Digital group plans joint Web/TV package

DMC

Interesting stuff, if they get the franchise....

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/2002/0201/3971278974BWDTS.html

Digital group plans joint Web/TV package

It'sTV, the only bidder to operate a national digital TV service, is in talks with a US venture capital fund seeking finance to support its bid, writes Jamie Smyth

IT'STV, the sole bidder for a licence to operate a national digital television service here, plans to offer consumers 40 TV channels and a high-speed internet service for €33 (IR£26) a month.

The company also plans to introduce technology that would enable consumers to receive a digital signal without a cable, rooftop aerial or a satellite dish, its founder has told The Irish Times. But the group will first have to secure a principal financial backer to support its licence bid. The company is in talks with a US venture capital fund but there is no guarantee these talks will succeed.

Mr Peter Brannigan, a former RTÉ executive and chief architect of It'sTV's bid for a licence, would not comment on the financial negotiations but he outlined the technology basis for the bid.

The proposed digital service would operate via a signal 10 times as powerful as that used in an equivalent digital television network in Britain, ITV Digital. This British channel has encountered serious financial problems competing with cable operators and the Sky satellite platform.

"The standards we are using would cut down the cost of receiving equipment and installation," said Mr Brannigan.

He said the Government had negotiated the right with the British Government to use a much more powerful digital terrestrial signal than was used in Britain.

"The ITV Digital service requires consumers to use a rooftop antenna and the service provider must send someone out to connect consumers," he said. "People who want to go with us just have to go to Dixons and buy a set-top box with a node attached to it to receive the digital signal."

The nodes would receive a powerful digital signal beamed from RTÉ's existing network to provide the consumer with "portable grade reception".

This could eventually enable the digital service provider to offer television service to personal digital assistants or mobile phones, said Mr Brannigan.

It'sTV also plans to provide a high-speed internet service for consumers on their televisions. This wireless service would use a return path in the digital signal to send and receive information.

The company plans to offer three internet services to consumers, which would run at speeds of 256, 128 and 56 kilobytes per second, said Mr Brannigan. It's- TV plans to establish a network of 50 to 100 cells to provide national internet coverage, he added.

He said this would be a much more economical method of rolling out broadband services throughout the State than either cable or digital subscriber line (DSL) technology.

"It costs between €1,600 to €2,000 per house passed to upgrade cable networks. This is just huge," he said. "DSL doesn't cover rural areas economically, either."

At present the telecoms regulator expects a digital terrestrial licensee to offer more than 90 per cent national coverage. This is not attractive to venture capitalists due to extra costs to provide a service in rural areas.

But with only one bidder in the race for the digital licence, and its difficulty in attracting a financial backer well known, this high coverage level may have to be reduced to make the proposed service attractive to financiers.

Mr Brannigan said It'sTV would need to raise between €15 million and €85 million to operate its service depending on the type and coverage required. The company has already received seed funding from Delta Partners.

© The Irish Times

Mossy Monk

sounds great and cheap too. let's pray for this to happen before the end of the year and Eircom and Esat can then take a flying leap with their overpriced internet charges

cableskeptic

What is likely to happen is that initially there will be a launch of DTT services in the next year followed by affordable flat-rate internet access some time later (1 or 2 years) when the technology is ready.

JTMan

Who says we will have to "wait for the technology" before they offer high-speed internet?

Most articles seem to say that they are pusing the internet side of the business more than the Digital TV side.

byte

Wireless highspeed internet access would give DTT huge advantage over Sky Digital. I, being from a rural area would definitely take up It's TV with broadband access. It would compliment my Sky Digi.:rolleyes:

Fergus

This 'return path' sounds a bit incredible. With only 50-100 nodes, we're talking each subscriber having some sort of transmitter in their unit capable of reaching a transmitter maybe 10-20 miles away?

It would seem any concerns about RF radiation/power levels don't exist.

ONireland

There has never really been any concern linked to the UHF band of radiation.

However, the microwave cellular phone band is used to cook your food.

It wouldn't actually take much power to reach the transmitter because your antenna is directed at the Tx where as the Tx is not directed at your antenna. I reckon 100mW of power would probably be enough - 1W at a stretch.

A good ham-radio set puts out about 100W. I'm not worried about these bands of radiation. A mobile phone on the other hand, I try and use as little as possible.

This is very good news indeed (I've been away for a while folks and only catching up)

OnIreland:
Your input here is very usefull-you are clearing up confusion regarding how a wireless return path works and easing fears of radiation problems.

I have to say I would be jumping up and down with joy if this goes ahead as it will be the competition that will give Sky a whipping( and Wipe out Chorus, whilst doing a lot of damage to NTL ) and teach Sky not to be treating their Irish customers like they do.
mm

David C

I would hope BBC3,4,N24 & ITV2 will be carried on the new service along with the normals. Wouldn't that be lovely... give Sky the two fingers!

Any ideas on what box they are going to use? Any spec available?
I believe they're going to use a sturdier type of digital encoding along with the higher power to prevent the break up that UK DTT viewers endure... Anyone know about this?? At least whilst we have had no DTT we have benefited from seeing where ITVD went wrong. Good luck to ITS TV, the more competition the better!

ONireland

Glad to help. I really hope this service does go ahead. There would be some interesting articles to write on it.

DMC

Well, it does sound fantastic, if they get the finances.

The one good thing about It's TV, is that even though the technology market is at its weakest ever, they are a new company, with *****NO DEBTS**** None of this NTL or phone company shenanagans.

As for the bad symbols, Irish Byte, that you mentioned when you cross posted this thread to the IOFFL board, I can only blame a dodgy font on a shhhhhh*****te Windows 95 PC at work!

I'll edit the post with the correct symbols!

apiou

There seems to be a lot of interest in Its TV at the moment but what happened to the other half of the story.
I was led to believe that there were two "competitions" one for the Multiplex Operator (which we are told there was only one bidder) and one for the sell of of RTEs transmitters business. Does anyone know what happened to that part as there has been no news for ages. Are they hiding something.

DMC

Would'nt say they are hiding info, the selling of the multiplexes would be different from the sale of the transmission network. The difference is that one is not real (yet) and the other is physical. It would be daft in the extreme to sell of the transmission network, with the current technological climate, but I think Sile Dev might be oblivious to this fact. She does wear impressive blinkers!

There is a value on the tx network, but what is the value of a DTT system in Ireland???

dmeehan

Originally posted by DamoDMC
but what is the value of a DTT system in Ireland???

immense value
an irish company would not get away with giving us the run-around that sky are giving to us at them moment

originally posted by dmeehan:

immense value

I agree.
It's not likely that you would get the run around from an Irish company providing this sort of service.
Given that Sky being their major competitor has so many customers,it would be commercial suicide.
Good Customer service and , as important providing what the customer wants is the key.
mm

DMC

Oh I agree that it would be of a very high value...

But what figure would anyone put in it? With the debacle that is ON/ITV Digital, what value would investors put on it?

Customer Service is key.....

dmeehan

i suppose a fre stb would go along way to get people signed up
just look at sky

apiou

Free set top boxes it not a good idea. Cheap versions of set top boxes are being launched in the UK sometime during Spring this year. Pace is one of the companies that have officially announced this, but there are other companies doing the same thing. If one can buy a box for under UK £ 100 then there is no need to give away set top boxes. Also if there was full coverage in Ireland from day one then Ireland would avoid the problems that the British had/have in the UK. Has anyone gone into Dixons or other shops to buy a set top box. The time spent in filling in forms and looking up post codes etc is a real bummer.