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SaorView TV
(RTÉNL)
Company typeFree-to-air digital terrestrial television promotions company
IndustryMedia
Founded31 October 2010
HeadquartersDublin
Area served
Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (via overspill)
Key people
Ray MaGuire (Broadcast Industry Manager)
Mary Curtis (Director Of Digital Switchover)
ProductsEquipment to receive free-to-air digital terrestrial television channels
Websitehttp://www.saorview.ie[1]

http://www.saorviewtv.ie[2] http://www.saorviewtv.com

(Domain Names registered to RTÉ)

Saorview is the proposed name for the free-to-air digital terrestrial television (DTT) service in the Republic of Ireland [3][4]. The service will become operational from October 2010 [5]. Set-top boxes for this service are expected to be distributed from autumn 2010 [6][7]. By legislation it must be available to approximately 90% of the population by end of October 2010 in a public testing capacity and nationwide by December 2011. The national public launch has yet to be determined by the Minister but RTÉ propose Q2 2011 [8].

Overview

Saorview (the Irish word Saor, meaning free, therefore implying Freeview in English), is the name proposed by RTÉNL for Ireland's PSB digital terrestrial television (DTT) service. It is required to be operational and available free-to-air to approximately 90% of the population by 31 October 2010 [9]. It is expected to launch in a testing capacity by that date with the full national public launch by end Dec 2011 or such date the Minister may specify as required by the Broadcasting Act 2009. RTÉ has recommended that the date for the public national launch be Q2 2011 but this must be decided by the Minister for Communications [10][11]. On 1 July 2010 RTÉ announced that Mary Curtis their current Deputy Director of Programmes in RTÉ Television would take on the role of Director of Digital Switchover (DSO) in September 2010 and will report to the Director General [12].

SaorView will be available from 51 DTT transmitters covering 98% of the population by the end of Q3 2012. The existing analogue terrestrial television (ATT) network is available to 98% of the population from 170 ATT transmitters [13].

Initially one multiplex is available to the RTÉNL SaorView service with a second becoming available after Analogue Switchoff (ASO) probably 2013. A further four multiplexes are available for commercial pay DTT.

The service will be free-to-air and a DVB-T/MPEG-4 HD set top box (STB) receiver or iDTV and UHF aerial will be required. MHEG-5 has been selected as the middleware standard for digital teletext, SaorView branded EPG and interactive services. For non MHEG-5 compatible receivers regular analogue TV teletext will continue to be available and programme information will be displayed through the receiver's own inbuilt epg. Either DVB or Teletext Subtitling can be displayed when broadcast.

RTÉ Two will be carried on what is known as “high definition light”, selected programming will be carried in high definition. RTÉ propose that the high definition services should be offered on DTT only, thereby giving people an incentive to switch to DTT. For example, RTÉ would be able to cover the GAA championships of the summer of 2011 in high definition on a "whistle to whistle" basis as they do not have all the infrastructure at their studios to show the rest of the coverage in high definition [14].

The service is expected to provide significant coverage throughout Northern Ireland.

RTÉNL will provide commercial DTT capacity on its network for pay TV services that can agree terms with it and the BAI [15]. However that is not likely until 2013 according to the BAI following on from a de-briefing exercise the BAI held with the 3 consortia involved in the 2008 failed licence process. The BAI said "the Authority now considers that it will not be feasible to introduce commercial DTT as originally intended until after Analogue Switch Off (ASO) at the earliest. The position will be reviewed towards the end of 2011 and the Authority may seek expressions of interest in the provision of commercial DTT at that point. A competition could potentially be held during 2012 with a view to commercial DTT being operational in 2013". It continued "it is the considered view of the Authority that as part of the preparation for the successful launch of commercial DTT in the future, legislative change will be necessary to enable the Authority to have formal relationships with the applicants, as obtains at present, and with RTÉNL" [16] . This is to allow the PSB side to proceed to successful ASO transition to DSO, a stabilised economic backdrop by that time (3 years time) to emerge and changes in the Broadcasting Act 2009 to allow it have statutory mediation powers in dealing with RTÉNL that it currently has with the broadcasters and interested parties but not with RTÉNL.

Analogue Switchoff (ASO)

The analogue switchoff in Ireland is scheduled for the end of 2012 which means that the Saorview service must be operational by then [17].

TV channels

These are the proposed TV channels for Saorview which are offered from RTÉNL or the BAI [18].

Current Analogue Channels

Current Digital Channels

Government Proposed Channels

Additional Channels from RTÉ

TRTÉ could be time sharing with RTE2 or on RTÉjr from 4pm to 7pm and weekends.

Possible Commercial Channels

Proposed radio stations

RTÉ

Communicorp

Saorsat - Saorview service via satellite

Main article: Saorsat

Following the failure of the commercial DTT process RTÉ submitted a revised DTT plan including a FTA satellite option to the Dept of Communications in mid June 2010 for approval [22]. RTÉ publicly announced at an Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications discussion [23] in mid July 2010 that a free-to-air satellite service, called Saorsat, would be offered to complement the terrestrial DTT service. Saorsat will enable Irish public service channels to be made available free to air and unencrypted, for the first time, as a means of covering the last 2% of the population who will be unable to receive the Saorview terrestrial service.

RTÉ said the combined offering was designed to be the most cost-effective solution for viewers and broadcasters; to offer for the first time 100% coverage of free-to-air public service television services in the Republic of Ireland; and to provide full national back-up coverage on satellite in the event of an emergency or catastrophic failure of the DTT system.

Approval for the revised National DTT plan and the new Saorsat satellite service was announced by the Minister for Communications at the end of July 2010 [24].

It is anticipated that the Saorsat satellite service will be available from the second quarter of 2011.

Video on demand

The service could offer video on demand, via an Ethernet port, from:

Other information

  • The service will be operated by RTÉNL, who under current proposals can also accommodate a commercial pay TV operator. Saorview will be a free public service giving viewers access to the list of proposed channels shown above.
  • DTT launch is now on target insofar as the FTA multiplex, following direction from the Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources to RTÉ and signing of Statutory Instrument 85 of 2010 RTÉ (National Television Multiplex) Order 2010 on 26 February 2010.[26][27]
  • FTA DTT has to be operational by 31 October 2010 to 90% of the country but launch could be any time before the 31 December 2011 leaving just over a year for actual launch date to be decided. The planned DTT information campaign is likely between Summer 2010 and Autumn 2011, regardless of the outcome of BAI commercial DTT negotiations.[28] This also tallies with RTÉNL proceeding with Irish DTT receiver certification announced in January 2010, following the selection of Teracom to conduct the tests and expansion of the network engineering tests during 2009.[29] Commercial DTT launch remains to be determined by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland now that Easy TV have declined negotiations on the Commercial DTT licence offer, following the BAI's closure of negotiations with OneVision in April 2010.[30]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.iedr.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&whois=saorview.ie&id=86&Itemid=105
  2. ^ http://www.iedr.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&whois=saorviewtv.ie&id=86&Itemid=105
  3. ^ http://www.sbpost.ie/news/ireland/rte-plans-for-saorview-digital-tv-service-46949.html
  4. ^ RTÉNL DTT page
  5. ^ http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0601/dtt.html
  6. ^ http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0601/dtt.html
  7. ^ http://www.techtir.ie/blog/watty/possible-saorview-logo
  8. ^ http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=MAJ20100714.XML&Ex=All&Page=3
  9. ^ http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/NR/rdonlyres/E08E7E6A-6873-45BB-9303-3FE70A6F22C2/0/SI85_2010.pdf
  10. ^ http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=MAJ20100714.XML&Ex=All&Page=3
  11. ^ http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0714/dtt.html
  12. ^ "RTÉ Appoints Director of Digital Switchover (DSO)". RTÉ Press Office. 1 July 2010. Retrieved 1 July 2010.
  13. ^ http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0729/dtt.html
  14. ^ http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=MAJ20100714.XML&Ex=All&Page=2
  15. ^ http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/digital-tv-switch-by-2012-says-ryan-2188565.html
  16. ^ http://www.bai.ie/about_news_art023.html
  17. ^ http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Press+Releases/New+%e2%82%ac70+million+digital+network+to+be+built+by+RT%c3%89+including+new+satellite+service.htm
  18. ^ http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=MEDIA+AND+MARKETING-qqqs=mediaandmarketing-qqqid=49668-qqqx=1.asp
  19. ^ http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=MAJ20100714.XML&Ex=All&Page=2
  20. ^ {{cite web|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0715/1224274738640.html%7Ctitle=Free-to-air digital TV could cost RTÉ €70m|last=HANCOCK|first=CIARÁN|date=15 July 2010|publisher=Irish Times|accessdate=15 July 2010}
  21. ^ HANCOCK, CIARÁN (15 July 2010). "Free-to-air digital TV could cost RTÉ €70m". Irish Times. Retrieved 15 July 2010.
  22. ^ http://www.independent.ie/national-news/west-the-loser-as-rte-cuts-digital-tv-coverage-2237363.html
  23. ^ http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=MAJ20100714.XML&Ex=All&Page=2
  24. ^ http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Press+Releases/New+%e2%82%ac70+million+digital+network+to+be+built+by+RT%c3%89+including+new+satellite+service.htm
  25. ^ http://rtenl.ie/downloads/RTE-FTA-DTT-Receiver-Spec.pdf
  26. ^ http://www.irisoifigiuil.ie/currentissues/Ir020310.PDF
  27. ^ http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/NR/rdonlyres/E08E7E6A-6873-45BB-9303-3FE70A6F22C2/0/SI85_2010.pdf
  28. ^ http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=DAL20100302.xml&Node=H3-3#H3-3
  29. ^ http://www.rtenl.ie/dtt.htm#Free-to-Air
  30. ^ http://www.bai.ie/about_news_art013.html
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