Campaign for BBC3, 4, News 24 and BBC Radio in Ireland.

Originally posted by carrolls

Eamonn or Sile?
I blame Eamonn:D

Eamonn:D
Theres none of this frustration in the isle of man/NI or the channel isles:D
We should have stuck with home rule:D
mm

DMC

Careful now! You don't want me deleting posts now, do yer?

carrolls

If Dev was still alive (And not scratching the top of his coffin)
he'd be dancing at the crossroads because of the lack of UTV and Channel 4.:p

DMC

He wouldn't like E4 replacing TV5 on NTL

Charles Slane

He also wouldn't like a lot of what's on TG4 either, which is a little bit ironic, dontcha think ?

Although personally, I like to blame Charlie Haughey for everything that goes wrong.

Maybe Bertie will get the Beebs for us.

ShaneOC

Dear Bertie,

Can you please ensure that as part of the Sky deal with the FAI that Sky have to be nice to their Irish customers. Otherwise €7.5 million is nowhere near enough.

Cheers
All at ICDG

Gadgie

Hey guys,

The answer to the question I'm about to ask might be buried somewhere in this thread, but at 24 pages it'll be like looking for a needle in a haystack!

My question is, was it ever explained why BBC News 24 is unavailable outside the UK? It's just a news channel after all, so are rights issues involved? And if so, how?

DMC

News 24 is for the "domestic UK audience" and not for international eyes, whereas what we should be getting, as not part of the UK is BBC World. The snag is, BBC World is not on Astra, the BBC cant be seen showing ad's in the UK, it would violate their charter... BBC World can be seen on NTL Digital here though.

Thats the official line anyhoo.

Mossy Monk

how hard could it be to beam it up with the other BBC channels and encrypt it so only Irish cards could see it

DMC

Beaming it up would not be a problem, the BBC has loads of transponder space, which is only used to the max when main evening regional news and a sporting event like Wimbledon is on...

Is it worth it for only us? Could cost us more on the Sky sub...cos they're adding great channels like RTÉ 1 etc etc..

The BBC are very protective of BBC World, that no one in the UK can see it in their own homes.

On that topic, listening to It Says in the Papers this morning, in some paper, the Consumer Association of Ireland have piped up about the Sky increase...

Mossy Monk

i don't know. it's a shame really because it is a good channel and watching via Hotbird isn't an option for everyone

Gadgie

After e-mailing the BBC a few times about who is responsible for the FTA radio stations not being on the ROI EPG, I finally received this reply:

=====

Thank you for your email.

Regrettably the reply from my colleague is not 100% complete I'm afraid.

The full situation is this:
The ROI epg is the province of Sky, and as a subscriber, any queries about errors, omissions or even inclusions should properly be direct at them.

Although all the BBC stations on Astra 2 (with exception of Radio 5 Live) are free to air, they are not officially advertised outside the UK. We had to negotiate copyright clearance to make them free to air and this was one of the conditions. The clearance thus obtained is relatively low in cost and does not cost the UK licence payer a significant amount. The main reason why we wanted to make the services free to air, is the UK cannot be completely covered by terrestrial radio, but now in unserved locations a cheap digital satellite receiver can now get the missing services (except of course Radio 5).

The same situation does not apply to television since the copyright for some programmes and countries it is not available at any price, and even when it is, can frequently be very costly.

As far as I'm aware, (since I don't have a ROI Sky card) the BBC Radio services have never been included. However presuming the ROI Sky epg functions in the same way as ours, you can perform a <services>, <system set up>, <add channels> and use the data on http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/factsheets/docs/radio_astra.pdf

regards Martyn Culling
Co-ordinating Engineer
BBC Reception Advice

Charles Slane

That reply actually seem to have been written with some thought, which makes a change.

Has anyone figured out why BBC Radio Cymru (the Welsh language radio channel) is available on the Irish EPG, while Radio na Gael (the BBC Scots Gael language service) is not.

It's just bizarre !!

Gadgie

Originally posted by Charles Slane
That reply actually seem to have been written with some thought, which makes a change.

I think that's because I kept replying to them wanting clarification every time I got the vague kind of response that everyone else had got - they probably wanted to get rid of me!

Richard

Originally posted by Charles Slane
That reply actually seem to have been written with some thought, which makes a change.

Has anyone figured out why BBC Radio Cymru (the Welsh language radio channel) is available on the Irish EPG, while Radio na Gael (the BBC Scots Gael language service) is not.

It's just bizarre !!

Maybe because Irish people might have a slight more chance of undestanding Scottish than Welsh?

Seriously, though, I presume it is an oversight.

DMC

Well, BBC 3 has been given the all clear to launch, the British Culture secretary has given her approval of it...

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,793662,00.html

Even more reason to give this campaign a shot in the arm....

Charles Slane

Greetings from 5th Avenue in New York. I was checking my e-mails and couldn't resist checking the forum.

It's great news that BBC 3 has gotten the go-ahead.

With the arrival of UTV and Channel 4 (as reported in other threads), it will leave just the digital Beebs to complete the dream line-up.

Maybe we should be checking those e-mail addresses from previous pages in readiness for another blitz on Sky and the BBC.

We want our BBC (digital channels) !!!

robert muldoon

Sorry, Charles but have I missed something in relation to UTV & Channel 4 comming on the ROI EPG, or are you referring to something else. I hav'nt seen anything on this on recent threads. If there is something there you might refer me to it.
Thanks
Robert

DMC

Apparently.....

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=63463

BTW, has anyone contacted Orla in the UTV Press Office about this?

TinMan

Yes, Orla's press office said this on Setp 11th.

Thank you for your email enquiring about UTV's availability on Sky in the Republic of Ireland.

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for you on this yet as our
negotiations continue with programme rights holders regarding retransmission of their programmes via UTV in the South.

Please be assured that we are doing all we can at UTV to ensure a positive solution and we appreciate your on-going interest in our availability on Sky.

Kind regards

Orla McKibbin
Head of Press and PR, UTV

arkles

i would imagine that we would get that standard drivel until an official announcement is made, i cant see orla giving out inside info, would you or i ?, i think not.

DaveH

Wrote to BBC about availabilty of BBC Three and Four, here the reply

"Dear Mr Hooper.

Thank you for your e-mail regarding BBC Digital broadcasting in Eire.

Currently, the BBC only have an agreement with Irish broadcasters to provide BBC One and BBC Two. Unless this agreement is changed we can not broadcast any of the other BBC Digital stations in the Republic.

Thank you and best wishes.

BBC Digital Information. "

P.S Sorry if this is old news

Charles Slane

Originally posted by DaveH
Wrote to BBC about availabilty of BBC Three and Four, here the reply

"Dear Mr Hooper.

Thank you for your e-mail regarding BBC Digital broadcasting in Eire.

Currently, the BBC only have an agreement with Irish broadcasters to provide BBC One and BBC Two. Unless this agreement is changed we can not broadcast any of the other BBC Digital stations in the Republic.

Thank you and best wishes.

BBC Digital Information. "

P.S Sorry if this is old news

It's not old news, and thanks for posting it.

It's interesting that they refer to "Irish broadcasters". I wonder if this is referring not just to Sky digital but also to NTL and Chorus. Is it possible that the cable companies could also negotiate for the digital Beebs,. That would certainly put the pressure on Sky to give us these channels.

So for us Sky digital subscriers, the pressure needs to be put on Sky to provide these services.

DaveH

Hi
In the email I sent to BBC, I made a point that BBC Choice\Three and Four are not available on any platform in Ireland! At least we got a decent response from them. I also wrote to UTV about the availablity of ITV2(Itv tell you to contact your region). I was given a number to ring in ITV. I rang the number at about 9, this evening, no answer, It seems like a department number. I'll ring it again, and when I get an answer I will post it here. I wont post the phone number for security reasons, wouldnt be fair if it was some person's phone.
Cheers
Dave

DMC

To liven up this thread a wee bit, it might be an idea for those who have NTL and Chorus in their digital glories to mail them about getting BBC THREE and BBC FOUR on their platforms. Interesting to hear what their line is and if they are dealing with the BBC on this behind the scenes. If some miraculous apparition occurred on digital cable here, we'd have more ammo firing at Sky.

We also must find out what is Sky's position, now that BBC WORLD is on NTL Digital. I know that its the BBC's decision to show BBC WORLD on Cable, but an e-mail to Sky saying "well, NTL has it, why don't you??" would at least be worth the try.....

Originally posted by DMC
We also must find out what is Sky's position, now that BBC WORLD is on NTL Digital. I know that its the BBC's decision to show BBC WORLD on Cable, but an e-mail to Sky saying "well, NTL has it, why don't you??" would at least be worth the try.....

Thats a very good idea.
As a recent addition to the NTL platform, the old rules do not apply.
It's very valid to say to Sky that NTL were successfull in negotiating this addition to their platform recently, and not as a substitute for existing BBC services on NTL, and that Sky should follow suit.
mm

DaveH

HI everyone,
I rang ITV today regarding ITV2 in Ireland on SKY. I was told, it wasnt available, and it was unlikely to change. ITV2 was a British channel being the reason. For our campaign, I got the email address, dutyoffice@itv.co.uk The guy I was talking to said those emails would come through to him.
Cheers
Dave

DaveH

Dear Dave

Thank you for your e-mail to Backchat about Terrestrial channels.

Hi,
Heres the response from Sky to BBC 3\4 and ITV2

"Sky is always willing to discuss carriage and, in fact, are already
discussing carriage with terrestrial broadcasters on availability and access
to these channels for our customers in the Republic of Ireland. However,
distribution of these channels is subject to commercial negotiation and the
willingness of other broadcasters to be distributed on Sky.

I very much hope that I have clarified our position in this matter and
thanks, once again, for contacting us. We always welcome customers'
comments and actively encourage viewers' feedback.

Kind regards

Dianne Main
Viewer Relations"

SRB

Just one thought about pushing for BBC World, Sky could get so fed up with people moaning at them not providing World, UTV, CH 4 and Five (it's not their fault after all) that they could decide to renegotiate with the BBC and simply provide the ROI with Prime and World......

Mossy Monk

Originally posted by SRB
they could decide to renegotiate with the BBC and simply provide the ROI with Prime

but BBC Prime is a best of BBC1 + 2 channel