Article - RTÉ could be left high and dry

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From today's Irish Times:

RTÉ could be left high and dry

The broadcaster has lost ground in the move to HD TV and the downturn means it could be a long time before it catches up. IAN CAMPBELL reports

TWO WEEKS ago, UTV became the first broadcaster in Ireland to launch a high-definition (HD) television service. Two days ago, the BBC launched BBC One as a dedicated HD channel in the UK.

Anyone expecting RTÉ to be hot on their heels will be disappointed. Director of TV operations John Hunt admits the State broadcaster is between six and eight years away from launching similar services.

Upgrading RTÉ’s infrastructure to support HD channels would cost over €25 million, money that is simply not available to the cash-strapped broadcaster.

“We will get to a tipping point when it has to become a multimillion investment and we will have to bite the bullet, but, because of the current financial situation, we’re not there at that moment,” says Hunt.

Sky and UPC are already transmitting HD channels but the uptake has not been significant enough to make a difference to RTÉ viewing figures, according to Hunt. He knows it is a situation that can change.

“At the moment, a lot of people have HD TVs but they are not watching any HD content. It has gone beyond the early days of adoption but it has not become business critical to us yet,” he says.

As HD becomes more popular, RTÉ runs the risk of people switching over when there’s a choice. Even football, a stalwart of the prime-time RTÉ schedule, could lose out to British coverage because of inferior picture quality.

“That is a risk that has always concerned me,” says Hunt. “With RTÉ not having HD TV, people could turn to competitors. At the moment we have the edge. If it’s an Irish match, they prefer to watch it with an Irish broadcaster and we do well because our analysts are Irish and give a different perspective to Sky and BBC.”

Is there pressure from advertisers for the improved picture quality?

“I wouldn’t call it pressure but there are occasional inquiries about when we’re going to HD,” he says. “As it becomes more mainstream, some advertisers might push for it but right now they want the biggest audience and RTÉ gives them that by a long way.”

Hunt believes widespread adoption of HD is some way off. Most new televisions are HD- enabled but that doesn’t mean people are watching HD content. “Some people bought them and probably still don’t understand that they’re not getting HD TV. While it’s frustrating that the market has gone ahead of us, I don’t think there is a large HD audience in Ireland at the moment. My ‘guestimate’ is that the Sky service is only watched in about 100,000 homes.”

While Sky never reveals subscriber figures, Sky Ireland director Mark Deering claims one in five customers pay the €15 extra for the 14 HD channels on its Sky+ HD service. He said the take-up in the UK was closer to one in three.

“It would be fair to suggest that we are trailing the UK a little. One of the reasons for this is the absence of indigenous content from RTÉ or TV3. In the UK, the five terrestrial broadcasters all have HD channels.”

In the short term, RTÉ will take incremental steps towards HD, using Saorview, the free-to-air digital terrestrial television (DTT) network. Trials have begun of the service, which covers 90 per cent of the population, transmitting RTÉ and TV3 programming.

For the one million viewers who currently watch analogue terrestrial TV, Saorview will be the free-to-air replacement. People have two years to upgrade their television sets to receive the digital signal before the analogue service is switched off at the end of 2012.

A full DTT service is expected to launch early next year but set-top boxes may be available before Christmas. Hunt said they will cost a little more than their Freeview equivalents in the UK which start at about £30 (€34).

Although both systems carry DTT, they are not compatible. “Every country is doing its own thing so every set-top box is slightly different. The time you get into DTT determines the level of technology you adopt,” says Hunt.

Saorview uses the MPeg-4 standard and will carry HD broadcasts. RTÉ has proposed a HD channel that is pending a review by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. The plan is to show “HD light” coverage of live sporting events such as GAA matches, Six Nations rugby and international football.

HD outside broadcast facilities will make it possible to transmit “whistle-to-whistle” HD, but studio and recorded content would remain standard definition.

The priority is to provide some HD programming for Saorview but the content will almost certainly find its way onto Sky and UPC as the broadcaster looks to “maximise the investment”.

RTÉ is rebuilding and re-engineering studios to be HD-capable and drawing up a business case to further develop the production facilities.

The company recently invested in the latest Sony HD cameras and a tender is under way to begin a migration to a tapeless production environment, but transmitting HD-recorded material or studio-based content will be impossible until a complete HD upgrade takes place.

The reality is a full-blown RTÉ HD service will only come with the completion of the purpose-built building planned for the Donnybrook site. Construction is not expected to begin before 2012.

“We should be at the forefront of technology and offering Irish viewers the best that’s out there but that’s not possible at the moment, and the current financial situation means we are constantly reviewing our plans,” says Hunt.