Sunday, February 07, 2010
BBC and RTE to share public service digital platform in the Republic
The agreement for full free- to- air reciprocity between the BBC and RTE after analogue switch-off in 2012 is thoroughly good news and is in the spirit of the GFA. Will it provide blanket coverage? I assume there will be fewer black spots than with analogue - that’s part of the point of digital. The Irish Times report is too grudging about TG4. I assume this will be greeted with a sigh of relief by the BBC, although it doesn’t release them from the public service obligation to continue developing Irish language programming. What I’m not clear about though, is how the digital agreement will affect RTE reception in the North. It would be ironic if non-BBC licence fee payers in the Republic received better access to the joint package than viewers in NI.
“(The Irish and British governments) it will facilitate the broadcast of TG4 on free-to-air DTT in Northern Ireland when the analogue signal is switched off in 2012. They must have been dancing in the streets of Belfast at that news…. “The memorandum commits the two governments to facilitating the widespread availability of RTÉ services in Northern Ireland and BBC services in Ireland on a free-to-air basis.”
Not so good news for the commerical sector delivering digital terrestrial television (DTT).
Brian Walker @ 10:37 PM
That’s DTT not DDT.
Although the introduction of DDT to Ireland was, in many ways, a much more important event.
Which of them proves the greatest help in getting a good night’s sleep is yet to be decided.
Posted by on Feb 08, 2010 @ 12:04 AMBrian
I noted the detail of the memorandum here.
“What I’m not clear about though, is how the digital agreement will affect RTE reception in the North.”
If the digital platforms don’t include the RTÉ main channels then there’ll be no reception of them once the analogue signal is switched off.
As the memorandum [pdf file] only commits to providing “The widespread availability on the DTT platform of TG4 in Northern Ireland.”
And “That arrangements are made to facilitate the widespread availability on the DTT platforms of BBC services in Ireland and of RTE services in Northern Ireland.”
That remains a possibility.
But, as I also noted,
Negotiations with a number of companies to provide the €100 million digital system in the Republic – which have run into some difficulties – are still continuing, “but come what may, we are switching in 2012”, Mr Ryan said.
Posted by on Feb 08, 2010 @ 12:08 AMSo viewers in the Republic will get free to air BBC but viewer in the rest of the UK will not get free to air RTE. What a pity - it might educate the Btits about the island next door.
Posted by on Feb 08, 2010 @ 08:13 AMYes Pete, Reciprocation is clear but it all depends what “widespead availability” means. How widespread? I presume as with Freeeview throughout the UK, a range of digi boxes will be available to viewers to access the channels on the new public service mutltiplex and that these will be tuned compatibly in both jurisdictions.
Posted by on Feb 08, 2010 @ 09:42 AM-
Well David McNarry seems none too pleased.
He really makes me want to vote for the new force! Not.
Posted by on Feb 08, 2010 @ 09:48 AM Brian -
It would be ironic if non-BBC licence fee payers in the Republic received better access to the joint package than viewers in NI.
This I don’t get. They’re both licence fee payers - each paying to one of the respective partners - and should expect high quality service delivery. It isn’t ironic if one set of taxpayers recieve a poor service, it’s disgraceful!
Posted by on Feb 08, 2010 @ 10:47 AMPoor David McNarry, the more he writes and speaks about the Irish language, the more he becomes the caricature of the Little Unionist who can’t - or won’t - see any accommodation of Irishness in his narrow vision of a British Northern Ireland. What he should realise of course is that the more he embraces the Irish language, the more like multi cultural Britain Northern Ireland becomes.
It’s also worth mentioning that David McNarry’s own party, the Ulster Unionist Party, signed up to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, almost 12 years ago now, which included the following commitment by the British Government.
• explore urgently with the relevant British authorities, and in co-operation with the Irish broadcasting authorities, the scope for achieving more widespread availability of Teilifis na Gaeilige in Northern Ireland;
If it’s timing that’s worrying Mr McNarry, surely it should be what was the delay in implementing something which had been called for ‘urgently’ and to which his own party had signed up. Is he on message or not?
Posted by on Feb 08, 2010 @ 11:39 AMThe basic Sky package available in NI already includes RTE 1 & 2 and TG4 (but not TV3). All that needs to happen to provide complete ‘free’ coverage is for the authorities in the Republic to permit (1) unscrambled access to these channels on FreeSat (which uses the same satellite) and (2) - since the capacity of Freeview free-to-air is very high - to allow transmission from all UK sites as Freeview is fully rolled out between now and 2012. Both these measures would cost very little to implement. Does anyone (except of course David McNarry) anticipate any political problems with this?
Posted by on Feb 08, 2010 @ 11:45 AMGiven that the UK broadcast uses the MPEG2 compression for DTT and ROI uses MPEG4 / H264.AVC there is going to be an inordinate amount of whinging and general bemusement about which compatible boxes will cover both. See this from 2008.
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/11001/new-media/tvs-may-not-be-digital-readyThe practical solution is for the RTE signal to be allocated space on one of the Freeview multiplexes. This neatly dodges the compatibility issues. Similarly for the BBC in ROI.
Posted by on Feb 08, 2010 @ 02:16 PMI hope that ITV1, ITV2, Channel4 etc will also be available south of the border, not just BBC.
Posted by on Feb 08, 2010 @ 07:56 PMThe agreement for full free- to- air reciprocity between the BBC and RTE after analogue switch-off in 2012 is thoroughly good news and is in the spirit of the GFA.
I’ve never come across an interaction between the British and Republic governments that wasn’t ‘in the spirit of the GFA’
Posted by on Feb 08, 2010 @ 08:23 PMHopefully RTE and TV4 will transmit plenty of traditional Irish dancing, fiddley-dee music, and covert political propaganda up there, thereby indoctrinating the natives with a subliminal love for all-things Irish. ;)
Posted by on Feb 08, 2010 @ 08:42 PMWhat is McNarry like?!
I’m unionist, I’m planning to donate my vote to UCUNF at the general election, and I welcome a deal that gets RTE on my TV - wise up McNarry.
To all the non-unionists - please note that the numpty politicians who call themselves unionists often don’t represent the common views of the ordinary unionist voter, whose interest in this lies in whether they have any decent programmes we haven’t seen yet :-) (I’m hoping this UCUNF idea works in getting some new, sensible faces on the scene)
Posted by on Feb 08, 2010 @ 09:21 PM“I assume there will be fewer black spots than with analogue - that’s part of the point of digital.”
Certainly with a combination of Freeview and Freesat there should be fewer black spots, but Freeview is still a terrestrial transmission system so hills and water are still a problem
http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=IJ287750
Posted by on Feb 09, 2010 @ 09:28 AM
