Statutory requirement to maintain Aertel to be removed

Ballycommon Mast

And replaced with a mechanism for RTE to seek the ministers permission to close the service. Aertel coats absolutely nothing to run, accept bandwidth that will have to be paid for regardless, I'd also wager that a lot more people use it than longwave 252 https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/8ce9d-online-safety-and-media-regulation-bill-minister-catherine-martin-proposes-additional-measures-to-assist-community-broadcasters-public-service-media-and-the-radio-sector/

L1011

The equipment to encode it isn't free and isn't going to last forever. The Saorview version very plausibly has licencing costs for that. There is extra workload editing news/sports stories to fit and to generally lay it out

So no, it doesn't cost absolutely nothing.

icdg

Virtually no one can receive the WST Aertel any more. Since VM shut analogue the only way to get it is on a legacy Sky box with a SCART connection to the TV. Nobody is using it.

Im not sure many are using the MHEG-5 service either, which isn’t teletext. (There was a version on VM cable at one stage, it may only have worked on the UPC Mediabox platform I think. It never made it to Sky).

Its a technology whose time is passed, unfortunately.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118505124#Comment_118505124

You don't need any magic hardware to add data to a digital stream.

The equipment to generate the page can be a Raspberry Pi.

The workload can be automated like this site that scrapes the BBC 's websites for stuff to add. Scroll down to get the code for the Pi.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118505601#Comment_118505601

That's still not free, nor maintenance free - I would say its not professional enough for a broadcaster but that isn't true. Also, a scraped story is not always (or often, really) going to paginate properly for teletext - someone will have to reformat it

It costs money - maybe not as much as claimed, but its not free - and it has basically no non-anorak users.

Gerry Wicklow

I don't know what kind of editing you think is involved. From what I see, for years it is cut and paste from the website. You have the ridiculous Twitter links which basically means you get the same paragraph twice except one has the HTML code included.

Even as a self confessed anorak, I rarely use it because of the editorial quality. It's not uncommon to get 3 versions of a news story as events unfold rather than updating the existing page(s). Like many things Montrose, I often wonder do they ever actually look at what they are broadcasting.

icdg

I think the editing stuff is a red herring. The simple point is that this - the traditional WST service - is a service that virtually no one can access any more. The only way to do so is with a Sky subscription, via an older Sky box (not Sky Q), connected via a SCART (not HDMI) cable. All the other platforms that carried the service are closed now.

The MHEG-5 service on Saorview is not teletext, and arguably RTE were never required to set it up or maintain it.

Delta Lima

Just out of interest, you actually could access RTE teletext on an old sky box, without a subscription.

If you were on the encrypted RTE channel, it would still work.

Ballycommon Mast

I remember back in 2012, RTE were advertising the MPEG5 Aertel as a reason why one should get a "Saorview approved" box rather than a cheep generic MPEG4 Box from eastern Europe.

SPDUB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118517041#Comment_118517041

You still can and I did this afternoon on a FTA box.

It evens works on a telly with a built in satellite decoder

I still use both versions because it's find it's better than the bloated RTE News website even with the editing problems .

Given this news though any one know of a browser to show the text of the RTE News website

Strumms

As regards the OP… how could Aertel cost nothing to run ? Content would need to be written, created, edited, formatted, added, removed….daily…

everything available on aertel is available online…

fritzelly

This still exists in this day and age when you could literally go on Google and get the info in seconds

Ballycommon Mast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118523980#Comment_118523980

But as has already been pointed out, content isn't written for Aertel, it just uses automated technology that copies and pastes from the website which is why you always get twitter links and click here for more information written into stories. Even Philip butcher Hayes said that a source told him the savings from closing Aertel is an "accounting error" sum

JDxtra

Broadcasters need to close down services with limited value. Times change, technology moves on. I think most people will accept this as reasonable. If you leave Aertel in place you run the risk of it breaking at some point and having nobody around to fix it.

Put a message on it that it's closing then shut it down after a period of time.

Ballycommon Mast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118569400#Comment_118569400

My problem here is that RTE go around naming the closure of Aertel as some sort of major cost cutting reform when in reality it's closure saves buttons. It was the same with Digital Radio, the stations and the staffers woking there remain, possibly all on six figure incomes while RTE close 3 DAB transmitters that saves about 4k a year.

JDxtra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118569475#Comment_118569475

Correct. All these digital stations should be closed fully, with the exception of RTÉ Gold. Even this should revert to automation or pre-recorded shows only to save staff costs. RTE Pulse/Junior/2XM have miniscule numbers of listeners and need to go.

mikeecho

I like aertel. I hope it sticks around.

Delta Lima

Me too, I hope they keep it . Although I could live without it, I would still use it occasionally.

Not that long ago, I rented a holiday house only to find there was absolutely no phone signal . I was glad at least the teletext / MHeg service worked on the telly .

I also use the BBC text service quite a bit. They were going to close it down too, not that long ago but had to do a U turn after there were objections.

I know I must be in the silent minority, but I think it would be a pity if they did away with it.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118569475#Comment_118569475

Your idea of costs is not even vaguely based on reality

Wohnort has the five (not three) DAB transmitters down as a total of 55kW. They were older transmitters (2006) which would have been less power efficient so its likely that the power consumption was 55kW+ even allowing for high gain antennae.

Even assuming a very good rate on power, you're looking at half a million units - 120k - a year in electricity costs for the transmitters alone. Not including any other kit (processors, encoders, links, etc etc) and the cost of cooling which is also not cheap.

Equipment needs maintenance. Maintenance needs engineers. None of this is free.

Ballycommon Mast

Yes, well it was a poster in the radio forum at the time that came up with the calculations of the closure of DAB saving under 5k per year, I probably shouldn't have taken it at face value as people on both sides of that particular debate can get extremely passionate, people in favour of national DAB went on as if it would be as simple/cheap for RTE to roll out DAB nationwide as going down to a discount electrical stores, buying about 40 transmitters and plugging them at all their FM/DTT sites across the country... Still whatever the savings from switching off DAB, RTE have 3 senior broadcasters who's main/only job in the organisation is presenting/programming an internet radio station.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118572506#Comment_118572506

.

L1011

Gold is also on DTT, which some commercial stations have decided is appropriate for use as a national transmission system. I've seen a number of places playing Gold via DTT on TVs - pubs primarily.

SPDUB

An update about Aertel

From about two weeks ago RTE now only list RTE 1 and RTE 2 in the TV listings section and have also dropped the TV movies review on pg183 though the FASTTEXT link is still there .

They also are only listing the RTE radio stations and RnG on the radio listings though there is a page with Today FM listings from 6 January still being transmitted on pg188

Ballycommon Mast

Are they going to reduce it to a trickle ?

KildareP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118572506#Comment_118572506

100%, just like suggestions that Aertel could be run solely from a Raspberry Pi.

A lot of the DAB/SaorView backend kit was bought in mid-2000's, initially as a trial, and then morphed into what became the "live" services.

That kit will be coming up to the 10-15 year point where it is facing into either major overhaul, or outright replacement, in order to reliably continue service for another 10-15 years.

There's no point in replacing or overhauling something that will be defunct in a few short years anyway.

In the case of DAB, it made sense to call time on it. BAI has a lot to answer for there but ultimately there was absolutely no indication the licensing regime would change anytime soon that would see commercial broadcasters joining DAB.

Aertel falls into the same category.

SaorView and FM, on the other hand, won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

While it might be sad to see technologies like Aertel, DAB and MW/LW cease to exist, their days have passed.

It doesn't make any justifiable sense to keep something on-air purely for the sake of nostalgia or for the anoraks.

Apogee

Prompted by RTÉ's decision to finally kill off LW, I was looking for the current legal status of Aertel given that RTÉ suggested terminating this service back in 2019, yet it remains operational.

Looks like the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022 was passed in Dec 2022 and finally amends section 114b of the 2009 Act

https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2022/act/41/enacted/en/html

"The Online Safety and Media Regulation Act was commenced on 15 March 2023" - presumably, we'll see movement on this shortly.

https://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2023-03-28a.535

BrianD3

I know of several people who still use it. Elderly and not so elderly. They have sky boxes connected to the TV with scart leads. The service is more important to them than HD or HDMI. I wonder do RTE have any idea how many still use it.

I use it myself and it is the best way to access concise information quickly without farting around with mobile phones, apps, huge websites and social media. E.g. the weather forecast on p161, a few lines, seconds to load and read, no BS.

RTE want to close it and shur everything is online now. Will closing it drive more traffic to the RTE website? Or result in an overall reduction of consumption of RTE content i.e. Aertel closes and people either do without or get their news from a non RTE source.

Apogee

Something of an anachronism, but for anyone with an Enigma2 box, you can still access the WST-based teletext on RTÉ One/Two SD services on 28E over HDMI with the inbuilt E2 teletext decoder.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120437366#Comment_120437366

Like longwave, it's not used by anyone on the RTE executive board So they assume nobody uses it

SPDUB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120437731#Comment_120437731

Not just the Enigma2 box other boxes as well and even my TV with a satellite tuner

I use teletext every morning for my first look at the news , all headlines visible at once and no bloody scrolling which has got worse since the last redesign of the website

BrianD3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120442116#Comment_120442116

Same here, I also check it every morning (and at other times during the day) even though I have a smartphone beside me. Aertel is the quickest and least annoying way to check the news, weather etc.

letovo3275

Maybe there'll be teletext on the old 252 frequency.

I would guess tho that a lot more people use aertel and longwave than use Saorsat

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120453839#Comment_120453839

But Saorsat has another function as it acts as a backup to the terrestrial transmitters in case of failure to their primary uplinks. What's left of Aertel is of very little use or interest to the vast majority of people.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120442656#Comment_120442656

I doubt many share this opinion though, vastly better access to both news and weather on a smartphone or almost any other web enabled device. Aertel was annoying to use even back when it was a full service in the analogue days.

Montage of Feck

Was completely unaware that the old teletext still exists nevermind that anybody actually uses it.

Is it just news and TV listings that's left now on aertel? Is it true that its TV guide only lists Bog 1 & Bog 2 now like it were 1983?

cml387

I wonder if some people would have wanted RTE to keep the old 405 line system working because they "like my old Bush TV".

letovo3275

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120494334#Comment_120494334

🤣 agreed

RTE are a bit rubbish at noticing these technical problems for sure but what are you going to do with a broadcaster that keeps cutting off the end credits of films with "The End" for no reason.

at a guess I'd say the present version of the old Aertel teletext service is some project they gave to keep a trainee busy and its just lucky it still works at all.