Bingo! Full House, all UK nationals are now FTA. UK TV channel Five now available free to air on Astra2D 10.773GHz Horizontal SR:22000 FEC:5/6 Label:6335.

Stop the lights. When will RTÉ join them? Why wont they. The UK TV industry has voted with its feet, walking out of encryption deals as far back as 2003 and they all now support public service broadcasting that is FTA by Freeview DTT DVB-T & FreeSat DTH DVB-S.

Its now time the Sky grip on Irish TV was forcefully removed

RTE shelves UK launch
Broadcaster cites straitened circumstances as it puts off move planned for 2009
Mark Tighe times online
RTE has postponed the planned launch of its international station for the Irish community in Britain, citing straitened financial circumstances.

The national broadcaster wrote to Eamon Ryan, the communications minister, last month claiming that it would be “unwise” for it to continue with the plan.

John Nolan, chairman of the Celtic and Irish Cultural Society in Britain, said he was “shocked” by the move. “This is really disheartening, especially for the older generation,” he said. “The government has bragged about providing this service and it is long overdue, so there should be no excuses.”

Under the 2007 Broadcasting Act, the RTE Authority is required to set up a channel for “Irish communities outside the island of Ireland”, but there was no time limit imposed.
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Five months ago Ryan said the channel would be available to the 850,000 Irish-born people living in Britain by St Patrick’s Day 2009 and would “provide the Irish abroad with a valuable link to home”.

RTE said it intended to honour the commitment in the legislation and hoped to launch the station by the end of 2009. Its initial plan was to have the channel on air by the end of this year.

The estimated cost of running RTE International is €3m a year. The main costs involve buying space on a UK transmission network and setting up a London base to assemble the programming for the channel. The government also wants the new station to expand into other countries with large Irish communities.

A spokeswoman for Ryan said the decision to postpone the launch of the channel was “a reflection of the financial realities in Ireland and worldwide”. She said the minister is committed to the idea of RTE International and that it could be a “brilliant product” similar to BBC World News.

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RTE International will broadcast a mix of programming from RTE One, RTE Two andTG4. It will broadcast for 12 to 14 hours a day and will run Irish news and current affairs programming, as well as lifestyle content. It is also likely to show some Irish-made dramas such as popular soap Fair City, although programming rights will have a considerable impact on content.

It is understood that strict rights arrangements with the GAA, for example, mean that there will be little or no sports content on the new station. The detail of programming and the various rights issues are being worked on by the broadcaster. The station will primarily have a public service role and is not expected to accept advertising.

The costs of setting up a sales office would be high, given that little interest from advertisers is expected. It will cost several million euro annually to run and, although RTE had been seeking extra funding for the service, it is expected to come out of its existing coffers. RTE International is on track to launch later this year and will have a low-key launch.

A service for the Irish diaspora has been touted for several years, but legislation fast-tracked through the Dáil, in 2006, explicitly required RTE to provide this service. The act did not limit the service to Britain, although it is understood there is no pressure on RTE to make the station available in other countries.

(Source: Sunday Business Post via Medianetwork) bolding added by rte2fta

we knew the following already.

Its to be called RTÉ International (not Diaspora), It will source programmes from RTE 1&2 (no mention of 3 or 4 or others), It will be FTA ! the article may put this forward as news but we knew this already. It fails to inform us that RTE Int. will be on air before the March 17th 2009 date. It tends to push FTA but never mention Freesat (how odd) and having read the article I wonder if RTE/Sky are thinking of not giving a free EPG listing to this service, clearly pitting it as a non domestic service, being FTA is one thing, being on Freesat is another and being FTA does not exclude a station from an EPG listing on Sky, but with no Sky International Genre section EPG access to Sky is weakened with Sky+ features unavailable and ‘other channels’ the poor mans erasable Monday method of tuning . This article fails to say how RTÉ International  will be funded or if it will run adverts.

But in many ways it tell us that RTE TV without the programmes with rights issues, like GAA or imports will give us DVB FTA of RTE for the first time since Tara. Bar GAA & imports if RTE TV is FTA like its radio channels are, will I then archive this blog? You’re wondering now, what to do, now you know this is the end?

RTÉ International: It’s coming soon!

THE NEW Irish TV service for Britain is to be called RTÉ International, The Irish Post can reveal.

And the new channel could also be operational ahead of the previously scheduled date of March 17, 2009.

The service is set to be called RTÉ International and not Diaspora TV as originally thought.

The news will come as music to the ears of the 850,000 Irish-born people in Britain who have long sought for Irish television to be available to them outside of Ireland.

Now RTÉ is preparing to provide that link to those living abroad and viewers here can look forward to Irish news, sport and entertainment beamed directly to their screens.

This week the national broadcaster is also recruiting on its website for several positions relating to the new channel, which is dedicated solely to the Irish and those of Irish descent living in Britain.

RTÉ International is looking for applications for the role of full-time channel manager.

And the successful candidate, who is expected to possess a thorough knowledge of the Irish and British television markets, will be responsible for the scheduling and delivery of suitable content to the Diaspora community scattered across the country. The role of channel administrator is also being advertised on the RTÉ website.
The move to introduce a Celtic television channel in Britain follows a long-running Irish Post campaign to establish a dedicated service especially for the Irish in Britain.

Details of the new service released so far indicate that the channel will be a hybrid of RTÉ One and RTÉ Two with some additional programming from TG4.

The One, Six-One and 9 o’clock news bulletins will be carried live. It will also carry a range of h o m e g r own Irish programming that will be of interest to Irish communities abroad.

The introduction of the Diaspora channel comes on the back of last year’s Broadcasting (Amendment) Act. Enacted in April 2007, the Act gave national public service broadcasters, RTÉ and TG4, digital terrestrial television obligations. It also required RTÉ to set up a digital television channel for Irish citizens living abroad.

Commenting on the new service Ireland’s Communications Minister Eamon Ryan said:

“I know that many of these people have been looking for an RTÉ channel in Britain for some time.

“This new channel will provide the Irish abroad with a valuable link to home. “And I will be working closely with Minister Dermot Ahern to ensure that vulnerable groups in Britain will be supported in receiving the service.”

–

clipped from boards.ie

it comes from Ireland its sold back to Ireland is it Irish FTA? as we are looking for some Irish FTA we will pay close attention.

BOXER
Ending as they started with the very able Lucy Gaffney boxer put some meat on the bones of what they have to offer. Lucy then closed with a video which starred the DTT ‘champion’ character of Swedish DTT “Robbie” doing a rocky style run & shadow box to the tune ‘Gonna Fly Now’ (theme from rocky). I’m not so keen on robbie and I would drop him for the irish game. the big play here is, we have done it (Sweden / Denmark), can do it in Ireland, we are DTT champions. bhg scores 70%

EASY TV
Roaring out a distorted audio the Easy TV presentation began and went down hill from there. If the prizes were given based on quality of presentation today then Easy TV would be any easy 3rd place. To a format of, I stepped out and he stepped in again, the projected presentation slide cueing seemed difficult for the Easy TV pair of presenters to manage, on this basis I wouldn’t give them a DTT playground to play in. Easy TV should have been presented differently/better (like get the very talented Kate O’Sullivan from UPC to do it, too late now). Big play here was we are the big boys in this space we will be well integrated with the public mux, well integrated with RTE NL bhg scores 45%

ONEVISION
Opening with a video (no audio distortion here) the video looked like it was made by TV people which is more than can be said about the other two camps videos (which looked made by flash designers). To the sound of Queen - One Vision this slick video started off the best presentation of the afternoon. On cue out of the video no pause no fade Fintan Drury launched a Barack Obama sytle (ok I exaggerate for effect) “We have one vision” speech, introduced his team, explaining the investors etc. All speakers were very well coached and not over coached but delivered like people who wanted to a run TV platform. Big play here, we are Irish we are not big players in the media space so we wont own too much media. bhg scores 90%

All platforms proposed have a pay element. Based on my reading of this market (and I don’t want to make any money out of it) I would tend to think the player with the most FTA and least PPV or pay as you go will succeed. That player is OneVision. As RTE NL is involved with all 3 above the difference is the flavour of DTT not the ability to provide it. A Boxer slide said that they would provide a free box while later sides talked about the networks & chains that would be partners to sell boxes, i’m confused, but with Aldi UK selling MPEG2 freeview for £18 boxer might get a SD/HD MPEG4 box out for free but at some cost, if they are more about top up than subscription TV then the free kit for contract ain’t on offer, I would have liked them to have been asked about this.

I have presented before the IRTC in the past and it is nerve wreaking. The best pitches do not always win but this is a BEAUTY contest. And I know who the ugly sisters are, and who Cinderella is. Remember Cinderella didn’t always get to go to the ball but after a while she met her Prince. I would still bet on an ondigital meets freeview future for Irish DTT, why? its MPEG4 (that’s good, that’s also problematic) & there is plenty of PPV euros wanted by all the entrants in a saturated carrier market, and today was about the last and smallest entrant. RTE on Freesat would kill DTT dead and that’s not going to happen either. Roll on July 31st when the BCI decide.

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Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources,  29-31 Adelaide Road, Dublin 2, Ireland
Tel +353-1-6782000 Fax +353-1-6782449

Paris France 17th March 2008

This St. Patrick’s Day, Communications Minister Eamon Ryan announced that Diaspora TV would be on air in the UK by next St. Patrick’s Day. Diaspora TV will be an RTÉ channel available on the new Freesat service in the UK.

This channel will be a hybrid of RTÉ One and RTÉ 2 with some additional programming from TG4. The One, Six-One and 9 o’clock news bulletins will be carried live.  It will carry a range of home-grown Irish programming that will be of real interest to Irish communities abroad.

Minister Ryan: The 2001 Census in Britain records a figure of 850,000 Irish born people living in Britain. There is many more of direct Irish descent. I know that many of these people have been looking for an RTÉ channel in the UK for some time. I am pleased that foot of last year’s Broadcasting Act, this new channel will be up and running by next St. Patrick’s Day.

I will be working closely with Minister Dermot Ahern to ensure that vulnerable groups in the UK will be supported in receiving the service.

This new channel will provide the Irish abroad with a valuable link to home.”

ENDS

Freesat is a new free-to-air satellite service that will be available throughout the UK and across the Astra satellite footprint, covering Ireland and some other parts of Europe.  It is led by the BBC and ITV.  Further information is available at www.freesat.co.uk

comment by RTE2FTA. we welcome this move we will monitor the progress. nothing in it says how RTÉ will fund Diaspora TV, RTÉ have real funding issues when it come to this project (according to statements made by its DG to the old audience council). It is a shame that the Minister Eamon Ryan TD has failed to press release on next Mondays medium  wave close down that he supports that will CUT THE VALUABLE LINK TO HOME he mentions above. We also look forward to Freesat a project, we are happy to see RTÉ involved with Freesat a move away from the RTÉ/BSKYB encryption deal that stinks. Perhaps RTÉ along with Channel 4 will leave Sky encryption in 2008, don’t hold your breath. No mention of Dáil TV output

personal comment. I don’t like the name Diaspora TV, i hope its only a working title.