Watching RTE football coverage from Northern Ireland

Dinkler

Hi all,

Apologies if this query has been dealt with elsewhere - I couldn't find an answer to my query having searched.

I pay a subscription to sky for the sky sports channels. This means I can see the Ireland games live. However, I detest their coverage and would much prefer to watch the RTE coverage with Giles and Dunphy.

I understand why sky block out the coverage of the live matches. However, given that I pay the subscription to sky I think I should alas have the option of choosing to watch the RTE coverage. Alas I don't have that option.

Does anyone know if there is any way round this? Will all free view boxes block out the football coverage? Would getting a separate satellite dish help?

I would also prefer to watch the RTE coverage of the English Premier League highlights on Saturday night.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

lertsnim

The only way to get around the restriction via Sky is to have a Sky account from the Republic of Ireland.

If you can receive Saorview via an aerial there will be no programming restrictions on that. Alternatively there is also Saorsat but this requires a new lnb, receiver and a dish pointing at a different satellite to the ones that Sky use.

Rodin

Dinkler wrote: »

Hi all,

Apologies if this query has been dealt with elsewhere - I couldn't find an answer to my query having searched.

I pay a subscription to sky for the sky sports channels. This means I can see the Ireland games live. However, I detest their coverage and would much prefer to watch the RTE coverage with Giles and Dunphy.

I understand why sky block out the coverage of the live matches. However, given that I pay the subscription to sky I think I should alas have the option of choosing to watch the RTE coverage. Alas I don't have that option.

Does anyone know if there is any way round this? Will all free view boxes block out the football coverage? Would getting a separate satellite dish help?

I would also prefer to watch the RTE coverage of the English Premier League highlights on Saturday night.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Watch online. Streamed to the island of ireland by RTE

icdg

The history behind this of course is that Sky bid for and won exclusive rights to Republic of Ireland home games in both the UK and Ireland. After an outcry the Government placed competitive (but not friendly) Republic of Ireland games on the "A" list which must be offered to FTA broadcasters in the Republic which is how RTÉ got the rights back. The Government of course has no jurisdiction to do this in Northern Ireland (that is for the British Government to do so) so Sky Sports still have exclusive rights in the North.

Sky Sports still have exclusive rights in the Republic to home friendlies which is why the Republic of Ireland v Greece match this week wasn't free to air. Mind you, RTÉ don't seem to have shown much interest in the away friendlies whose rights are sold on a one-off basis and Setanta have picked up most of these recently.

Dinkler

Rodin wrote: »

Watch online. Streamed to the island of ireland by RTE

Two questions:

1. Any sites in particular for watching RTE coverage of EPL and Ireland matches?

2. I'm considering getting BT infinity. Is it significantly quicker than any other provider? Would having it rather than a regular BT or Sky broadband service make it more feasible to stream matches online? Or are there other factors aside from your download speed that determine how well you can stream? if so what are those factors? Currently I use sky broadband and have a downlad speed of 1700 kbps.

Actually, that was maybe more than 2 questions!

icdg

Dinkler wrote: »

Two questions:

1. Any sites in particular for watching RTE coverage of EPL and Ireland matches?

Just the one you can discuss here, www.rte.ie/live .