RTE to Join Sky NI Lineup!

JDxtra

Taken from todays Sunday Times...

Sky gives RTE room for northern access

While UTV and Channel 4 plug away to gain access to the Sky satellite platform in the republic, RTE is soon to become available through the broadcaster in Northern Ireland.

RTE was recently added to the queue of stations seeking to gain access to Sky in the north and is expected to become available early in the new year. Some technical issues remain to be resolved, including the channel it will be allocated on the electronic programming guide.

This is a timely boost for Sky, in which News International, the owner of The Sunday Times, has a stake. Sky has about 170,000 subscribers in the six counties and hopes the addition of RTE will attract more subscribers.

In the republic, meanwhile, UTV and Channel 4 await clearance to broadcast on Sky. TV3, which is 45% owned by ITV, has so far frustrated their efforts by refusing to waive its rights to ITV-produced programmes it broadcasts here.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,2-528-1367336,00.html

Charles Slane

Very interesting news indeed.

Amnesiac_ie

Ooh, thanks for that.

With F1 now gone from RTE I really hope ITV appears on ROI EPG soon

Tony

jdempsey wrote:

In the republic, meanwhile, UTV and Channel 4 await clearance to broadcast on Sky. TV3, which is 45% owned by ITV, has so far frustrated their efforts by refusing to waive its rights to ITV-produced programmes it broadcasts here.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,2-528-1367336,00.html

Interesting piece but the journalist is slighly inaccurate, its actually TV3 who are refusing to waive their rights to show ITV programmes because of a clause in their equity agreement with granada

Tony

Amnesiac_ie wrote:

Ooh, thanks for that.

With F1 now gone from RTE I really hope ITV appears on ROI EPG soon

Who has the Irish rights for F1 now?

Wiggy

Tony wrote:

Who has the Irish rights for F1 now?

Setanta, I think.

byte

Yeah, Setanta has the rights for next 3 years:

Setanta.com wrote:

Setanta Sports, the new Irish sporting channel, today announced that it has won the exclusive Republic of Ireland television rights to Formula 1 for a three-year period beginning with the 2005 season.

gusto

Good news indeed.

About time that people in the North can finally get access to RTE

markyboy

Doesn't the Good Friday Agreement (of all things!) have a bearing on this?

Johnny_the_fox

markyboy wrote:

Doesn't the Good Friday Agreement (of all things!) have a bearing on this?

that was just Terrestrial - allowing us Nornies get TG4 under the GFA. (but as you know the GFA has not been implemented yet!!!)

irishgeo

Taken from www.wotsat.com

RTE to join Sky Digital Northern Ireland
RTE will be joining Sky Digital's Northern Ireland lineup in early 2005. The launch of the terrestrial channel will be seen as a major boost to Sky's Irish service, which is seeking to boost the amount of local programming it offers. [Nov 26]

This was kept very quiet.

Now people in England will all be sunnedly moving to Northern Ireland.

At leats its a step in the right direction. Well done RTE and Sky.

irishgeo

sorry didnt see the other thread.

DMC or any other mod tidy this up please.

Mossy Monk

now if only we can get movement for ITV and 4 to get onto the Irish EPG but thats for a different thread

Johnny_the_fox

with them moving to sky in the north..

would this not affect - rights like for example: live football on a saturday? contact agreements etc?

DMC

Most definately, Johnny.. Remember RTÉ 2's Home and Away is already blocked out on NTL in Belfast at the behest of the UK rights holders... five.

John R

Johnny_the_fox wrote:

with them moving to sky in the north..

would this not affect - rights like for example: live football on a saturday? contact agreements etc?

Football is the least of their worries, if RTE start getting measurable increases in viewership in the UK the hollywood studios are going to have hissy-fits. The UK is their most lucrative market for film and tv programming distribution and even when the difference in viewership is accounted for RTE pay a fraction of the UK terrestrial fees for US programming.

The BBC had to give up the rights to some US programming (notably the series 24) when they went FTA but RTE (and TV3, TG4) relies much more on US programmes and cannot afford to give it up as the BBC have.

Mossy Monk

John R wrote:

if RTE start getting measurable increases in viewership in the UK the hollywood studios are going to have hissy-fits.

its only going to Northern Ireland

Mike 1972

Will it be on FTV cards or (as I suspect) only on $ky ?

While UTV and Channel 4 plug away to gain access to the Sky satellite platform in the republic

Ummm UTV and Channel4 COULD have gained access to the Sky satellite platform in the republic if they didnt sign encryption deals with $ky and went FTA

Doesn't the Good Friday Agreement (of all things!) have a bearing on this?

The good grief disagreement has a clause about the governments taking all practicable measures to make TG4 as widely available as possible in NI. (Consideration is being given to transmitting TG4 from Divis on Freeview) Theres nothing about RTE1/2 TV3 (or availability of UK channels in the Republic for that matter)

John R

Mossy Monk wrote:

its only going to Northern Ireland

Have the shinners suddenly got a united Ireland behind Paisley's back or is NI still part of the UK?

Genghis

John R wrote:

Have the shinners suddenly got a united Ireland behind Paisley's back or is NI still part of the UK?

His point may well be that RTE will be broadcasting to only a very small part of the UK - 1.5m out of 60m, or under 3%. Also, it is already on NTL in Belfast and is widely available in border areas via terrestrial spillover. A hissy fit regarding the wholesale sistribution by RTE of Hollywood of content in the UK would be somewhat out of context.

Macy

irishgeo wrote:

Now people in England will all be sunnedly moving to Northern Ireland.

If the full complement of Irish channels go on sky in the North, surely they'll be rush of people from the south. All UK and Irish Stations on the epg for the same money.

Macy

Macy wrote:

If the full complement of Irish channels go on sky in the North, surely they'll be rush of people from the south. All UK and Irish Stations on the epg for the same money.

I understand that special lazer stun guns have been installed on the astra satelite to prevent this from happening...

Seriously though I expect ITV and possibly CH4 to arrive on the Irish EPG co inciding with RTÉ arrival in the North.

gusto

any concrete dates yet?