RTE to open five more channels

Shea O'Meara

Minister Carey, announced today, to approve five new channels for RTE.

- RTÉ Two High Definition (HD) Select
- RTÉ Aertel Digital
- RTÉjr
- RTÉ Plus (Phase 1)
- RTÉ News Now

http://news.eircom.net/breakingnews/19289035/

Seriously, is this for real?
The licence fee would need to go up in my view. Also they are stretched for showing quality Irish programming as it is, how will they fill these slots with anything other than foreign or domestic re-runs or low/no budget crap?
It's jobs for the boys in my view.
An FFail sweetner pre election?

ScumLord

It's something they need to seriously consider if their to keep up with everyone else. They should have thrown in a sports channel too.

Bodhisopha

Didn't they have plans for a movie channel showing mostly foreign movies too? What happened to that?

Yakult

Sure, its only taking 34 years for them to expand. You'd wonder why they are even bothering now.

squeakyduck

Aertel digital? ALL AERTEL ALL THE TIME!

JJJJNR

Is Aertel going HTML 5

Minstrel27

Shea O'Meara wrote: »

Seriously, is this for real?

Yes it is.

- RTÉ Two High Definition (HD) Select - RTÉ Two is currently upscaling
- RTÉ Aertel Digital - Already there
- RTÉjr
- RTÉ Plus (Phase 1)
- RTÉ News Now - Already broadcasting

I really don't see why anyone would think this is a FF sweetener.

Dman001

HD channel is a welcomed addition, while the others are a waste of time.

mikom

Learn to walk before you run.

DoesNotCompute

Waste of my tax dollahs.

EoghanConway

The rent is too damn high.

Seriously, I don't watch RTE and don't want to fund them via a compulsory license.

schween

This has been in the pipeline for years.

I read a press release a few months ago stating that the final channel line for RTÉ Digital TV was to be decided in early 2011, so unless they predicted the election I don't see this as a sweetener.

Skid

ScumLord wrote: »

It's something they need to seriously consider if their to keep up with everyone else. They should have thrown in a sports channel too.

Keep up with who exactly, the BBC? - They don't need to launch channels just because other people do.

And they haven't nearly enough Sport rights to warrant a new channel

Kids programmes are on all day on RTE2 so why do they need a new home?

HD and the News Now channel are welcome, that's about it.

DoesNotCompute

schween wrote: »

This has been in the pipeline for years.

I read a press release a few months ago stating that the final channel line for RTÉ Digital TV was to be decided in early 2011, so unless they predicted the election I don't see this as a sweetener.

It may have been in the pipeline for years, but that's no excuse for not pulling the plug on it considering the country is bankrupt. Sure RTE intended to broadcast a free to air channel called RTE International on one of the European satellites, but canned the idea, and rolled out RTE News Now internationally instead.

If they can bin RTE International cos it's too expensive, surely they can do the same for these crappy channels.

paddyismaddy

more channels for more crap shows and repeats :rolleyes:

Minstrel27

DoesNotCompute wrote: »

Sure RTE intended to broadcast a free to air channel called RTE International on one of the European satellites, but canned the idea, and rolled out RTE News Now internationally instead.

Was RTÉ international not a channel that the government wanted?

Bodhisopha

Bodhisopha wrote: »

Didn't they have plans for a movie channel showing mostly foreign movies too? What happened to that?

Does that mean every movie will be stopped halfway through to do the lotto results?

oncevotedff

Dman001 wrote: »

HD channel is a welcomed addition, while the others are a waste of time.

RTE is a waste of time. Does anybody even watch it if they have a choice?

Shea O'Meara

About 12 or so years ago they were pushing for extra channels, one I recall was a proposal for a youth channel called 'Zap TV'. There were others. It never happened.
With the LLS, news coverage etc. there have been threads relating to RTE bias for FFail. In light of this decision, it pans out in my view.
Getting away from the politics of it, a 24 news channel, (which granted will be dull as dishwater after 10 O'Clock) is a decent idea, but what with the internet and such, is there a massive call for more Aertel? And as posted, do we need an entire kids channel on top of the lot on RTE2?
And why do we need Home & Away re-runs in HD anyway?
Financially it isn't justified and quality wise it's not warranted.
We will see several shows play twice a day, Twinks daughter and Ryan's daughter will get their own hour long fashion/chat/gossip shows...really, we need be paying more for this?

Minstrel27

Shea O'Meara wrote: »

With the LLS, news coverage etc. there have been threads relating to RTE bias for FFail. In light of this decision, it pans out in my view.

How is any of this pro FF?

Dman001

oncevotedff wrote: »

RTE is a waste of time. Does anybody even watch it if they have a choice?

RTE Two have a decent amount of imported shows, so no harm in having a HD channel to see them in HD.

KerranJast

Dman001 wrote: »

RTE Two have a decent amount of imported shows, so no harm in having a HD channel to see them in HD.

This. They may actually be able to show them at a decent hour and then later on the main schedule like the way BBC3/4 works in the UK.
I download all my foreign TV so it won't affect me but the older generation would have a chance to watch the good stuff from the States at a normal hour.

Panthro

fingers crossed we get "Where in the World" re-runs

ScumLord

SkidMark wrote: »

Keep up with who exactly, the BBC? - They don't need to launch channels just because other people do.

Well they do, they're in the same market as sky and the rest of the digital crowd whether they like it or not they need to compete.

And they haven't nearly enough Sport rights to warrant a new channel

There's plenty of scope for more sport they already show a fair amount of it. There's plenty of local games that they could cover. Sky have already proven people will watch these repeats all day long over and over again.

Shakyfan

Sure it will always give the whingers on these boards a wider choice of what to moan about....:D