RTE Announce FTA Saorsat service

Tony · 15-07-2010 12:54pm

tlaavtech wrote: »

What's in it for Sky?

They get to "sell up" to one of their packages.

tlaavtech · 15-07-2010 12:58pm

Tony wrote: »

They get to "sell up" to one of their packages.

An FTV card means no on-going revenue. But holding back BBC/ITV - that's a selling point.

tlaavtech · 15-07-2010 12:58pm

Tony wrote: »

RTE have not fulfilled their remit up to this point on the analogue network for a good many customers.

I agree completely - that's why this is such an elegant solution.

EDIT: must learn to use Mutli-quote button

Tony · 15-07-2010 1:00pm

tlaavtech wrote: »

An FTV card means no on-going revenue. But holding back BBC/ITV - that's a selling point.

The accountants will figure out that a certain number will actually take up sky and base the business model on that as they do with the badly named "freesat from sky" in the UK

15-07-2010 1:05pm

tlaavtech wrote: »

What's in it for Sky?

your name,your address and constant literature through the door.
A given percentage decide at any time to ring sky and have a channel pack enabled.
Win win for sky.
Expect the push to begin by them next year in earnest.

15-07-2010 1:08pm

By the way I don't agree that sky reacting in that way is bad for rte.
They've budgeted for this plan and take up of it has no commercial implications for them even if 99% go the rte card from sky route.
It's win win for everybody from an availability point of view actually.

Mr McBoatface · 15-07-2010 1:10pm

liamtech wrote: »

Thanks for the clarification - I suppose the six million dollar question is should we move it and put it on the Chimney instead - It took us 4 hourse to set up each dish individually, the one at the back and the one at the front - Id hate to think we have to undo it all again?

And what about his 19.2 dish at the back - Should we take that down or is this one dish rule enforced

The chimney may be above the top of the roof and permission may be required too. Personally I wouldn't worry it about too much, I'd leave it as it is until I was asked to remove them (if ever).

I believe you can leave them in place and you can seek planning permission after the fact.(Not 100% sure on this)

watty · 15-07-2010 1:11pm

When (if) Saorsat starts it will be the first time in history of State for
1) Full Irish Universal FTA TV coverage, and perfect reception.
2) Irish dedicated Satellite Platform

maybe April .. July 2011.

If sky do offer a FTV card for Ireland (and they would only even consider it if Saorsat starts), then that's a win-win as people already with cancelled Sky subs can get basic Irish TV.

But Saorsat and Saorview will have more Irish Content than Sky.

Sponge Bob · 15-07-2010 1:41pm

watty wrote: »

When (if) Saorsat starts it will be the first time in history of State for
1) Full Irish Universal FTA TV coverage, and perfect reception.
2) Irish dedicated Satellite Platform

There are households in a satellite shadow (they live on the north side of a hill or mountain), what about them ??

There are housholds in a 9e satellite/tree shadow who can get 28e....and vice versa, what about them ??

Would a normally Ku band DVB-S/S2 receiver work with Ka band and whats the kludge if any??

Ka band LNBs are around 4x the cost of Ku band owing to lack of production scale , would the receivers work with them??

Cantona's Collars · 15-07-2010 1:42pm

Hopefully whatever happens we get decent nationwide reception for the first time-personally the analogue rte signal in my area is worse than useless.
In the UK they seem to have a happy medium between SKY,Cable,FTA/Freesat and Freeview-people make their choice so I hope we don't end up with a half assed happy medium here. Lot of talk on here of how Sky will react,I wonder what the thoughts of UPC customers are when they realise the channels they pay for are mostly fta and they're paying for 'triple play' cos it's handy,will they ditch their tv subs on cable and go fta/saorsat?

watty · 15-07-2010 1:56pm

Sponge Bob wrote: »

There are households in a satellite shadow (they live on the north side of a hill or mountain), what about them ??

There are housholds in a 9e satellite/tree shadow who can get 28e....and vice versa, what about them ??

Would a normally Ku band DVB-S/S2 receiver work with Ka band and whats the kludge if any??

Ka band LNBs are around 4x the cost of Ku band owing to lack of production scale , would the receivers work with them??

I mean as fill in to existing terrestrial Reception. Existing Analogue coverage is extremely poor compared to 1970s UK coverage (pre Ch5 days, C5 created problems, hence it was on Analogue 19.2E)

After Analogue Switch off it's for the 2% to 7% that can't get DTT.

You would have to live beside a cliff. Elevation is 29 degrees. Sky/Freesat elevation is 22.5 degrees. Even a sky dish with bottom edge 20cm above gutter can "see" over most roofs. Dish can be plastic cased rear feed (1/4 area of Irish Sky Dish needed).

You can get Ka LNBs for ordinary L-Band Sat IF. The price will fall rapidly over the next 2 years to Ku prices. A Ku Band LNB is under €5.

You need a DVB-s2 receiver.

It's likely no expensive Quads or Quattro with Multiswitch needed for hotel/Guesthouse/Multiroom/Apartment.

Macy0161 · 15-07-2010 2:19pm

I'd also echo earlier comments - it's actually a well done from me to RTE. It's actually an innovative and cost effective solution.

I'm also not sure why it matters if Sky provide a FTV card. It's not a commercial enterprise for RTE (at this stage at least, but maybe has the potential), it's about them providing near 100% coverage of public service channels. If sky do provide FTV but still on the restricted epg (in terms of FTA UK Channels) I'm not sure the take up will be that large. And also, could RTE legitimately block such a move on rights issue grounds/ costs or start blocking some content on sky?

tlaavtech · 15-07-2010 2:46pm

Deleted User wrote: »

your name,your address and constant literature through the door.
A given percentage decide at any time to ring sky and have a channel pack enabled.
Win win for sky.
Expect the push to begin by them next year in earnest.

I am subscribed and I still get all that literature crap :rolleyes:

The current push is pretty intense :eek:

tlaavtech · 15-07-2010 2:48pm

Deleted User wrote: »

It's win win for everybody from an availability point of view actually.

Except for those that feel RTE should spend €X0 mil so that they can get FTV RTE & FTA BBC on their old sky box :P

slicedpanman · 15-07-2010 2:59pm

Macy0161 wrote: »

I'd also echo earlier comments - it's actually a well done from me to RTE. It's actually an innovative and cost effective solution.

ditto... it really does seem like a good solution all round and cheap (for RTE) too

Perhaps they should have used all the millions spent so far on DTT transmitters (and the future annual running costs) on a 9e dish/lnb for everyone in the country and ditched DTT altogether... probably would have money left over

ISAA · 15-07-2010 3:14pm

Domain Name: SAORSAT.COM

[REGISTRANT]
Organisation Name: Radio Telefis Eireann
Contact Name: Marcus O' Doherty
Address Line 1: Montrose
Address Line 2: Donnybrook
City / Town: Dublin

STB · 15-07-2010 3:18pm

tlaavtech wrote: »

Except for those that feel RTE should spend €X0 mil so that they can get FTV RTE & FTA BBC on their old sky box :P

People with old sky boxes are well used to paying mad subscriptions fees for the Sky service!

Also its $ky who have locked those boxes down.

It €169 for a HD combo box that does all three.

Tony · 15-07-2010 3:23pm

Still cant get my head around the name, sounds too close to Saorstat

Sam Russell · 15-07-2010 3:26pm

ISAA wrote: »

Domain Name: SAORSAT.COM

[REGISTRANT]
Organisation Name: Radio Telefis Eireann
Contact Name: Marcus O' Doherty
Address Line 1: Montrose
Address Line 2: Donnybrook
City / Town: Dublin

No website.:mad:

Yet.

watty · 15-07-2010 5:14pm

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/rte-to-use-satellite-for-digital-rollout-in-remote-locations-2259154.html

The free-to-air service is likely to include RTE One and RTE Two, TV3, TG4, RTE News Now, RTE One+1, Euronews, RTE Children's and 3e along with 12 radio stations.

tlaavtech · 15-07-2010 5:42pm

Tony wrote: »

The accountants will figure out that a certain number will actually take up sky and base the business model on that as they do with the badly named "freesat from sky" in the UK

A thought struck me as I was driving home from work. The FTV model that Sky had (have?) in the UK was forced upon them by government legislation. At the time, none of BBC/ITV channels were FTA. The law said that they must be carried on the platform, and that even when a card expired, they should still be able to receive them. Only at that stage did Sky introduce the FTV card.

Not sure that the accountants had anything to do with that particular business model!

steveon · 15-07-2010 5:57pm

Wonder if the article listed in rite in some of the channels to be included in the 9 on rte run multiplex...3e and euronews??? that would be nice...

http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2010/07/15/rte-details-new-dtt-proposals/

Sorry watty didnt see you already listed this,..

watty · 15-07-2010 6:00pm

No, that's not quite true.

The FTV card scheme was originally funded by BBC, then C4, Five and last ITV joined as they joined the platform.

The BBC never intended to remain encrypted. S4C~digidol (first UK channel FTA) was used to test the Rights issues and UK services intended to be FTA that used Encryption migrated to the then new "Spot Beam" Astra 2D. The BBC leaving FTV scheme (Solas) created a funding crises and it collapsed after ITV left. For a while till Sky decided (on their own initiative) there was no way to get a new card, though existing ones worked. Five was the last terrestrial Channel to leave the system. There are now no channels on the Freesat from Sky Card that "must" be free. Fiver, Five US are not "must carry" or protected terrestrial channels like BBC, ITV, C4 and Five.

Sky for its own marketing reasons has a few PayTV channels on the Freesat-from-Sky card. It is no longer the FTV card. They can enable any pay package on it.

The Owner of Five (German Bertlesmann) has their UK channels for sale at possibly a nominal £1 as they are so unprofitable.

Tony · 15-07-2010 6:03pm

I'm sorry but you are confusing two different things. BBC, ITV and Ch4 were must carry on a free to view basis from the very early days of sky. The "freesat from sky" product came many years later.

tlaavtech wrote: »

A thought struck me as I was driving home from work. The FTV model that Sky had (have?) in the UK was forced upon them by government legislation. At the time, none of BBC/ITV channels were FTA. The law said that they must be carried on the platform, and that even when a card expired, they should still be able to receive them. Only at that stage did Sky introduce the FTV card.

Not sure that the accountants had anything to do with that particular business model!

sesswhat · 15-07-2010 6:25pm

If the new satellite can potentially provide such value for Saorsat, could it also be of interest to Freesat? Most of the UK seems to be covered by 3 spots.

Could that bring us back to a one dish solution?

slegs · 15-07-2010 6:30pm

sesswhat wrote: »

If the new satellite can potentially provide such value for Saorsat, could it also be of interest to Freesat? Most of the UK seems to be covered by 3 spots.

Could that bring us back to a one dish solution?

No, it would eliminate Irish coverage from Freesat as they would only take the spots that cover the UK. We would be left with Sky, UPC or terrestrial spillover for UK channels. Its a possible long term scenario I guess.

sesswhat · 15-07-2010 6:34pm

slegs wrote: »

No, it would eliminate Irish coverage from Freesat as they would only take the spots that cover the UK.

Should we not get those with a slightly bigger dish? And they would have to consider NI.

tlaavtech · 15-07-2010 6:40pm

Tony wrote: »

I'm sorry but you are confusing two different things. BBC, ITV and Ch4 were must carry on a free to view basis from the very early days of sky. The "freesat from sky" product came many years later.

Ah. My mistake. Thanks for the corection

RogerThis · 15-07-2010 6:41pm

When SaorSat is in full operation, will RTE still pay to be on the Sky system?

It wouldn't make sense for €15 million of license payers to be going direct to Sky, when RTE have a viable alternative. Sky might carry then for free to keep the Irish customers.

Tony · 15-07-2010 6:42pm

tlaavtech wrote: »

Ah. My mistake. Thanks for the corection

Its no problem, all good debate:)

RTE Announce FTA Saorsat service

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