Saorview Content Speculation

Well, the Government have really had it forsale since 1999 roughtly. That's nothing new. I think it would be idiotic and a repeat of eircom fiasco.

The 1st Asset stripping vulture capitalist carpet bagger to buy it would likely load it with debt by borrowing to buy it. (Leveraged buyout). Then sell off all the mast sites.

There would never be much real investment in Network Infrastructure ever again.

Sell off 2FM and RTE 2 TV maybe. Nothing more. Completely separate RTENL and RTE, no connection if you like.

Combine RTENL, eNet backhaul, Heanet, MANs and ESB network (not the power gen) in one state company. Or keep them separate. But don't sell them.

jobyrne30 wrote: »

From the above article - DTT equipment subsidy for pensioners, being considered but not yet confirmed.

"Mr Ryan said he did not envisage any increase in the licence fee to help RTÉ pay for the new service. The cost of new televisions or adaptors would be borne by customers, but he said he would consider a subsidy for pensioners."

With October looming large it would be nice for to have official equipment for the customers to invest in.

I agree with watty about keeping ownership of infrastructural assets.

Ditto on state infrastructure assets, discussed here recently - director general of RTE resigns and RTE maybe privatised

Regarding subsidised DTT equipment there is a provision in the Broadcasting Act for such a scheme. The October date doesn't apply for two reasons, firstly the Oct date is being discussed as the technical launch (information campaign for retailers/installers/viewers, training for installers/retailers), with the full launch due possibly Q2 2011. Secondly, subsidised equipment will only be required just before analogue switch off (as is the case in the UK and was the case in the US). I would expect to see a subsidy scheme maybe mid 2012, state finances may be a little better and we are due a general election about that time.

(9) The Minister, for the purpose of ensuring a smooth and
efficient interchange between the provision of analogue and digital
television services in the context of analogue switch-off, shall have
the power by himself or herself, or in conjunction with any other
person, to—

(d) operate, manage or sponsor, whether in whole or in part,
measures aimed at alleviating the effects of analogue
switch-off on classes of communities or persons
adversely affected.

warlikedave wrote: »

... for the likes of myself where i live in wooded areas and its hard to get a sat signal without building a mast - i barely get 19.2e and cant get 28.2e with all the trees around the house

They must be VERY big trees very close to house

                   v        ---
                  vvv       |
                 Vvvvv      | 
         V     vvvvvvvvv    | Tree Height - Dish Height
         |   V     ||       |
_(       |   |     ||       ---
 \       |   |     ||       | Dish Height
_|_______|___|_____||_____  |
House         Woods
  
   |--------------|
      Tree Distance
Tree Distance Must be more than 2 x (Tree Height - Dish Height)	  
	  

Dish on 1m pole on chimney
subtract height of dish from height of tree
Remaining Height must be 1/2 of distance of tree from dish.
(assuming 22.5 degree elevation for 28.2E in Ireland. 19.2E is easier, higher elevation)

Maybe you have 20m Beech trees only 10m from House? In which case worry about the foundations.

Maybe it's a bungalow/Cottage?

If the trees blocking at all you get NOTHING on Satellite. Maybe poor alignment.

Note ONE mature beech tree reduces my 12km distant Woodcock hill terrestrial reception on UHF to rubbish. I have my TV aerial only 2m above patio to get clear LOS UNDER the boughs of the row of trees!

My dishes "look" like they are pointing into a row of tall firs an a house behind them. But the elevation is fine. I get 42E to 50W.

must be kind of dark...
In the autumn look to see where has direct sunlight at about 11 am (at ANY height, anywhere on your site). That place can get Sky.

Soarsat is easier as the elevation is higher. Sun illuminated spot about noon.

I have a pole on a gable end with bolts into attic with aerials that have more wind load than a dish.

I'd say the far end of your house from the trees is perfectly clear and you just need a suitable brackets and pole to "see" over the roof from that spot. Dishes are commonly mounted on an S pole 30cm above gutter looking straight over roof.

If ridge points South East/North West, then you mount on North West Gable pointing down the ridge... etc.

Many of the Sky installers are just guys with drills. A few are actual Technicians. None are Communications Engineers.

lgs 4 wrote: »

rte could go fta 28e but are you willing to 250 euros or more for tv lience because cost of programs like flashforward csi and others would double, it would be not just ireland but uk france spain or anyone with large enough dish that can get 28e on till uk narrow beam sat comes on in 2013 or 2014 when happy days for sky no out side uk will get sky, poland have done it already with polish bean at 19e

watty wrote: »

no, quadruple or much more. TV licence 1250 Euro or much more.

This is what Conor Hayes said at the recent Joint Committee debate

Mr. Conor Hayes: ...
Another innovation by RTE is promotion of its satellite option, Saorsat. Some members of the committee will be familiar with the equivalent UK service, Freesat. The BBC, ITV and a number of other companies have put their services on one of the wideband Astra satellites. The services are broadcast unencrypted, or “in the clear” as we call it. The trouble with those wideband satellites is that they have a very big footprint. If RTE were to be put up on a wideband satellite, its services would be in the clear to the UK, France, Holland and many other countries. One might ask why that should not be done, to which I would respond that we do not have the resources to purchase the rights to enable us to broadcast into those countries. We buy programming that allows us to broadcast to 4.5 million people. We do not have the money to broadcast to 100 million people. Therefore, the option taken by the BBC when Freesat was launched is not available to us.

...
It [Saorsat] will cost us approximately €1.5 million per year. We can manage it. As other channels come on board, part of the cost will be defrayed. In light of the security this option provides and the ability to supply to the 2% of the population who do not currently receive public service television, the cost can be adequately justified. We might have a different take on the situation were the cost €20 million or €25 million, but the actual amount is appropriate and reasonable.

Saorview DTT is about 95% coverage by end of 2012 for a regular aerial. "DX" aerials will give extended coverage.

Almost no apartment blocks need a dish as the 5% not covered are entirely rural.

A dish for Saorsat need not look like a dish



MMDS Dish

---

Soarsat dish

---

Saorview Aerial

The dish is inside a plastic box with LNBF fitted in rear, no arm at all. Cost is likely about the same as a quality grid aerial.

Elevation is 30 degrees toward South South East, instead of Sky's South East and 22.5 degrees. So can mount lower on a wall and still clear neighbour's house or apartments that would block TV signal.

Box is about 46cm x 46cm with tapered 30cm depth. 44cm internal cassegrain dish using secondary reflector on lid.

Soarsat
100M/5M = x20. Though at 50% discount maybe "only" x 10 costs for content for FTA Satellite on Widebeam. Carriage costs are almost x5 more on 28.2 than Kasat @9E

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Oireachtas TV is canned

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0811/1224276548349.html

Not quite correct to say that it is canned. It said it may be canned. They are half way through deliberations. Certainly time-sharing is something they could do. RTÉ News Now at night time could certainly timeshare.

RTE1, RTE2 (reconfigured)
TV3, 3e
TG4/Oireachtas TV, Cula4/(Irish Film Channel)
RTÉ News Now, RTE Junior/RTÉ1+1,/Euronews,/HD lite

My suggestion would be to let TG4 have a dedicated children's channel to enable Oireachtas TV to have some daytime coverage and then at night also.

The other option is to Let Cula4 and Oireachtas TV timeshare and let TG4 and Irish Film Channel timeshare. Because leaving TG4 as is and letting Oireachtas TV and Irish Film Channel timeshare mightn't just work.

I don't see why the wait til 2012. Definitely they should timeshare for now. Repeat can be provided for by RTE News Now at night. To my mind the Irish Film Channel can be catered for with TG4 as a part time operation and let Oireachtas TV and Cula4 timeshare. 7pm is good enough for anyone who wants to watch it in the evening home from work. Daytime can be catered for via internet.

No need to bin the idea.

That said Euronews should timeshare with RTÉ News Now by right and put the Irish Film Channel in the mix after RTÉ Junior. TG4 is entitled to have 2 channels like TV3, one dedicated to Childrens programming and the other can timeshare with Oireachtas TV. Otherwise leave TG4 as is and give Oireachtas TV a channel to themselves but defo not Irish Film Channel to themselves. To my mind parliamentary scrutiny is more important than films though others would disagree of course on entertainment grounds

The Cush wrote: »

Adrian Weckler the so called DTT expert that Philip wants back on the show to answer future DTT related questions insisted that analogue switchoff is happening in Dec 2011 (as per the EU recommendation) but of course as we all know here it's planned for the end of 2012 and is well known within RTÉ.

Why do RTÉ programmes keep foisting these so called DTT experts on us when they have all the expertise on their own campus, people that have been working on the development of DTT in this country for at least 13 years.

Hopefully the DTT information campaign will use RTÉ's own in-house experts and not people like Adrian.

He's just a Journalist. I don't think he is a Technologist or Expert on DTT.

End of 2012 may even mean Starting to turn off at Midnight 31st Dec 2012!

The Cush wrote: »

There isn't a chance switchover will happen during the Christmas/New Year holiday period. Even the Spanish I believe moved a switchover date to avoid a public holiday period.

The Broadcasting Act requires DTT coverage to match analogue coverage by end Q3 2012 and RTÉ recently indicated that it's network will achieve 98% coverage at this time.

I would expect switchover to happen sometime between Oct and Christmas 2012.

I said Starting to turn off Analogue. The Dept is fond of 31sts and end of years.
See http://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2010-02-02.2075.0

It might start Oct 2012, I agree. I'll be surprised though if there is not some Analogue in 2013.

The 98% might be a real 95% with only 51 sites, but I won't quibble. The problem is that while main transmitters could in theory be turned off even in early 2011 to early 2012, most of the small relays (what RTE call Transposers and are "professional Deflectors" ) are fed by rebroadcast from the main TX sites. Of course if Saorsat is running by mid 2011, then any analogue site can be run off 3 to 4 FTA boxes on Kasat much cheaper and safer than using Sky boxes. So then you can turn off the main TX.

A lot depends on:

• How good any info campaign is.
• TVs and Setboxes in shops with Saorview sticker at good price.
• One free box for anyone on Medical Card (i..e Means tested need).
• No snags in rollout of 51 DTT sites
• Successful timely launch and Commission of Kasat to feed some sites, backup feed all sites and DTH Saorsat for 2% to 8% that can't get DTT Soarview.
• Free dish and cable install for ANYONE outside official DTT reception.

We are not legally obliged to have all analogue off by 2012. The aim is to have the Digital Dividend of selling off upper end of TV spectrum across all of EU in 2013. As long as Comreg can flog it off here too on same basis with assurance nothing will interfere with UK in 2013 and the purchaser can roll out in 2013 with phased introduction during 2013 & 2014 everyone will be happy

DTT is not primarily about having more free (or Pay) channels via the aerial. It's about the "Digital Dividend". That is Government making money flogging Spectrum and Mobile or other Wireless Voice/Data operators making money selling stuff to public.

watty wrote: »

I said Starting to turn off Analogue. The Dept is fond of 31sts and end of years.
See http://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2010-02-02.2075.0

It might start Oct 2012, I agree. I'll be surprised though if there is not some Analogue in 2013.

...
We are not legally obliged to have all analogue off by 2012.

I agree with you on end of month dates but I can't see switchoff starting or completing during the Christmas/New Year holiday period, too many people on holidays and staff not available to man helplines to deal with viewers problems. Even the UK halts transmitter switchovers during Dec and Jan (incl. Feb into Mar next year).

If switchover does slip into 2013 it could be as a result of promises made by the new government (election due mid 2012, if the present one lasts that long), a delayed switchover due to the economic situation. Romania has just announced that they will delay switchover until 2015 due to the current economic situation.

Leo Varadkar the new Fine Gael spokesperson on Communication since June is beginning to get his head around his area of responsibility as we can see in the article from today's Irish Times with his comments on digital switchover. Analogue switchoff and the economics of it for the man in the street will no doubt be a primary focus for Leo and Labour's Liz McManus for the next two years or so.

Fine Gael communications spokesman Leo Varadkar said the switchover would not only affect analogue households but would also affect households with a second television which is not linked to cable or satellite.

Mr Varadkar also called for a public awareness campaign in responding to a survey published by ComReg earlier this week, which revealed that just four in 10 people were aware of the analogue switch-off,

Even though we are not legally obliged to switchoff analogue in 2012 we do have that infamous MoU with the UK so it will have to be taken into consideration if there is to be any delay. Back in 2008 the BCI didn't rule out a delay between 2012 and 2015.

watty wrote: »

How much is the paper the MoU is on worth?

I think we have the same hymn books but you are more optimistic. :-)

The MoU is about coordinating switchover between the two jurisdictions, we know NI will switchover mid to late 2012 so there will be an obligation on us per the MoU to do likewise and we know meetings between the two countries are underway.

Sam Russell wrote: »

I would think that setting an absolute date of Oct 2012 for ASO would concentrate minds and get the thing done. What is the problem? Transmitters are up and running,

The problem is money or the lack of it in your pocket if you are on low income and having to purchase 1,2 or more converter boxes for TVs, recorder(s) etc. Those households that require a Ka dish and receiver will face additional costs.

Hopefully by the end of 2012 there will be sufficient low cost receivers on the market to allow low income households switchover.

Sam Russell wrote: »

Unfortunately, this falls down because there are no STBs in the shops for people to buy.

That is what I was wondering as well!
Do we know if any STBs have been approved yet?


P.S. Excellent tread, thanks to all for the knowledge that has been contributed.