| Irish Television & Radio |
Broadcasting in the Republic of Ireland is divided into public service broadcasting, governed by the Broadcasting Authority Acts 1960-2002, which establish the public sector broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann, and the commercial sector, governed by the Radio and Television Act 1988 and regulated by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland.
RTÉ is financed by a mixture of licence fees paid by owners of television receivers, and advertising revenues. It is governed by a statutory authority appointed by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. Under the Broadcasting Act 2001 a second statutory corporation, Telefís na Gaeilge, was set up in 2007 to run the Irish language channel TG4, which was previously operated by RTÉ.
The commercial sector consists of programme contractors appointed by the BCI, and granted broadcasting licences by the Commission for Communications Regulation.
The contractors have specific public service obligations, most notably, a requirement for 20% news and current affairs.
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| Broadcasting in Northern Ireland is governed under United Kingdom law. The British Broadcasting Corporation operates a national region in Northern Ireland, known as BBC Northern Ireland, and one member of the BBC Trust is designated Trustee for Northern Ireland. The Office of Communications regulates the commercial broadcasting sector in Northern Ireland. |
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| Television |
The Republic of Ireland has four national terrestrial channels: RTÉ One, RTÉ Two - both operated directly RTÉ, TG4, operated by Telifís na Gaeilge, and TV3 Ireland, operated by TV3 Television Network Limited under a programme contract from the BCI. Northern Ireland has three national terrestrial channels: BBC One Northern Ireland, BBC Two Northern Ireland - both operated by BBC Northern Ireland - and UTV, the latter being the Office of Communications Channel 3 licensee for Northern Ireland, and thus part of the UK ITV network. In addition to the local variants, the other UK national channels Channel 4 and Five are also broadcast in Northern Ireland. Also in Northern Ireland, Ofcom licences some local terrestrial channels, known as Restricted Service Licences or RSLs, such as Channel 9 in Derry and NvTv in Belfast.
On 1 February 2010 the Republic of Ireland's Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan signed an agreement with the UK's Ben Bradshaw.
This agreement will enable viewers within Northern Ireland to watch RTE One, RTE Two and TG4 on a free-to-air basis as of 2012. The agreement between both jurisdictions will also guarantee that viewers within the Republic of Ireland will be able to view BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC Two Northern Ireland on the Republic of Ireland's free-to-air service which is to debut in late 2010.
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| Saorview (Freeview) |
| Saorview is the national free-to-air digital terrestrial television (DTT) service in Republic of Ireland. The service began operation on 29 October 2010 on a trial basis with full launch on 26 May 2011. By legislation it was required to 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 was preceded by a public information campaign, which began on 15 March 2011, with a television and radio advertising beginning 17 March 2011.Saorview was officially launched on 26 May 2011 by Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte TD. |
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Saorview is the Ireland's Public broadcasting (PBS) DTT service. The Irish word Saor means free, thereby mirroring a common name of DTT service in many regions, Freeview, through a mix of the English and Irish languages. It is operational and available free-to-air (FTA) to approximately 90% of the population from 29 October 2010 on 24 sites.
Saorview will be available from perhaps 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 150 ATT transmitters.
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 is 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.
Saorview equipment does not receive "Freeview (UK). UK "Freeview HD" boxes are working in the South East of Ireland on Freeview and "Freeview HD" from Wales and with Saorview service. |
| Irish TV in Northern Ireland |
Northern Ireland is to gain a new low power digital TV multiplex for the carriage of television services from the Irish Republic. In a joint statement issued by the British and Irish governments it was announced that RTÉ 1, RTÉ 2 and the Irish language TG4 would be made available to around 90% of the province.
As part of the Good Friday agreement signed in April 1998 the UK Government agreed to the construction of a new transmitter at Divis for the reception of TG4 in the North. This combined with analogue overspill from transmitters in Ireland has given the channel reception in 60% of homes.
The new multiplex will broadcast in DVB-T2, the same parameters used by Freeview HD, meaning that unlike standard definition Freeview receivers the devices can be used on both sides of the border. The additional capacity within the multiplex will enable the carriage of the two principal RTE channels.
A not for profit company will be established by RTÉ and TG4 to run the multiplex which will be licensed under the UK’s Wireless Telegraphy Act of 2006 by Ofcom at the request of the UK Government. Other elements of the operation will be put out to a competitive tender.
The two administrations are working together on the co-ordinated switch off of analogue signals that will take place in Northern Ireland and Ireland at the end of 2012. |
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| Saorsat (Freesat) |
Saorsat (Irish for Freesat) is the proposed name for the free-to-air satellite service in the Republic of Ireland. The service is expected to launch in the second quarter of 2011.
The Board of RTÉ approved a unique satellite based approach developed by RTÉNL from early 2010, that will for the first time enable the Irish PSB channels to be made available free-to-air and unencrypted as a means of covering the last 2% of the population who will be unable to receive the Saorview (Freeview) terrestrial service.
Broadcasting the channels unencrypted from the Astra 2 satellite at 28° East was not considered an option due to its large footprint covering the UK, France, Holland and many other countries.
Programming is purchased that allows Irish channels to broadcast to 4.5 million people and not to approx 100 million people within the Astra footprint.
Of course, RTÉ could have gone for a free-to-view (ftv) option from Astra 2D, either using Videocrypt (used by Sky), or another encryption system.
They could also have used both, allowing current Sky viewers to continue watching on their current equipment.
RTÉ submitted a revised DTT plan including the FTA satellite option to the Dept of Communications in mid June 2010 for approval. RTÉ publicly announced at an Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications discussion in mid July 2010 that a free-to-air satellite service, called Saorsat, would be offered to complement the terrestrial DTT service. |
Saorsat, the free-to-air satellite companion to Ireland’s DTT service Saorview, is slated to launch February or March 2012.
Documents released by RTÉNL, the network’s division of the public broadcaster, said tests have been underway since December 2011. Saorsat will be carried on Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat at 9° East.
It is anticipated that suitable receivers will be available soon.
Around 1% and 2% of the Irish population will be unable to receive the terrestrial transmissions from Saorview. It also seems likely the transmissions will also be made available in Northern Ireland, while a joint UK and Irish Government project is currently examining the possibility of allowing the existing RTÉ and TG4 television services to be carried on part of the UK’s Freeview platform. |
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| Radio |
The first known radio transmission in Ireland was a call to arms made from the General Post Office in O'Connell Street during the Easter Rising.
The first official radio station on the island was 2BE Belfast, which began broadcasting in 1924. This was followed in 1926 by 2RN Dublin and 6CK Cork in 1927. 2BE Belfast later became BBC Radio Ulster and 2RN Dublin became RTÉ.
The Republic of Ireland has five national radio stations: RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ 2fm, RTÉ lyric fm, and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta are operated by RTÉ Radio, while Today FM is a commercial radio station operated by Denis Obrien group communicorp.
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Newstalk 106, a Dublin local station, has been issued a "quasi-national" FM licence, and a similarly limited AM licence has been advertised for a religious service, persumabely to quell the rising amounts of religious stations on Irish pirate radio. A "multi-city" service, consisting of one ILR franchise operating a single service in Dublin, Galway, Cork, Limerick, and Waterford, has been awarded to 4FM which is expected to launch in early 2009.
The BCI's main commercial radio service is the Independent Local Radio network. This consists of 18 commercial stations licensed for different franchise areas. Except in Dublin and Cork, they operate as monopolies. (6, soon to be 7 stations are now licensed in Dublin and 2 in Cork). They operate a common news service, Independent Network News, and a common sales house, Independent Radio Sales. The first of these stations, FM104, came on air in 1989. One independent regional radio station, Beat 102. |
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| DAB in the Irish Republic |
Digital Audio Broadcasting in Ireland is the only current form of digital radio transmission in the republic. It was launched to the public on 30 November 2006, with trials taking place in 1998, 2001 and 2006. Currently, 56% of Ireland's population - mainly in Counties Cork, Limerick and the North East - can receive permanent DAB services.
One permanent multiplex exists, operated by the national broadcaster RTÉ. The service began to be marketed in May 2007 by a collective of commercial broadcasters, digitalradio.ie; and receivers are now sold by most major electronics retailers.
21 services were available in Dublin, surrounding areas and the north-east, and 11 were available in other coverage areas during the trial phase.
A temporary licenced trial multiplex began transmission using block 9B in April 2010. It is operated by Total Broadcast Consultants Ltd. Initially it covered the Waterford City area and from mid May, expanded to cover much of the South East of Ireland. |
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