Saorview Content Speculation

Hibrasil wrote: »

Article was in the Culture magazine (not the Sunday Times magazine).

One of Many.

Stephen Price claims that the BAI is working itself into a lather over what it wrongly perceives to be anti-competitive practices by RTE.

He also cites administrative dithering and the failure of commercial consortiums to part fund DTT as being responsible for the original failure of commercial DTT.....pointing out the BAI Report lays failure of commercial DTT fully at RTE's door.

He does but RTÉ do have a number of questions but then so does the Independent sector, TG4, the Government (and by the looks of things that includes the current government), the BAI and other stakeholders.

It is hard to agree with Stephen Price on the point of view that failure was due to the commercial consortiums not funding the infrastructure ....that a little bit like saying that someone buying a "buy to let" house did not got through with deal because the potential tenants would not put money up front (towards cost of house) while ignoring the fact that the tenant would be paying rent for "rest of his life". Balance would suggest that he refer to the fact that RTE was part of a commercial consortium that lost out in the DTT bidding process...... or that the negotiations that went on could have been seen as an attempt to "blow all others out of the water" and leave RTE playing with it's own ball. Stephen Price does not do that..and he goes on to say that DTT was expensive....that RTE were forced to pay for it by the last government..... without any additional funding....and yes he praises RTE for the time, money and effort it put into developing DTT.

I am still unsure of this did RTÉ look for an upfront payment or a bond? UPC may have backed away not RTÉ, was EasyTV approached. TBH I can see why UPC would pull out since the BAI made a joke of the application process. However regardless your point is completely moot since Easy TV did not take on the commercial licence and RTÉ had been hoping to launch Soarview along with Boxer rather then first. (Of course we all know that Pay TV on DTT has limited appeal). The BBC got a Licence Fee increase to launch Freeview with the help of ITV, Channel 4 and other stakeholders.

The reality is that Joe Public has been funding RTE since it began operations and prudent management of those funds should have meant that the project could be fully funded with some change left over....instead our funds were squandered on high rollers (as in big names) and the outrageous (as in limitless) outbidding against competitors for Prime time events...
Stephen Price is clearly in RTE's corner (seconds in the boxing ring parlance)...and his penultimate punch is "that the BAI's submission to the Communications Minister on transmission costs being a deal breaker is a bit of a red herring"...."like road hauliers complaining they don't get free diesel"...not indeed a great analogy...since as far as I'm aware road hauliers have not looked for free diesel.

I will agree that the article is bias but so are the huge number of articles in other papers that lay the blame at RTÉ. TV3's is building a HD studio as state broadcaster cann't afford it, aren't TV3 great, oh wait TV3 can afford a HD studio because it hasn't had to invest in the DTT network.

He said it would be like road hauliers complaining they don't get free diesel not that they are complaining that they don't.

His KO (in his own mind) punch is that the only way for the BAI to boost the commercial broadcasting sector without damaging RTE is to redesign the public service broadcaster's funding model.....a good punch for RTE in the circumstances....hope that give a fair representation with some personal thoughts added.

The public service sector should be remodel the BAI and DCENR are quite happy to continue to lay the blame at RTÉ a service that they are supposed to regulate.

Here is a copy of (a bad copy) of the article.

Machinehead wrote: »

Just spotted this online.

Posted the info yesterday - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056389438

Do you know something or is this an aspirational suggestion ?

As Setanta Ireland didnt express any interest in recent BAI request for expression of interest - SI doesnt appear to be a possibility.

Although as many around here have suggested, on the face of it it would appear be a good idea for SI to get on SAORVIEW if only to act as a teaser for people to potentially purchase Setatnta1 and 2 along with possibility to earn more form advertising from a bigger audience.

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

warlikedave wrote: »

You ask a good question as well in regards to why they wouldnt be interested - any ideas folks?

They can't afford it.

wonder how long it is before setanta ireland closes.

i would hope that sky and upc would pick up all saorview channels as part of their basic packages.

i know setanta have an international set of channels but neither channel offer a service good enough to pay for, e.g. paying rights for fta events in neighbouring territories.

as for setanta sports 2 that was really a uk channel attached to their irish sub, did ss2 even have ad opt outs for ireland.

No problems here at the moment

Sam Russell wrote: »

They could drop 3E, or even TV3.

Would be a better use of bandwidth.

beginning to regret getting Saorview - never had TV3 reception here before and now the damned channel is is on from mid-afternoon till Vinnie signs off - mindnumbing drivel most of the time.

Sam Russell wrote: »

Is that Vinnie your talking about, or the whole channel?

Unfortunate juxtaposition there...... I find Vinnie interesting enough - it's the rest of the bland pap they serve up I find objectionable - and even if it's not being watched it's on in the background..... aaaagh!

Leslie91 wrote: »

I don't get the fuss about Saorview?.

Isn't the channel offering extremely limited?, what is the point in it as it looks today?. Yes, I know it is free but hands up who is happy only having access to RTE, TV3 and TG4?. Not me.

Anybody have any idea when this thing might be a serious player i.e. at least get the British terrestrial on there?.

You are missing the point. The EU is dictating that all analogue TV transmissions will shutdown. SaorView is intended as a replacement for the existing four analogue channels available via terrestrial aerials. It just happens that they have spare capacity to add other channels such as News Now, Jr, etc.
If you want foreign channels get a satellite or cable system.

Gotcha lads... I thought it was to be a serious contender to the likes of bog standard UPC and Sky. I was wrong.

Thought with all the fuss about a TV being Saorview approved etc that it might be something that would be having massive take - up. Again wrong.

Tks for the clarifications.