Latest on RTE in UK.

kilasser · 27-08-2007 01:09AM #1

From this weeks Irish post:

RTÉ could be on British television soon

THE LONG road to bringing RTÉ to British television screens is reaching its most pivotal moment.

Ireland’s national broadcaster has said the key decision on how it will be distributed across the water is now in the hands of the Irish Government and could become a reality by next year.

An RTÉ spokesman said: “Come the autumn if the financial arrangement can be agreed I would think it wouldn’t be unrealistic to have the service up and running in 2008. There will be no obstacles left after that.”

If financial clout is provided by the Government RTÉ believe it will be able to relay the service on Freeview. The spokesman said: “The only funding RTÉ require is on the cost of delivery.We are not seeking provision for the funding of programming or anything like that.

“So it’s just on the cost of delivery which basically means whether the service will be delivered on Freeview or Sky or to cable. “So there will be critical decisions coming up in the autumn and hopefully all going well before the end of the year that should be clarified.”

The Irish in Britain have endured a neverending wait for a television service here and RTÉ maintains that funding is now the crucial issue.

A positive government response to that would mean anyone with a television set would only need to buy a Freeview box (priced at about £15) to view the Irish stations. But, on the other hand, if the fiscal back-up is not there Sky will more than likely be the only other option.

This would mean that anyone based in Britain wanting Irish television would have to buy a dish and subscribe to Sky. RTÉ said the introduction of the new government has meant it has delayed ploughing ahead with the proposals.

The spokesman said: “Because of the change of government and a new department we knew there was no point in talking to the Department of Finance or Foreign Affairs during the summer months about how it is going to be funded.

http://www.irishpost.co.uk/news/story.asp?j=6150&cat=news

Ulsterman 1690 · 27-08-2007 06:31PM

anyone based in Britain wanting Irish television would have to buy a dish and subscribe to Sky.

No good for anyone living on the Continent or unwilling/unable to subscribe to the evil Murdoch empire :rolleyes:

SPDUB · 27-08-2007 10:41PM

I think they may be getting satellite mixed up with Sky though

I can't recall hearing that a best of Irish tv service would be encrypted and therefore it would be a FTA service and so have no need to go anywhere near SKY equipment.

Lennoxschips · 02-09-2007 09:54PM

Yes, there's no way I'm subscribing to Sky to get RTE International...

You'd nearly think there's somebody at RTE getting brown envelopes from the Murdochs.

FTA on Astra would be cheap and easy for them...

Maybe they just want the thing to fail, so that they can say "see! told ya so!"

mass · 02-09-2007 10:03PM

I guess now that RTE is going multi-national and expanding it's commercial interests, we unfortunate Irish tv license payers can expect a reduction in or elimination of the yearly penalty tax for our so-called 'public broadcaster' ?

byte · 02-09-2007 10:27PM

Do UK TV Licence payers get a reduction when BBC expand their international and commercial interests?

mass · 02-09-2007 11:06PM

Probably not. But we are talking about RTE and have no control over that juristriction anyway. Also, unlike the BBC, which is a true public broadcaster, publicly funded, RTE runs as a commercial entity, running adverts. I have no problem with RTE expanding in this way - but not at our expense.

SPDUB · 02-09-2007 11:16PM

mass wrote:

Probably not. But we are talking about RTE and have no control over that juristriction anyway. Also, unlike the BBC, which is a true public broadcaster, publicly funded, RTE runs as a commercial entity, running adverts. I have no problem with RTE expanding in this way - but not at our expense.

Yes you do or you wouldn't have posted what you did.

As for public broadcasters not taking ads the BBC is just about the only public broadcast that doesn't

Mossy Monk · 03-09-2007 12:50AM

mass wrote:

Also, unlike the BBC, which is a true public broadcaster, publicly funded, RTE runs as a commercial entity, running adverts. I have no problem with RTE expanding in this way - but not at our expense.

If you actually knew what you were talking about. What other countries have a PSB that runs commercial free?

Lennoxschips · 03-09-2007 12:30PM

German telly does, I think.

L1011 · 03-09-2007 01:00PM

No, nowhere close. No ads during peak prime time on the 1/2/Regionals but laden with it off-peak and on the ancillary services. Their licence is also FAR higher, you also need a separate licence for any kids over the age of 18 living at home (1 per kid); and a radio licence for your car.

RTÉ is, despite what anyone is going to try and claim, surprisingly good value when you consider how small the country is and comparatively how low the licence fee is. Unfortunately, its transmission network leaves a lot to be desired.

marclt · 03-09-2007 01:39PM

Ulsterman 1690 wrote:

No good for anyone living on the Continent or unwilling/unable to subscribe to the evil Murdoch empire :rolleyes:

And if it does go on freeview (costs prohibitive) there will be probably be large areas unable to receive the channel... I doubt it will be slotted into one of the three PSB (nationwide coverage) muxes. Only the main transmitters will broadcast all 6 mux after DSO.

Free on sky would mean far better coverage.

£15 freeview box.... Maybe in 6 - 12months time!!!

Lennoxschips · 03-09-2007 10:06PM

Belgian telly has no ads, but has the "this programme was sponsored by..." thing.

As for RTE International, an FTA slot on Astra 2 would be so cost effective and logical that you just know it's not going to happen.

L1011 · 04-09-2007 10:13AM

Belgian licence fee is about 9 quid cheaper than ours but another 30 per car - so more expensive for most households; plus its a bigger country; plus most of its content is bought in from France or Holland, or given, or sold for very little for political reasons.

r3nu4l · 04-09-2007 10:20AM

marclt wrote:

And if it does go on freeview (costs prohibitive) there will be probably be large areas unable to receive the channel...

QFT! I'll be one of those unable to receive it if it goes on Freeview, although thanks to the [sarcasm]stunningly fast rate of the digital switchover in the UK[/sarcasm] I could be receiveing Freeview by 2011 or 2012 according to the postcode checker on the Freeview website!

It would be nice to be able to receive RTÉ but if they go the Freeview route it will cost them a lot and there will be tens of millions unable to view the channels for a few years. This won't make financial sense to the bean counters so I don't see this option becoming a reality until Freeview is nationwide in the UK.

BuffyBot · 04-09-2007 06:34PM

I'd imagine the most likely option will be that it goes on Sky, Freesat from Sky and the new BBC/ITV Freesat service when it launches.

Freeview may come in time, when the capacity is increased, but it'll probably still be more expensive than the other distribution channels.

lawhec · 04-09-2007 07:07PM

I don't believe there is a realistic hope in hell of an RTÉ International channel being on Freeview in the short term, there's no real capacity out there for a 24/7 stream in the UK and won't be until the DSO is complete. I have a funny feeling (no sources) that there may be an RTÉ multiplex in N.Ireland around 2012 thanks to political manevouring.

As for Freeview STBs going for £15 - Tesco were selling ones for £10 each last week!:eek:

rlogue · 04-09-2007 08:37PM

Many parts of the UK will still be without a full Freeview service post the analogue switchoff. If I were the government and RTÉ, I would concentrate on going down the FTA satellite route for the RTÉ International channel rather than Freeview.

Ulsterman 1690 · 04-09-2007 08:43PM

As for public broadcasters not taking ads the BBC is just about the only public broadcast that doesn't

Ahem Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland (Pop not much larger than Ireland BTW but land area larger than Ireland + UK)

A Primal Nut · 04-09-2007 08:51PM

What would happen with the likes of Eastenders, Coronation Street and Champions League football matches? They wouldn't be allowed show them the same time as ITV/BBC in Britain. So what would they show instead? Just more repeats?

DMC · 04-09-2007 08:55PM

Ulsterman 1690 wrote:

Ahem Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland (Pop not much larger than Ireland BTW but land area larger than Ireland + UK)

But also, nay forget that in the nordic countries, the TV licence is huge money, between €200 and €300 per annum, thats 50% to 100% more than what we pay. As is the UK one, relative to the euro.

jb91 · 04-09-2007 09:09PM

DMC wrote:

But also, nay forget that in the nordic countries, the TV licence is huge money, between €200 and €300 per annum, thats 50% to 100% more than what we pay. As is the UK one, relative to the euro.

AUSTRALIA. No license, No ads (on ABC, very few on SBS). It's still a pretty good service.

SPDUB · 04-09-2007 09:22PM

Ulsterman 1690 wrote:

Ahem Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland (Pop not much larger than Ireland BTW but land area larger than Ireland + UK)

Ahem Just about

DMC · 04-09-2007 09:23PM

The ABC there is government funded, and has had controversy in the past where the federal government withheld, or would threaten to withhold its funding because of criticism. A stick to beat them with.

It has a Hutton-esque crises every few years!

We're going a bit off topic here... methinks...

L1011 · 05-09-2007 09:02AM

Ulsterman 1690 wrote:

Ahem Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland (Pop not much larger than Ireland BTW but land area larger than Ireland + UK)

Danish licence - ~€290
Swedish licence - ~€210
Norwegian licence - ~€260
Finnish licence - €208.15

Not quite the same as €158 now is it?

L1011 · 05-09-2007 09:05AM

jb91 wrote:

AUSTRALIA. No license, No ads (on ABC, very few on SBS). It's still a pretty good service.

HBC*, surely? Its the most biased "public" broadcaster I've ever had the displeasure of watching; the government of the day effectively tell it what to do. And the programme quality is... relatively poor anyway.

*Howard

marclt · 05-09-2007 11:50AM

BuffyBot wrote:

Freeview may come in time, when the capacity is increased, but it'll probably still be more expensive than the other distribution channels.

I don't believe the capacity is to be increased. Basically the main transmitters already broadcasting freeview (and it's six mux) will have a power increase, increasing the stability of the signal.

Current relay transmitters only broadcasting analogue channels will start broadcasting digital channels in each region following dso but only the 3 public service mux. RTE could try and get onto one of these mux, but it is unlikely.

Have RTE indicated whether this will be a 24hour channel? They could choose to broadcast between 12pm and midnight or just for 6hours in the evening. If they did get freeview carriage they might be able to squeeze in somewhere and relay the broadcasts on satellite - leasing out their downtime to some shopping channel or something - like S4C2 have done in the past.

lawhec · 05-09-2007 09:32PM

MYOB wrote:

HBC*, surely? Its the most biased "public" broadcaster I've ever had the displeasure of watching; the government of the day effectively tell it what to do. And the programme quality is... relatively poor anyway.

*Howard

The "Chasers War on Everything" is very good though. Often download thier podcasts.

L1011 · 06-09-2007 08:33AM

marclt wrote:

I don't believe the capacity is to be increased. Basically the main transmitters already broadcasting freeview (and it's six mux) will have a power increase, increasing the stability of the signal.

It is, by 24Mbits in fact. The 4 current 18Mbit muxes are going to convert to 24Mbit operation (the remaining 2 already are). This should be enough for 5 TV services... or 8 at UK compression levels. :rolleyes:

marclt · 06-09-2007 09:18PM

MYOB wrote:

It is, by 24Mbits in fact. The 4 current 18Mbit muxes are going to convert to 24Mbit operation (the remaining 2 already are). This should be enough for 5 TV services... or 8 at UK compression levels. :rolleyes:

How will that work over the 6mux/3mux split then... I haven't seen any additional services announced for the Border tv area?

Watch out for more shopping channels and if sky get their way (out to consultation right now) we'll get another pay per view service!!!

BuffyBot · 06-09-2007 11:36PM

I haven't seen any additional services announced for the Border tv area?

I don't think the power upgrade will happen until DSO is entirely completed. It wouldn't make sense to launch a service on an area by area basis

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