Sky News TV Screens in Rail Stations

patrickmooney

Haven't a clue where to post this. As it's related to Sky News I've posted it in Broadcasting. Please move if needed.

Anyone familiar with UK national rail stations would have seen the Sky News infoscreens. Well Irish rail have rolled them out here. I've seen them in Connolly and Pearse. They show headline news, no sound, a ticker and weather info. Ads are full screen. What I saw today was very UK focused, the weather for London for example. Anyone know the background to these. Why was Sky picked? Why not RTE news now, 3news or City News? Seems strange having Sky news in Irish rail stations with UK news.

Peiking Duck

Sky paid for it at a guess. It is pointless haveing them if it is all UK based news.

icdg

If Sky News paid for them, why not? It is income for CIE that might be useful for developing/paying for the railways. If TV3 or RTÉ were willing to pay obviously you would be in an open tender/highest bidder wins situation.

It is pointless haveing them if it is all UK based news.

If that was the case, it would be pointless having UK stations on Irish cable. That would leave you with RTÉ, TV3, TG4, 3e, City, and Setanta. I'm not sure many people would pay for that...Irish people have an interest in UK news otherwise nobody would watch Sky News. Yet its been on cable here for (give or take) twenty years and has enough viewers to sell adverts. So obviously somebody is watching it...

patrickmooney

Oh most certainly people watch Sky News. UK/Foreign news is really our only option if we want news on-demand via UPC. But I think this is an interesting move by Sky News. I'm only guessing here, but they might be taking the UK rail feed for Ireland initally then, in time, localise. It would be great to see Dublin weather and news etc. More importantly, I'm gathering this is the first time since Sky News Ireland pulled out, that Sky News have invested here??

Peiking Duck

icdg wrote: »

If that was the case, it would be pointless having UK stations on Irish cable. That would leave you with RTÉ, TV3, TG4, 3e, City, and Setanta. I'm not sure many people would pay for that...Irish people have an interest in UK news otherwise nobody would watch Sky News. Yet its been on cable here for (give or take) twenty years and has enough viewers to sell adverts. So obviously somebody is watching it...

Why would that mean having UK stations is pointless. The last I saw most channels in the UK show programming that isn't news. If the news channels are exclusively based on UK news then yes they would be pointless. What are the viewing figures for Sky News in Ireland? Enough to warrant the disbanding of Sky News Ireland for a start. Failure if you ask me.

watty

There is no Irish 24 rolling news channel.

The options are:
Euronews
BBC World TV (not 100% news)
BBC 24 News
CNN europe
CNBC europe
Blomberg Europe
Russia Today
(Is English version of French 24 still running)
Al Jazzera English

Though all of these can be received FTA (somewhere), none are Free To Show in public, except maybe Euronews. Only some are Free To carry (and you need permission in writing).

Only BBC News24, Sky News and Euronews have any coverage of Irish Domestic events. Obviously any Irish even of International interest is on them all.

Euronews is pretty sad and isn't going to sponsor screens.

BBC absolutely won't sponsor screens. Against their charter. Though they will sell their services abroad.

Sky will sponsor and do sponsor for increased promotion of their own service and their adverts.

I'd guess it's sponsored by Sky. No surprise. Because the way thata the Sky Digibox works, Sky News has much higher viewing figures than BBC News24 in Ireland.

Sky News is most watched 24 rolling news by a large margin in Ireland. Personally I tend to watch BBC World News, but you can't get that on a Dish used for RTE/BBC/Sky/ITV in Ireland or UK

Pat Gleeson

watty wrote: »

(Is English version of French 24 still running)

Yes it is - Sky Ch. 513

garbanzo

This really boils my p*ss. In my view it is more of this lazy madness we are seeing more and more of and will continuue to see more and more of into the future.

Go into many banks or hotels/pubs throught the country and you have the same thing. 24 hour SKY on the go. We may as well be living in the UK if you ask me. What really brought this home to me was overhearing two american tourists who had landed in a well known Dublin hotel and were sitting in the foyer. You had free UK tabloids being given out in the foyer and SKY on the go in the bar. One says to the other . . ." are you sure this is Ireland that we have landed in, all the news seems to be British ?"
I just died in my seat of utter embarrassment.

This not an anti-English rant. I am more ashamed that our national channels haven't got their act together on this front. The prob is that this is how many Irish people are getting their view of the world. A great illustration of the extent of this were queues at petrol stations here a few years back when there was a petrol shortage in the UK - much hyped by SKY - due to a fuel truckers campaign of industrial action . . . in the UK!

We have much to be proud of but very little to show for it. We are all responsible as nobody is really noticing it happening and worse still nobody really seems to care.

To quote Daft Dave . . " this madness must end soon"

dave-higgz

We have RTE news now on rte.ie

It's pretty basic at present but it's a start. It repeats the same news over again but for train stations etc. it would be a good thing to have.

If it could be distributed in a cheap way to TV's instead of over the internet then it could work quite well, because I agree that having Sky News everywhere is not a positive thing. They rarely cover Irish issues and no one really wants to know what's happening in Westminster. Also RTE does a decent coverage of international issues.

x in the city

Sky 'news' has ruined news and current affairs in the same way it has ruined football

stupid fcukers people are worse getting sky subscriptions

Koloman

x in the city wrote: »

Sky 'news' has ruined news and current affairs in the same way it has ruined football

stupid fcukers people are worse getting sky subscriptions

Agree with you there.

watty

Unfortunately RTE & Government have shown in past (lack external Radio for over 70 years) and killing Tara TV and footdragging on RTE TV Int, killing DTT plans in 1999) that they are not interested in a coordinated approach or extra services.

I'm amazed they even bothered with lyric FM or the musicBot channels on Failed DAB.

Dellas

Peiking Duck wrote: »

Sky paid for it at a guess. It is pointless haveing them if it is all UK based news.

I think its a great idea. I saw it at Connolly while waiting for the Belfast train. Sky News is World news not just British.

Peiking Duck

About 2 minutes in each bulletin? Great coverage.

Mike 1972

I wonder do the people who take exception to Sky News solely on the grounds that it doesnt originate from Ireland take similar exception to Irish based terresterial broadcasters use of "France 24" as an overnight sustaining service :rolleyes:

Mossy Monk

Mike 1972 wrote: »

I wonder do the people who take exception to Sky News solely on the grounds that it doesnt originate from Ireland take similar exception to Irish based terresterial broadcasters use of "France 24" as an overnight sustaining service :rolleyes:

I would say you don't wonder at all judging by your rolling eyes.

Mike 1972

But seriously couldnt they use one of the IRISH 24 hour live rolling news channels ?

Such as..........................

Mossy Monk

RTÉ have a half arsed effort available online but probably wouldn't pay for the screen.

1huge1

Well im sure sky news offered to pay the most and its perfectly understandable that Irish Rail would pick them for that very reason... I'd prefer to see RTE news myself but thats a case for RTE to sort out

MattEmulsion

The screens are the work of Titan advertising - they sell space to whoever wants to buy it, Sky bought space, no biggie

Koloman

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=THE+INSIDE+TRACK-qqqs=mediaandmarketing-qqqid=41134-qqqx=1.asp

Mentioned in the above article.

Linku

So are the screens just showing Sky News or a specialised version like in the UK rail stations? I wouldn't really have a problem with Sky doing it if it were the latter and included Irish weather, and they could have an Irish ticker even if it was pulled from another source like RTÉ...

garbanzo

garbanzo wrote: »

This really boils my p*ss. In my view it is more of this lazy madness we are seeing more and more of and will continuue to see more and more of into the future.

Go into many banks or hotels/pubs throught the country and you have the same thing. 24 hour SKY on the go. We may as well be living in the UK if you ask me. What really brought this home to me was overhearing two american tourists who had landed in a well known Dublin hotel and were sitting in the foyer. You had free UK tabloids being given out in the foyer and SKY on the go in the bar. One says to the other . . ." are you sure this is Ireland that we have landed in, all the news seems to be British ?"
I just died in my seat of utter embarrassment.

This not an anti-English rant. I am more ashamed that our national channels haven't got their act together on this front. The prob is that this is how many Irish people are getting their view of the world. A great illustration of the extent of this were queues at petrol stations here a few years back when there was a petrol shortage in the UK - much hyped by SKY - due to a fuel truckers campaign of industrial action . . . in the UK!

We have much to be proud of but very little to show for it. We are all responsible as nobody is really noticing it happening and worse still nobody really seems to care.

To quote Daft Dave . . " this madness must end soon"

I totally agree. Irish Rail are basically turning into a UK TOC under Dick Fearn's control. It seems we don't want to be ruled by the UK but still want to be the same thing, I've said it before, we must be one of the only countries in the world who relies more on a foreign nation's television than our own.

Biffo The Bare

I think its good. The tickers are handy for breaking news. Well done whoever.:)

icdg

Karsini wrote: »

I totally agree. Irish Rail are basically turning into a UK TOC under Dick Fearn's control. It seems we don't want to be ruled by the UK but still want to be the same thing, I've said it before, we must be one of the only countries in the world who relies more on a foreign nation's television than our own.

Irish Rail are nothing like a UK TOC. Irish Rail is a railway, owning the infrastructure, rolling stock, signalling, stations, line maintenance, as well as operating trains. A UK TOC is simply essentially a licence to print money (whether that money is going to come from profits or a government subsidy...) - they own virtually nothing except rights to operate services over certain lines for a certain period of time. The railways are owned by Network Rail. The trains themselves are owned by the ROSCOs. The staff and assets of the franchise are temporarly held by the franchisee during the term of the franchise and then passed to the next franchisee under the complicated set of acts, regulations, and contracts that govern the British rail system since privatisation.

But this isn't Commuting and Transport...and so lets bring it back to TV.

The appetite for UK TV isn't due to some conspiracy - its because these channels are giving the people what they wanted. If Irish people only wanted to watch Irish programmes, then UK TV would have no audience, because it is possible (most nights) to watch 100% Irish made programmes in peak time between RTÉ1 and TG4. Obviously, since RTÉ1 and TG4 don't have 100% of the audience between themselves, there is a market for the UK stations here.

And this watching of another country's TV isn't unique to Ireland. Look at Canada and see how popular NBC, ABC, CBS, and PBS are there. (So much so that they came up with their "simulatanious substitution" laws, something that would probably be illegal in Ireland due to European Union directives). Look at Waloonia and see how popular TF1, France 2, and France 3. Or ARD and ZDF in Austria. Those are just a couple of examples. No doubt Australian TV would be popular in New Zealand if it weren't for the fact that the distance between the countries makes it impossible to pick up Australian terrestrial TV there. People are simply voting with their feet for what they want.

Mike 1972

we must be one of the only countries in the world who relies more on a foreign nation's television than our own

Andorra ?...Liechtenstein ?.... San Marino ?.......

fnac

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE! Connolly and Heuston are supposed to be the headquarters of our NATIONAL rail infrastructure.

Iarnrod Éireann sold off their last morcel of intergrity the minute they allowed those SkyNews charlatans install those giant idiot-boxes in the most prominant parts of the stations (as it happens the places where TRAIN TIMETABLES should be displayed). Not that IÉ are in the railway business or anything...

As an irishman (I've been one all my life!!), I find it difficult enough to shrugg off the idea that Dublin is, at least where the beat of daily life is concerned, a mediocre British regional city. This, to me, finally confirms that sad fact of life.

As it happens, the RTÉ content displayed on the website is ideally suited to this kind of display, as evidenced by the fact that at least two Universities use it in the corners of their campus information screens (TCD and NUI Galway). Not that we need another tv in our daily lives. I mean, we've already got them coming out our ears, 32 inch HD lcd and the news again this hour blah blah blah...

Next time you are about to board the commuter to drogheda or maynooth, or the intercity to cork, think of that as the Bright lights above your head scroll the latest weather reports from all of the dull and grey cities of Britain:

Doncaster... Dundee... and bleedin' baile atha cliath!

IIMII

patrickmooney wrote: »

Oh most certainly people watch Sky News.

Last time I watched Sky News it was when they invaded Iraq with the Yanks, I think. No point in watching it unless you have an interest in British soccer or British news tbh

Don't think I know many people that watch it either

Mossy Monk

fnac wrote: »

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE! Connolly and Heuston are supposed to be the headquarters of our NATIONAL rail infrastructure.

Iarnrod Éireann sold off their last morcel of intergrity the minute they allowed those SkyNews charlatans install those giant idiot-boxes in the most prominant parts of the stations (as it happens the places where TRAIN TIMETABLES should be displayed). Not that IÉ are in the railway business or anything...

As an irishman (I've been one all my life!!), I find it difficult enough to shrugg off the idea that Dublin is, at least where the beat of daily life is concerned, a mediocre British regional city. This, to me, finally confirms that sad fact of life.

As it happens, the RTÉ content displayed on the website is ideally suited to this kind of display, as evidenced by the fact that at least two Universities use it in the corners of their campus information screens (TCD and NUI Galway). Not that we need another tv in our daily lives. I mean, we've already got them coming out our ears, 32 inch HD lcd and the news again this hour blah blah blah...

Next time you are about to board the commuter to drogheda or maynooth, or the intercity to cork, think of that as the Bright lights above your head scroll the latest weather reports from all of the dull and grey cities of Britain:

Doncaster... Dundee... and bleedin' baile atha cliath!

Get a life FFS.

icdg

Guys, cool it please.