Saorview Content Speculation

Manc-Red

Probably a silly question but...

Does a broadcaster when acquiring rights for the likes of Champions League, need to have a HD "licence" to broadcast in this definition?

Elmo

watty wrote: »

A long time since "James Morris" was editing Guinness ads on a pair of U-matics in Georgian Terrance near St. Stephan's Green. Then Some fun installing an old cinema projector with telecine adaptor in the paint-still-wet Windmill Lane.

In those days people lucky to get 1.5 channels here.

What happened? Guinness ads edited in some fancy London ad agency. Arthur's Day Not that Union ever insisted that ads be produced here for Irish Products, of course they are disregarded in TV3.

AFAIK HD rights need to be negotiated.

Manc-Red

Elmo wrote: »

AFAIK HD rights need to be negotiated.

Would be a shame if RTE didn't have those rights, Football & Sport in general has become a whole new greater experience with HD.

Hopefully RTE will have the HD rights for 2012 European Championships, so we can enjoy them on Saorview

Elmo

Manc-Red wrote: »

Would be a shame if RTE didn't have those rights, Football & Sport in general has become a whole new greater experience with HD.

Hopefully RTE will have the HD rights for 2012 European Championships, so we can enjoy them on Saorview

But what about Sky, ESPN and Setanta!

Manc-Red

Elmo wrote: »

But what about Sky, ESPN and Setanta!

Those 3 can't acquire them due to them being pay providers, obviously ITV/BBC will have those games in HD, but obviously they wont be available on Saorview.

Don't imagine those games will not be available....

Dunphy in HD - Now theres a thought lol

watty

They aren't on DTT.

Elmo

watty wrote: »

They aren't on DTT.

Setanta will want to sell Setanta HD, while people watch Ireland RWC games in SD on RTÉ Two. Ditto Sky and ESPN in terms of other sports. But yes they aren't on DTT they are on competing platforms. I am talking about Sport in general. Just seems to me Pay Providers will take up as much HD rights as possible.

Dunphy won't be in HD for a while yet.

The Cush

Manc-Red wrote: »

Probably a silly question but...

Does a broadcaster when acquiring rights for the likes of Champions League, need to have a HD "licence" to broadcast in this definition?

This is what RTÉ has said on the matter, they already own the HD rights to certain events as they are only available in HD.

RTÉ owns the transmission rights for some remote local (i.e Outside Broadacst) and some EBU events, which are originated and available natively in HD. The signals from these events will be delivered to RTÉ’s Donnybrook Television Centre and will then be directly passed on to the proposed new service for broadcast in HD.

Sport is a cornerstone of the schedule on RTÉ Two. The following is an indicative list of the sports it is proposed to broadcast in HD:
1. Major GAA matches from the Championship
2. Euro 2012 soccer qualifiers (three home and three away games)
3. Autumn Rugby Internationals (two in 2011, one deferred and one live)
4. Rugby World Cup (13 live games)
5. Magners League (c. 20 matches)
6. Champions’ League

Elmo

The Cush wrote: »

This is what RTÉ has said on the matter, they already own the HD rights to certain events as they are only available in HD.

Disappointing news for Setanta in relation to RWC. Are all the games FTA in the UK?

ftakeith

Elmo wrote: »

Disappointing news for Setanta in relation to RWC. Are all the games FTA in the UK?

all the RWC 2011 live fta on itv1hd and itv4

euro2012 finals football will be fta live on rte2hd

I predict setanta sports ireland will be fta on saorview around 2011-12

watty

No, I predict Setanta will stay pay TV only or go bust. There is no FTA model for them that can sustain their costs. They can't be FTA unless they re-invent themselves as a better than TV3 version of TV3.

Elmo

watty wrote: »

No, I predict Setanta will stay pay TV only or go bust. There is no FTA model for them that can sustain their costs. They can't be FTA unless they re-invent themselves as a better than TV3 version of TV3.

They could reinvent themselves along the lines of RTÉ 2, but I do believe that there is a model for a dedicated sports/entertainment channel on an FTA bases. Setanta Ireland to my mind is getting there with shows like iTalkSport and their newstalk show, however it could be provided with a set an live coverage from both newstalk and setanta.

Remember most so called genre/niche channels are rarely really genre or niche. A entertainment sports service to my mind is not impossible. Nor do I think that Setanta as a FTA channel on Digital would need to enter into buying Film, Programming etc as a mixed genre channel.

By providing sports news, sporting documentaries, sports entertainment (such as Top Gear, Poker etc) and live sports there is a very good FTA option for a niche sports channel. I would expect that Setanta could grew its audience with better coverage on DTT, Cable and Satellite. Setanta would be well position to take from TG4 many of their FTA GAA live sport. Achieving high audience that would bring in ad revenue.

If Setanta can grow their audience while also following TV3's budgeting strategy from 1998 to 2006 it could survive. It won't in its current form.

Remember live sport can have anything from 150,000 viewers up to 500,000 viewers. There is definitely a space for Sport News (Sky Sports News get 1% audience share while Setanta is currently down around 0.5%).

watty

Only a successful pay TV channel can afford "must have" sports rights.

If Setanta only has 3rd rate imported junk and for Sport Tractor Pulling and Irish Cricket, then as FTA channel they would not cover their operating costs by Advertising income.

Elmo

watty wrote: »

Only a successful pay TV channel can afford "must have" sports rights.

If Setanta only has 3rd rate imported junk and for Sport Tractor Pulling and Irish Cricket, then as FTA channel they would not cover their operating costs by Advertising income.

I don't know if currently Setanta have "must have" sports rights. My opinion would be they have very few exclusive sports rights and of those that they have exclusive rights to they are not "must have". So I don't know if they can cover their operating costs on subscribers alone, but I would need to know how much they get from Eircom, UPC and Magnet for Setanta Ireland.

I am not suggesting 3rd rate imported junk. The last time I checked TG4 spend around 5m on sports, while not "must have" they have provided the channel with some of their highest ratings. Setanta would have an advantage over TG4 due to language other programming.

The setanta currently suffers from bad scheduling (for non live programming) and bad marketing. And yet they have yet to decide to show Tractor Pulling or Irish Cricket, I suppose they have Schools Rugby.

Sponge Bob

Champions League tonight in RTÉ2 . I shall be watching most avidly

Machinehead

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Champions League tonight in RTÉ2 . I shall be watching most avidly

Do you think they have the tech stuff to show the game? cause everything broadcast so far has been upscaled SD material I understand.

dont know as of yet but the studio wont be in HD

just the match itself i think :P if it happens

tlaavtech

I wouldn't be holding my breath

Machinehead

Well guys is it a go no go for RTÉ TWO Champions League HD tonight? Don't think so, compared to ITV1 HD.

marathont

Machinehead wrote: »

Well guys is it a go no go for RTÉ TWO Champions League HD tonight? Don't think so, compared to ITV1 HD.

It did not look like HD to me anyway.

Souriau

marathont wrote: »

It did not look like HD to me anyway.

I assume if RTE is transmitting HD, would they show a HD dog? RTE2 HD

fat-tony

It's not native HD - just the SD picture upscaled to 1440x1080.
When (if) RTE2 start transmitting real HD it'll be all over the forum:D
RTE don't have the playout or switching equipment (VT or HDD) to transmit recorded material in HD. They have a tender out for installation of HD playout and switching equipment in the new year. The most likely first test HD transmission on RTE2 in advance of this will be a local live sporting event (outside broadcast) originated in HD.

Manc-Red

RTE are going in the right-direction at least, I'm sure we'll see regular Full HD broadcasts next year....

ITV took ages to get that HD Channel running smooth

watty

Souriau wrote: »

I assume if RTE is transmitting HD, would they show a HD dog? RTE2 HD

That's what they said (approx)

Machinehead

fat-tony wrote: »

It's not native HD - just the SD picture upscaled to 1440x1080.
When (if) RTE2 start transmitting real HD it'll be all over the forum:D
RTE don't have the playout or switching equipment (VT or HDD) to transmit recorded material in HD. They have a tender out for installation of HD playout and switching equipment in the new year. The most likely first test HD transmission on RTE2 in advance of this will be a local live sporting event (outside broadcast) originated in HD.

If RTÉ don't have the playout equipment how then were they able to transmit the HD loop on the test channel? Or was that in the hands of RTÉNL?

watty

You don't need a "full blown" professional playout system for that. Nearly any PC with a PCI ASI card can do it.

Sam Russell

I would think the RTE2 HD broadcasting without an SD simulcast is to lay down a clear marker that all Saorview product must be HD only. If they waited till after launch to start HD broadcasts, then a lot of people sold unsuitable equipment would be blaming RTE and RTENL for the problem, and the retailers (like Currys, Tesco, etc.) will be joining in saying 'they never told us'.

Now, everyone knows.

Well done RTE NL, now let us have our Pannys back, drop the flags for the weekend (but let us know first).:)

watty

No. The Panny problem is Panasonic's to sort.

fat-tony

Machinehead wrote: »

If RTÉ don't have the playout equipment how then were they able to transmit the HD loop on the test channel? Or was that in the hands of RTÉNL?

As watty said a PC with a suitable card could have been providing the feed for the RTENL HD channel. It was just a loop of two showreels, followed by a test card - total of about 10 or so gigabytes of hard disk. I like to think that it was patched into the DTT encoder with a bit of old cable they had lying around:) That could be quite near the mark, but I'm sure it's much more sophisticated.
It's a whole different ballgame (geddit:D), if you have to connect an actual live or recorded HD programme to the encoder if you don't have the proper switching and routing gear.

watty

ASI, SDI etc is all just coax cable with BNC plugs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_serial_interface
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Digital_Interface

You can buy SDI and ASI interfaces for PC PCI slot quite inexpensive
I've used a couple of different cards from these people http://www.dektec.com/

Some multiplexing boxes even have an ethernet input. A Pre-encoded MPEG4 can be pre formatted in to a file version of an MPEG2-TS encapsulated in UDP and sent over ethernet. So potentially even an ordinary laptop plugged into the rack via ethernet

Yes, the talk of DAB or DTT being a barrier to Pirates is nonsense. Pirates use FM and not DAB because nearly no-one is "really" using DAB in UK. Pirate TV has never been popular due to higher transmission costs and production costs for same income. It's cheaper to be on Satellite than pay the electric for a few decent TV transmitters.