BT Arquiva. Communicorp and Smart Telecom. The last would be the weakest. The one before strong. I wonder about UPC/RTE will it be knocked out for monopoly reasons?

bk wrote: »

Perhaps I'm just dreaming, but if UPC aren't completely greedy, then a RTE/UPC partnership could actually be the best for all of us and be closest to Freeview.

UPC would love to stop carrying the analogue channels on cable as it would leave lots more room for many more digital and HD channels and for broadband. But it can't because most of its customers would go mad if they dropped it, the majority of UPC's customers are still on analogue.

UPC could agree to give away the basic 17 to 30 channels for free (or small fee) in return for every DTT set top box including a cable and DOCSIS modem so that UPC can up sell DTT customers on more channels, HD channels, sports and movie channels, VOD, BB and phone. While they could then turn off the analogue channels on cable, pointing out that they are available on DTT.

Also UPC would benefit from shutting down their expensive to run and completely unreliable MMDS service that is being slaughtered by Sky anyway, probably in return for more DTT capacity.

While initially this might seem quite mad, when you step back and think about it, this is the direction that the market is going in anyway, whether UPC like it or not. In the UK the market has already gone this way, the success of freeview means that Virgin Media give away the basic channels for free now and once freesat launches later this year, Sky and UPC will be forced to follow suit or lose a lot of potential business.

The only question is will UPC be brought kicking and screaming to it or will they get some vision and get out in front of it and benefit from it. It would be a major publicity boost and get their boxes in many peoples homes.

The money isn't in basic channels any more, it is in upselling to HD, sports and movie channels, VOD, BB and phone.

Maybe I'm just dreaming.

BTW it would be an ironic twist if it did happen, given RTEs historic involvement in building the original cable network in Dublin that later became NTL and then UPC.

Zaphod

bk wrote: »

but if UPC aren't completely greedy

Ah, but this would be the same UPC who have been threatening to scuttle the whole affair because they are afraid of the extra competition.

The same UPC who, in the guise of Chorus, managed to get a monopoly from beatific Ray Burke and then screwed their MMDS customers up and down the country. Just to view a handful of UK terrestrials along with "premium channels" such as Sky News and Eurosport. While the picture quality was the absolute pits.

Why, now, should the leopard change its spots?

Giving the commercial muxes to UPC would do nothing for customer choice and would only serve to reinforce the current carve-up between UPC and Sky.

scath wrote: »

Sky Ireland and BT Arquiva. Communicorp and Smart Telecom. The last would be the weakest.

Since when have Sky and BT been linked? Or Communicorp and Smart?

scath

I know what yer saying. I'm not arguing the merits or demerits of UPC. I'm just looking at the strategy in the RTE, UPC consortium. Remember DTT Sky combo will be an equally strong proposition. The winner will be DTT which is what many would like to see, ie a viable indiginous platform. DTT in everyhome. And fair enough if people don't want to get in satellite or cable at least we could get FTA UK TV with this sort of deal. No-one linked them up but I'm just guessing who'd fit who. To my mind, a broadcaster+telco makes sense since these are the two selling points of TV. That's why I put those two together. They are UK so they would have previous knowledge of each other. The other two are kinda Irish so I put them to together. Just speculation really.

Zaphod wrote: »

Ah, but this would be the same UPC who have been threatening to scuttle the whole affair because they are afraid of the extra competition.

The same UPC who, in the guise of Chorus, managed to get a monopoly from beatific Ray Burke and then screwed their MMDS customers up and down the country. Just to view a handful of UK terrestrials along with "premium channels" such as Sky News and Eurosport. While the picture quality was the absolute pits.

Why, now, should the leopard change its spots?

Giving the commercial muxes to UPC would do nothing for customer choice and would only serve to reinforce the current carve-up between UPC and Sky.



Since when have Sky and BT been linked? Or Communicorp and Smart?

Zaphod

scath wrote: »

To my mind, a broadcaster+telco makes sense since these are the two selling points of TV.

RTÉ and BT - RTÉ probably have a longer term interest in making a success of DTT and BT already have experience from the trial.

zilog_jones

I still wouldn't keep hopes up about getting the UK channels FTA over here - ITV being the most unlikely due to TV3 (UTV is shíte anyway :pac:). If UPC win, they're gonna charge for them (if they get clearance).

bk wrote: »

UPC could agree to give away the basic 17 to 30 channels for free (or small fee) in return for every DTT set top box including a cable and DOCSIS modem so that UPC can up sell DTT customers on more channels, HD channels, sports and movie channels, VOD, BB and phone. While they could then turn off the analogue channels on cable, pointing out that they are available on DTT.

I think there'd be a shìtstorm (esp. from bskyb) if they tried to pull off something like that. Compeition Authority and all that. Also, I doubt any STB manufacturer will be willing to make a very specific product for such a small market - it would be unfeasible IMO.

While initially this might seem quite mad, when you step back and think about it, this is the direction that the market is going in anyway, whether UPC like it or not. In the UK the market has already gone this way, the success of freeview means that Virgin Media give away the basic channels for free now and once freesat launches later this year, Sky and UPC will be forced to follow suit or lose a lot of potential business.

The UK is completely different market regarding commercial TV - comparing it to Ireland is just silly. Most the big towns and cities in Ireland have had cable TV since the late '70s and early '80s. Cable never took off in the same way in the UK. MMDS never existed in the UK. Virgin Media only has about 55% population coverage in the UK (and only 3.2m subscribers), some areas of which are still analogue-only! :eek: Unless you're in a big city your only choice was the 5 terrestrials or Sky - this is what it was like for me when I used to live in England (up until '98) - actually we couldn't even get Channel 5 without another (3rd!) aerial. It's not surprising at all that Freeview took off over there.

So besides all this, it looks pretty certain that RTÉ NL will be maintaining the network after all? Didn't notice if this was confirmed already...

L1011

System I VHF TVs - tiny market, made to this day. Stuff gets made if enough is paid. Its not even that hard as there's already existing box designs that do DVB-T/C/S depending on which tuner riser is in.

Sponge Bob

DMC wrote: »

If they propose an TV3 +1 channel, I shall post several mail sacks containing several cats to Ballymount.

Now Now Now , they are more visionary than you think. I explained their strategy 5 months back in this post here

Imagine a Mux with only Tv3 Tv3+1 Tv3+2 TV3 that Lorraine chick 24, TV3Trevor24 on sports TV3HD and TV3 Rolling TV AM 24 in their 6 channel package.

DMC

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Now Now Now , they are more visionary than you think. I explained their strategy 5 months back in this post here

Your worst case scenarios really are always the best... um... the worst!

zilog_jones

zilog_jones wrote: »

I think there'd be a shìtstorm (esp. from bskyb) if they tried to pull off something like that. Compeition Authority and all that. Also, I doubt any STB manufacturer will be willing to make a very specific product for such a small market - it would be unfeasible IMO.

I'd have thought the competition authority would be delighted with more competition for sky not less.

zilog_jones

MYOB wrote: »

System I VHF TVs - tiny market, made to this day.

South Africa and a few other ex-Commonwealth countries use VHF PAL I too. It's not exactly dramatically different from any other PAL, and many modern TVs since the '90s (pretty much everything now) has been multi-region.

Stuff gets made if enough is paid. Its not even that hard as there's already existing box designs that do DVB-T/C/S depending on which tuner riser is in.

Who makes these? Any reputable brands? I know there's a lot of crazy yokes coming from China and whereever else, but would a big multinational like UPC be willing to trust such obscure OEMs?

bk

zilog_jones wrote: »

I think there'd be a shìtstorm (esp. from bskyb) if they tried to pull off something like that. Competition Authority and all that. Also, I doubt any STB manufacturer will be willing to make a very specific product for such a small market - it would be unfeasible IMO.

But here is the thing, bskyb don't have a legal presence in Ireland, so they wouldn't have a leg to stand on, unless they agreed to be licensed by the BCI, and follow all their guidelines, they is very little they can do about it.

Secondly the competition authority would actually favour a RTE/UPC DTT service as it would actually increase consumer choice and competition.

zilog_jones

Good point regarding bskyb. How would it increase consumer choice and competition though? UPC already have the monopoly regarding non-satellite subscription television with cable and MMDS (actually are Casey Cablevision et al still around?) - UPC having control over the commercial DVB-T on top of that would be pushing it.

I'd much prefer to see someone else get the licences, but then again when the competition includes TV3...

Mossy Monk

zilog_jones wrote: »

(actually are Casey Cablevision et al still around?)

Casey is still going. Can't comment on anyone else.

Zaphod

UPC and Sky already have a ~50:50 share of the market. Neither of them should be left next or near the DTT muxes.

Irish Times 07.02.08

Sky adds 1,700 new customers per week

Satellite broadcaster Sky Ireland added 22,000 new customers in the quarter to the end of December last and now has 535,000 subscribers.

Its rival in the digital television market, UPC Ireland, had 585,000 television subscribers at the end of September, although just more than half of these are on a digital service.

The addition of 1,700 net new customers a week equates to Sky's second-highest quarterly growth figures in five years

For Ireland and Britain combined, Sky added 167,000 digital satellite subscribers in the quarter to reach 8.832 million.

L1011

Crossan in Longford are also still going and offer 9Mbits cable modems for fairly respectable prices.

As goes makers of the swappable tuner boxes - well, ALL the boxes are made by dodgy Chinese vendors in the end when it comes to it. I believe Technomate have one and they're the third largest UK box maker (After Pace/Amstrad) and reputable... Dream have one (German) too.

bk

zilog_jones wrote: »

Good point regarding bskyb. How would it increase consumer choice and competition though? UPC already have the monopoly regarding non-satellite subscription television with cable and MMDS (actually are Casey Cablevision et al still around?) - UPC having control over the commercial DVB-T on top of that would be pushing it.

Under the idea that UPC gives away most of the UK terrestrial channels for free on DTT in return for the benefits I mentioned in the original post.

Basically a free service like Freeview in the UK would certainly drive competition.

Zaphod

bk wrote: »

Under the idea that UPC gives away most of the UK terrestrial channels for free on DTT in return for the benefits I mentioned in the original post.

Basically a free service like Freeview in the UK would certainly drive competition.

The idea is fine, but what are the chances UPC would go for it?

Taking their past remarks into account, the best one might hope for is that they would treat DTT merely as an extension of their existing products and priced similarly. At worst, they could attempt to stymie the project from within à la Sir Humphrey's approach to Europe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZUOkGxGUVs