DTT Commercial Multiplexes (was OneVision, Boxer etc...)

Elmo · 11-03-2010 10:02AM

Have we heard anything from OneVision? At least with boxer they had a website and a few press releases.

icdg · 11-03-2010 09:02PM

10000maniacs wrote: »

Good post ICDG.
By the way what do you think of Eamonn Ryans U-Turn on FTA BBC services on Irish DTT.

I was unfortunately absent from Boards when that story broke - my feeling is that it was a wasted opportunity. The intention clearly was for reciprochal arrangements to be put in place but now it seems that it will once again be Northern Ireland residents who get the favourable arrangements while we get the status quo, more or less. It would seem to be no coincidence that the tune changed not too longer after it was reported that Sky and UPC were not happy with the announcement. Having said that Sky viewers can get the BBC for free anyway if they know where to look.

scath · 12-03-2010 12:13AM

Was in Peats today and guy that seemed to be in the know advised me of the following:

7 out of 12 transmitters upgraded to T2 already, but not switched on. More funds needed to do the other 5.

Advertising campaign likely by either end of this year or next Summer in advance of December 2011 preparation for ASO. ASO=6 months co-inciding with switchoff in NI.

Unlike ATT, UK DTT can reduce its power and is doing so within one mile beyond Wales thus less spillover than analogue which hadn't this ability and signal bled everywhere. We get satelitte, FTA BBC, only because technically difficult to restrict unless Freeview was made propietary or geo-restricted which would be costly.

Apparentely BBC regarding signal down here. Ultimately it is a matter for the UK Government though, and this is where I think the Minister seemed unable to strike a bargain with the UK Government or Sky and UPC perhaps maybe kicked up holy hell, EU Complaint etc...that is conjecture and not fact, so I say maybe.

So seems DTT is launching come what may on pay DTT. The peats lad added that Eircom got stung on upgrading broadband to digital exchanges a few years ago to 10Mb but got slapped down by the EC for competition reasons because no other country had launched it yet and this cost Eircom dearly. That may explain the delay and battoning down all hatches to avoid a repeat!

Capt'n Midnight · 12-03-2010 01:35AM

icdg wrote: »

A pay-DTT service will be a poor relation of either Sky or cable - it will never compete on content and will have to undercut both main players on price - which could mean running at a loss for a long time in the middle of a recession. How big pockets will its backers have and how long will they bankroll it at a loss?

In the past SKY have been known to spend lots to gain market share knowing that if they can corner the market they can recoup the costs later on.

They are spending a billion or two on premier league games alone. Orders of magnitude more than the DTT costs being discussed on this thread.

Not only do the backers need to bankroll the service they also need to find content. Can UPC / SKY block sport / movies from them ?

Back in the day RTE were looking at wireless internet over the TV mast, you would have a very slow upload channel via your TV aerial. If it was technically possible to do this with DDT might be interesting. Yes it would be similar to satellite internet in terms of being a mostly one way system. Just looking for ideas to make DTT attractive.

SPDUB · 12-03-2010 08:37AM

scath wrote: »

Was in Peats today and guy that seemed to be in the know advised me of the following:
Advertising campaign likely by either end of this year or next Summer in advance of December 2011 preparation for ASO.

Seemed is the word here since he is bull****ting about the advertising campaign

The Cush · 12-03-2010 08:45AM

scath wrote: »

Was in Peats today and guy that seemed to be in the know advised me of the following:

7 out of 12 transmitters upgraded to T2 already, but not switched on. More funds needed to do the other 5.

Advertising campaign likely by either end of this year or next Summer in advance of December 2011 preparation for ASO. ASO=6 months co-inciding with switchoff in NI.

A man in a shop said.... enough said.

mrdtv2010 · 12-03-2010 09:16AM

scath wrote: »

Was in Peats today and guy that seemed to be in the know advised me of the following:

7 out of 12 transmitters upgraded to T2 already, but not switched on. More funds needed to do the other 5.

Advertising campaign likely by either end of this year or next Summer in advance of December 2011 preparation for ASO. ASO=6 months co-inciding with switchoff in NI.

Unlike ATT, UK DTT can reduce its power and is doing so within one mile beyond Wales thus less spillover than analogue which hadn't this ability and signal bled everywhere. We get satelitte, FTA BBC, only because technically difficult to restrict unless Freeview was made propietary or geo-restricted which would be costly.

Apparentely BBC regarding signal down here. Ultimately it is a matter for the UK Government though, and this is where I think the Minister seemed unable to strike a bargain with the UK Government or Sky and UPC perhaps maybe kicked up holy hell, EU Complaint etc...that is conjecture and not fact, so I say maybe.

So seems DTT is launching come what may on pay DTT. The peats lad added that Eircom got stung on upgrading broadband to digital exchanges a few years ago to 10Mb but got slapped down by the EC for competition reasons because no other country had launched it yet and this cost Eircom dearly. That may explain the delay and battoning down all hatches to avoid a repeat!

IRL transmitters are not upgraded to T2. The DTT overspill signal is providing better QoS than analogue ever did, and unlike analogue, is perfect out to the edge of the service area: and there are no HRP restrictions on Preseli or Arfon. Neither will there be on Divis. In my experience 'Johnny Whitesocks' in retail is either completely clueless or misinformed: the latter looks likely in his case.

icdg · 12-03-2010 07:26PM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

In the past SKY have been known to spend lots to gain market share knowing that if they can corner the market they can recoup the costs later on.

They are spending a billion or two on premier league games alone. Orders of magnitude more than the DTT costs being discussed on this thread.

Not only do the backers need to bankroll the service they also need to find content. Can UPC / SKY block sport / movies from them ?

UPC can't. Sky can, but won't. They'll take the subscription money no matter where it comes from. There was a time not too many years ago when Sky viewers from what is now UPC outnumbered direct-to-home subscribers in Ireland by an order of several times.

The Cush · 15-03-2010 06:58AM

From today's Irish Independent, time quickly running out for OneVision. The next BAI board meeting take place on 29th March.

Authority frustrated by delays in deal for digital TV

By Laura Noonan
Monday March 15 2010

BROADCASTING Authority chairman Bob Collins has said his board has "very little patience" left with stalled negotiations over the massive commercial Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) project.

The Eircom-led 'One Vision' consortium was offered the commercial contract for DTT last May, after the Boxer/Communicorp group abandoned plans to spend €165m on the venture.

The commercial DTT project was designed to go hand-in-hand with RTE's public service DTT, which will replace traditional analogue public service transmission ahead of the Europe-wide analogue switch-off in 2012.

One Vision was expected to sign on the dotted line for DTT in a matter of months, but negotiations with network provider RTE have proved protracted and the contract remains unsigned 10 months on.

"I sincerely hope the One Vision project comes to early fruition and the emphasis is on the adverb 'early'," said Mr Collins, who took the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) chair late last year.

"We wanted this concluded before the end of 2009. We have been very patient; we have very little patience left."

Pressure

Mr Collins declined to be drawn on how much longer the BAI would let the impasse continue, or on whether pressure was being applied to expedite the contract's progress. Industry sources, however, described the BAI's meeting at the end of this month as "make or break".

"A deal will either be done by then, or it won't," said one well-placed source.

A spokesman for One Vision, which has been 65pc-owned by Eircom since December, said he had "no comment" to make on the ongoing negotiations.

One Vision's DTT negotiations are understood to involve RTE's networks division, which will provide the technological infrastructure for One Vision's services, and the Department of Communications.

- Laura Noonan

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/authority-frustrated-by-delays-in-deal-for-digital-tv-2099232.html

carrolls · 15-03-2010 09:33AM

The Cush wrote: »

From today's Irish Independent, time quickly running out for OneVision. The next BAI board meeting take place on 29th March.

Just dump OneVision and launch the thing already FFS. :mad:

Elmo · 15-03-2010 09:46AM

The Cush wrote: »

From today's Irish Independent, time quickly running out for OneVision. The next BAI board meeting take place on 29th March.

I wish she could have named the One Vision Spokesperson and got a spokesperson from RTÉ NL.

rabbitsears · 15-03-2010 09:54AM

Let's face it. I am sure One Vision are about to walk away. All we are seeing here is choreography leading up to the inevitable announcement.

RTÉ are determined to control the commercial DTT muxes - I am quite sure Easy TV will not get a demand for a €20m guarantee from RTÉ NL...

This then leaves Eircom in an interesting situation. Who might they then partner to offer a Triple Play deal?

channelsurfer2 · 15-03-2010 09:59AM

so rte will end up paying itself via rte nl 10 million a year if easy tv takes over and actually signs.... just great... sums it up really.... doomed..

Elmo · 15-03-2010 10:08AM

rabbitsears wrote: »

Let's face it. I am sure One Vision are about to walk away. All we are seeing here is choreography leading up to the inevitable announcement.

RTÉ are determined to control the commercial DTT muxes - I am quite sure Easy TV will not get a demand for a €20m guarantee from RTÉ NL...

This then leaves Eircom in an interesting situation. Who might they then partner to offer a Triple Play deal?

RTÉ want a bond of €20,000,000, after all they have invest allot of money into RTÉ NL why should another company expect to get RTÉ huge invest for free????

so rte will end up paying itself via rte nl 10 million a year if easy tv takes over and actually signs.... just great... sums it up really.... doomed..

I am sure that they will ask Easy TV for a bond of €20million.

rabbitsears · 15-03-2010 10:19AM

Well, that bond proved to be the deal breaker for Boxer, it surely will be the deal breaker for One Vision too.

Meanwhile RTÉ will no doubt move a few bob from one bit of themselves to another and Easy TV will go on the air, ensuring RTÉ's involvement in the commercial DTT muxes.

Easy TV won't have an easy ride though - A combination of FTA DTT for the Irish channels and FTA satellite for the UK channels brings to Irish consumers what most want - for nothing.

Elmo · 15-03-2010 10:24AM

rabbitsears wrote: »

Well, that bond proved to be the deal breaker for Boxer, it surely will be the deal breaker for One Vision too.

Meanwhile RTÉ will no doubt move a few bob from one bit of themselves to another and Easy TV will go on the air, ensuring RTÉ's involvement in the commercial DTT muxes.

Easy TV won't have an easy ride though - A combination of FTA DTT for the Irish channels and FTA satellite for the UK channels brings to Irish consumers what most want - for nothing.

I don't see why RTÉ would have thought that initially that the licence would just be given over to the runner up. We also don't know if RTÉ are now asking for 20,000,000, they may have reduced the bond price. Again the reporter should have contacted RTÉ NL about the bond issue.

No new pay TV offer will have an easy ride with the other Pay TV providers plus the Free combinations.

Sam Russell · 15-03-2010 11:07AM

If/when Onevision walk away, will RTE launch the service, before the IBA reoffer the licence to EasyTV? It would mean they can ask TV3 for money for the dual illumination period, and they can get on with offering the new channels, RTE News Now and RTE3/RTE HD.

If the new paytv offering was cheap, at the claimed €10/month, for a simple aerial solution, I would think it would cause both UPC and $ky to drop their prices. If they can offer sports at competitive prices, they might make it work, but it is highly likely they will bump along the bottom with a tiny market, like TV3 does.

Not long to wait now.

stevo25 · 15-03-2010 11:41AM

sorry but sky will never reduce their prices IMHO

10000maniacs · 15-03-2010 12:53PM

Sam Russell wrote: »

If the new paytv offering was cheap, at the claimed €10/month, for a simple aerial solution, I would think it would cause both UPC and $ky to drop their prices.

Its not a simple aerial solution. You need to get an STB with the correct CAM to avail of the €10 offer. And even then Freesat HD which is nearly as easy to set up is offering a far superior package for free.
I say just launch the shagging thing with what they can currently place on the mux for free and then offer a top-up type TV scenario later on.

Sam Russell · 15-03-2010 01:07PM

10000maniacs wrote: »

Its not a simple aerial solution. You need to get an STB with the correct CAM to avail of the €10 offer. And even then Freesat HD which is nearly as easy to set up is offering a far superior package for free.
I say just launch the shagging thing with what they can currently place on the mux for free and then offer a top-up type TV scenario later on.

I have no intention in subscribing, whatever they put on the ptv. By a simple aerial solution, I mean an aerial cable wending its way around the house to each tv. The tvs generally have a PMCIA slot for a cam, and anyway, as I said I am only interested in freetv.

How will multiroom work with this DTT paytv?

scath · 15-03-2010 01:23PM

Here's the doc http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/NR/rdonlyres/E08E7E6A-6873-45BB-9303-3FE70A6F22C2/0/SI85_2010.pdf

10000maniacs · 15-03-2010 01:45PM

scath wrote: »

Here's the doc http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/NR/rdonlyres/E08E7E6A-6873-45BB-9303-3FE70A6F22C2/0/SI85_2010.pdf

I don't want to sound pedantic, but there is already a NATIONAL TELEVISION MULTIPLEX in place serving 90% of the population. It just happens to be analogue. Maybe in the document he should have stated that it was the DTT NATIONAL TELEVISION MULTIPLEX. Its just that on October 31st 2010 Ryan might use this as his get out clause.
He has already proved to be a slimeball in the way he reneged on the MOU.

Elmo · 15-03-2010 01:53PM

10000maniacs wrote: »

Its just that on October 31st 2010 Ryan might use this as his get out clause.
He has already proved to be a slimeball in the way he reneged on the MOU.

Well he got his slimeballness from his predessors (Burke, Dempsey, S. DeVelar etc)

The student has now become the master.

But hey whats done is done right???? :rolleyes:

10000maniacs · 15-03-2010 02:04PM

Elmo wrote: »

Well he got his slimeballness from his predessors (Burke, Dempsey, S. DeVelar etc)

I was going to use cretinous halfwitted ball-bag, but that would be a slight exaggeration.

Sam Russell · 15-03-2010 02:17PM

10000maniacs wrote: »

I was going to use cretinous halfwitted ball-bag, but that would be a slight exaggeration.

Is the exageration the halfwitted, because maybe he does not even have half a wit.:D

Elmo · 15-03-2010 02:47PM

10000maniacs wrote: »

I was going to use cretinous halfwitted ball-bag, but that would be a slight exaggeration.

Well he hasn't quite got that far yet, he has lessons with Ray Burke on a Monday.

15-03-2010 04:56PM

Folks-this is not a politics forum.
Please keep the politics for elsewhere and the abuse-thank you.
I'll be using my modtools next time I see it.

Thank you for your co operation.

carrolls · 15-03-2010 09:43PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Folks-this is not a politics forum.
Please keep the politics for elsewhere and the abuse-thank you.
I'll be using my modtools next time I see it.

Thank you for your co operation.

Yeah leave Eamo alone. Its a difficult time for him with the country in the toilet waiting to be flushed. If he wants to u-turn its his prerogative. He has the countrys interests at heart.;)

Elmo · 15-03-2010 10:39PM

carrolls wrote: »

Yeah leave Eamo alone. Its a difficult time for him with the country in the toilet waiting to be flushed. If he wants to u-turn its his prerogative. He has the countrys interests at heart.;)

Well the other ministers before him helped to build the sh1t up. He is luck Mary Harney was never Min for Coms

(Sorry mods I just had to reply) You may delete if you so wish. The analogy caught my eye.

15-03-2010 10:43PM

Elmo wrote: »

I am sure that they will ask Easy TV for a bond of €20million.

That should just about cover the esb bill at mt leinster ,irelands most tested dtt outfit with 4 muxes broadcasting the same channels repeated on all 4 on full power

DTT Commercial Multiplexes (was OneVision, Boxer etc...)

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