2008
DTT FTA?
While RTE will be FTA on DTT, BBC & ITV look like they will not be. RTE are trying to partner with other players to bring a more cohesive DTT platform. RTE want the UK channels FTA on DTT but the other potential players may have UK channels on their existing platforms where they are in a mixture of FTA & subscription. If the UK public service broadcasters (PSB) are not FTA on Irish DTT I predict that DTT in Ireland will fail, and here are the reasons why.
1. it makes sense to have UK Public Service TV in Ireland
over spill history - we have been used to FTA analogue TV from the UK from since before Irish TV was born in the mid to late 1950’s
reciprocal arrangements - If we will show theirs, they will show ours,
2. it makes sense to have Irish Public Service TV in UK
RTE international has been sanctioned by the Dail. - there is no requirement for RTE to broadcasts any blackout images (as they suggest) into the UK. RTÉ seem to think that if they were to broadcast into the UK they would be broadcasting blackouts every second programme, this is rubbish. Take 50% of RTE1 50% RTE2 50% TG4 50% Dail TV 50% RTE International and 45 years of archive, RTÉ has lots of programmes to broadcast, they just need to transmit a modified version of itself, blackouts and the old copyright arguments do not stop RTE transmitting in the UK.
GFA - the Good Friday Agreement encourages TV / Radio in an all island way.
Emigrants - the public service remit of the national broadcasters does not end at the sea shore or the border. We have a 70M diaspora outside Ireland versus the 4-5 million Irish / non Irish in Ireland, the broadcasters have been shown that they have a duty to emigrants through the dicta of RTE International coming from the Dáil.
3. Current thinking of BCI, RTE & DCMNR
BCI - the BCI (old IRTC) are not yet the BAI. They are there to regulate the Irish commercial sector. TV3 is being carried on RTÉ multiplex leaving regulation by the BCI where? the BCI seem to be regulating foreign imported commercial TV to the remaining 3 multiplexes. very odd. see point 6. do the BCI even regulate the foreign imported commercial TV channels? No.
RTE - RTÉ want FTA DTT UK public service channels operating in competition with RTE. this is a mature view, and a realistic view. RTE is well able to compete with Digital BBC / ITV / C4 who have 55 million more potential viewers / licence payers than Ireland will ever have. How can RTÉ compete? they are Irish, and the BBC / ITV / C4 are not providing local programming that is still essential to making network television successful.
RTE stated this in August 2007 in this document http://url.ie/7ik Advisory Note to the Directorate General For Competition and the Directorate General For Information Society & Media of the European Commission concerning RTÉ’s approach to Digital Switchover in Ireland. see Page 9 para 3. Although recent utterances by RTE in front of the Dail Broadcasting committee 27/02/2008 would seem to suggest that RTE has moved away from this objective a little, following their incomplete attempts to team up with potential commercial operators of the remaining 3/4 multiplexes.
DCMNR - the DCMNR via the website Digitaltelevision.ie does not dispel the indication in the Sunday Business Post article [last sunday]
http://www.sbpost.ie/post
that “RTE has held talks with a number of parties with regard to joint ventures for the operation of the DTT platform. While RTE will be free-to-air on DTT, it looks increasingly likely that there will be a modest charge to access British channels.”
4. The UK’s analogue switch off has begun
The analogue switch off began in Whitehaven Cumbria in the first week on October 2007 when BBC2 went off the air.
The analogue switch off has begun in Ireland when we can not access UK analogue signal we once did, digital is the replacement and Irish audiences who get the spill over are measured in this RTÉ document. http://url.ie/7ik these audiences are large!. They watch everything from Animal Magic to Z-Cars on the trusty old analogue TV since the 1950’s. Policy must allow this to continue without hindrance of encryption or a charge in favour of commercial operators - OR DTT WILL FAIL in terms of adoption like ONdigital did in the UK. RTÉ are clearly concerned by this also.
5. The Irish DTT system is still being designed
While it is still on the drawing board, policy should drive the shape of things to come for DTT (as well as technical development like HD and wide screen & MHEG5 text services MPEG4 transport streams & EPG). RTÉ claim that the DTT service will be sovereign and DTH satellite can not be. While satellite is not sovereign neither is DTT. The shareholders of BT Ireland and Sky & Eircom & UPC are not sovereign and 3/4 multiplexes will be commercial, 1/4 public service. As HD enters the equation there will be less room on newly vacated analogue space that boasted extra room via compression by the digital believers (of which I am one). Less channels than low definition DTT means less channel choice versus other platforms making DTT less of a player against DTH SAT & cable where 100 channel bouquets are now expected by the digital clientele. Space on the DTT system will always be precious. If the commercial operators are to provide imports and DTT needs ITV / BBC / C4 to succeed then market logic will dictate that those 3/4 multiplex owners (3 companies) will need / require the UK PSB channels to survive, but read point 7. What if some the 3/4 multiplex operators fail spectacularly like ONdigital? will the Irish tax payer be called in to bail them out? for it to work (for DTT not to fail) a multiplex of reciprocal arrangement should be provided FTA for the UK channels at the tax/licence payers expense up front. Like wise RTE TV3 TG4 should be carried by BBC / Crown Castle on the Freeview DTT system in the North. Meeting GFA kite mark.
6. you can’t do that
Sky & UPC will not be happy with the point made in number 5 above. They will see free / supported carriage of UK PSB channels as interference in the marketplace, but its not their marketplace, they are all not regulated in Ireland by Irish law. Some do not pay tax here, they do not even comply with advertising policy when it comes to childrens TV, they are not regulated here and they no longer serve an Irish brand of their news services. They do not employ many people here either. Meanwhile 500,000 Irish dish owners need to pay up to 40 million euro per month to carriers like Sky - yes 40Million. or 0.5Billion euro per annum, aided by RTÉ policy to encrypt its signal via Sky under a secret deal.
Sky gains as currently the only wide screen digital RTÉ is on Sky while Sky Ireland advertises in Irish media the fact that if you do not want TV snow (interference), then get Sky. This is an insult. While foreign carriers may not like point 5, they would have to put up with it if policy dictated instead of market forces dictating.
7. DTT & freesat
while RTE has been positioning itself under BSkyB encryption, claiming copyright spill over for its cozy Sky deal, BBC 1 2 3 & 4 BBCNews24 BBC Parliament ITV1 2 3 & 4 (all? +1) and 6 BBC interactive streams and Film 4 have all gone FTA unencrypted on Astra 2003-2006 led by Greg Dyke in the BBC. Thus staying on Sky EPG but dropping encryption. Channel 4 are due to join them in late 2008, and to top this all off, BBC & ITV and others have joined up and created http://www.freesat.co.uk to launch march? 2008 as a DTH (direct to home) satellite provider to challenge BSkyB at its own game. Remember Freeview DTT has more subscribes than BskyB in the UK already, but where freeview has penetration issues Freesat will have 99% penetration. Freesat will be available to all of ireland Free To Air. It will be impossible for DTT in Ireland to compete with cable or DTH sat from Sky or Freesat IF UK PSB channels are not FTA on Irish DTT.
8. other items not yet considered that will impact on DTT success
IPTV,
apple TV programme downloads,
the end of TV’s golden age,
community TV access to digital is non existent
I hope this will help the debate (if there is a debate on DTT)
comments welcome
when you only deal with stakeholders you end up getting a lot of stakes, DTT should be for the citizens of Ireland Like FreeView not a mini platform for the big 3 to put up low cost shop windows to their other PPV platforms.
Brian Greene - digital media consultant http://doop.ie
disclaimer - “i could be wrong, i could be right”
