DTT Decision due within weeks

The Cush

A decision on DTT is due within weeks as reported in the following two articles

1. From the Irish Independent, last Saturday (28 Sept 02)

- Digital TV decision soon -
A decision on the tender process to select a digital terrestrial television (DTT) multiplex operator will be made within the next two weeks, Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources Dermot Ahern said yesterday

2. http://ww.dtg.org.uk/news/world/-irish_dtt_decision.htm

The Cush

Corrected Link

2. http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/world/-irish_dtt_decision.htm

Elmo

Won't hold my breath.

It's TV have been taken out of the running as far as i know?

DTG Reporting that a decision on DTT is near may be correct.
But a flippant add on comment that any project would face stiff competition from chorus shows the writer knows nothing of them and hasn't researched his article.

I didn't read the Independent article, but naturally I'd expect them to Blow about the "superior" service offered by Chorus :eek:

My own opinion on this is simple enough, I cannot understand why a government Departmant would not allow It's TV if it had investors willing to take the gamble, to set up their operation.
From what I've read on this subject they wanted to provide an always on internet service as well.
Maybe thats the real problem here folks???

Real Competition for Chorus and Errorcon??? Heck we couldn't have that :mad: :mad:
mm

JTMan

I would expect the decision to be as follows ...

* It'sTV told that they are not to be given the licence.

* A new DTT licence program will go ahead. This will be done on a geographical basis. i.e. there will be a bid for Dublin, Cork....

Why will this happen?

It'sTV can't get the finance. They have already admitted that there may be problems with been able to roll out their service to the entire population.

It's TV has been canvassing those in the department to relaunch the licence process on a local basis. It's TV have as good as said in recent article that if such an event were to happen then they will go for the Dublin licence.

triple-play

Fungus,

You seem to think you know a lot about the DTT licence process.
By now we know that it'sTV have withdrawn from the licence process. My understanding is that the licence was for DTT only with no telecommunications element. If this was the case, it'sTV's financial backers probably lost interest as a DTT business on its own is not a runner.

As for local DTT... I think this is a red herring. If DTT on a national basis won't work even though you'd have economies of scale with infrastructure, head end, marketing and operations costs how could it work on a regional basis? And as for the cost of content -no regional operator would be able to afford the minimum guarantees that the UK broadcasters demand. And if you can't offer the UK terrestrial channels then the service would fail.

The government have messed up again. May as well pull you pants down and wait for the rogering from Sky.

icdg

DTT as a national proposition is dead, pure and simple. For now at any rate.

If there is a local licencing process as suggested above, it will be to facilitate the deflector operators, not Its'TV. If Its'TV do go for a Dublin-only licence, well that will be from their view a nice side-proposition. But good luck to them trying to make it work in one of the most-cabled cities in Europe - IMO the bigger audience for DTT was outside Dublin (that was before Sky came along though!).

Maybe when there is an upturn in the economy a chance to start this process again may be considered. In the meantime, its Sky vs Chorus/NTL.

West Briton

Voluntary or forced? I don't know. There was a short piece in the Irish Times today saying that itsTV had withdrawn from the DTT licence process.

JTMan

What else did the article say?

I'd say it was Voluntary for pratical and financial reasons. Although the delay in a decision did not help.

watty

Should I apply for a Limerick "Deflector" licence then. RLO arn't too popular with the Dept!
I suppose a condition will be that you have to pay Sky /BBC / UTV / C4 /DW etc or whoever you downlink from!

JTMan

Okay here's what happened ...

It's TV told me...

Bad news for us I'm afraid. it'sTV withdrew from the competition several days ago. We were unable to reach agreement with the government regarding some technical issues with the licence with the result being that we would not have been able to offer always-on nationwide broadband internet access. For this reason we didn't believe DTT on its own was a viable proposition so we withdrew our application.

A lot of people seem to forget that this is not really about DTT, it's about DTS. It'sTV had positioned themselves to be more of a broadband provider than a TV provider

Mossy Monk

Originally posted by Fungus
the result being that we would not have been able to offer always-on nationwide broadband internet access

i thought the government were trying to get as many people on line. they are a load of idiots TBH

byte

Originally posted by Fungus

A lot of people seem to forget that this is not really about DTT, it's about DTS. It'sTV had positioned themselves to be more of a broadband provider than a TV provider

Yeah, they are probably right in thinking DTT wouldn't be viable alone. It is a terrible shame and another backward step for internet services (though I doubt if they could have provided broadband, more likely ISDN speeds which would still be nice).

Of course, the collapse of ITV Digital didn't matters much. And although Freeview is a good idea for UK, it wouldn't work here in Ireland with just a few Irish channels (The UK terrestrials couldn't be free)!

Going slightly OT (as I sometimes do :rolleyes: ) will we ever get DAB? That would even be nice!

JTMan

Originally posted by irishbyte
Yeah, they are probably right in thinking DTT wouldn't be viable alone. It is a terrible shame and another backward step for internet services (though I doubt if they could have provided broadband, more likely ISDN speeds which would still be nice).

DTS is possible of delivering speeds a little better than ISDN. Read http://www.itstv.ie/news3.htm . It states It'sTV original plan was to offer speeds of up to 256K.

The ball is now in the governments court over what (if anything) to do about the future of DTS in Ireland.

David Robinson

I wouldn't shed too many tears over the loss of DTT. Here in the UK, the BBC is spending a great deal of our licence money providing a DTT service with only partial coverage, that simply duplicates the perfectly good service we have via satellite. I have reluctantly bought a DTT receiver because it's the only way I can get the regional news (as the East Midlands is not one of the favoured regions wth local news on satellite). Of course providing all the news regions on Sky would have cost a fraction of the cost of setting up DTT.

Terrestrial TV was introduced in the 1930s because there was no other way at the time. Believe me guys, you don't need it in the 21st century.

JTMan

David, it is about needing broadband more than it is about needing another TV provider.

watty

The Irish DTT spec would never have delivered broadband, aways on maybe, but at 1200 Baud ! You got to divide the "real" bandwidth by the number of users likely after 5 years in each MUX service area. The first few mths etc users *might* have seen ISDN / Broadband speeds.

Either It's TV didn't study to spec too close or it's a a face saving formula on withdrawal due to lack of finance.

I do agree that a DTT service on its own is not finacially viable. That bit is perfectly true.

Finally ADSL is rolling out. Even leased line has gone to 1/5th the cost for Internet aways on and OTDR are pursuing the extortionate Leased line and Frame relay prices next.

I even got ADSL in work in Limerick. (Which is seriously NOT-Dublin ).
Now DLINK do a 22Mbits/s Wireless LAN airpoint / bridge / router (250 Euro) . Two of those connected to ex Satellite Dishes (90cm) instead of the office "rubber duck" aerial ought to get me connected aways on to the office ADSL (might get 8Km range).

I just need to get some connectors and Coax cable that works at 2.4GHz and figure how to mount a 2.4GHz dipole instead of an LNB on the dish