The digital dividend

THE DIGITAL TELEVISION buzz is getting louder. The trials have been completed and the switchover from analogue will get underway in earnest in Ireland next year. It has been described as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" that will not only improve television picture quality, but the quality of our lives by bringing high-speed broadband access to all and delivering a range of new and as yet unimagined technical wonders into our homes.

There are, however, unanswered questions. Three-quarters of Irish homes already have access to digital television through UPC or Sky Television, so one in four consumers will need a set-top decoder to convert the digital signal into high-quality pictures and sound. The decoders will come at a cost, and while it has yet to be determined what that will be, people are unlikely to have much change out of €100.

Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan has promised that the Government will consider making set-top boxes available for free to "vulnerable" television viewers, including the elderly and people on low incomes - although in the current economic climate, Government largesse for any group can't be counted on.

The Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) transmission system will cost more than €100 million to put in place and with RTÉ's coffers bare following a downturn in advertising revenue and the Department of Communications watching the pennies closely, corners may have to be cut. Questions are also likely to be asked about the wisdom of investing in some of the new DTT channels RTÉ is developing, and people could be forgiven, for instance, for asking whether it really is worth spending money on Dáil TV.

BEYOND THE GLOOM, there is much talk of the digital dividend. DTT takes up less space on the frequencies used for television than traditional analogue signals and, in addition to extra channels, the freed-up space can be used to deliver high-speed wireless broadband in areas where access is a problem. Mobile multimedia applications, enhanced wireless networks and improved online public services will also be possible.

A trial of DTT carried out in small pockets of the east over the last two years reported high rates of satisfaction. Some 1,000 homes in Co Louth and Dublin took part in the trial and 84 per cent said they were satisfied with the overall service. It will be accessible in 80 per cent of Irish homes by the end of next year. A public awareness campaign will begin early in the new year when the pricing of set-top boxes and the manner in which they are to be distributed will become clearer.

RTÉ has plans to broadcast up to eight channels, including the four existing Irish channels and four new ones: Dáil TV, an Irish film channel, RTÉ3 (made up mostly of archive material) and RTÉ1+1 (the same as RTÉ1 but with a one-hour delay).

Earlier this summer the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) gave a licence to broadcast a number of channels to Boxer DTT, a consortium 50 per cent owned by Denis O'Brien's Communicorp group.

"The promotion of digital switchover is absolutely key to early take-up," Boxer DTT chairwoman Lucy Gaffney told a BCI conference in September. She bemoaned the lack of public awareness of the changeover.

Boxer will offer a range of packages, priced between €10 and €50 a month, in competition with cable and satellite services from UPC (formerly NTL and Chorus) and Sky.

Not everyone is pleased with the direction DTT is taking. Joe Fleming is a reader who contacted us recently with a number of gripes. He questions the wisdom of adopting a different standard from the UK and says this could mean "a return to a situation that existed years ago whereby televisions, digital recorders etc had to be specifically tailored for the Irish market with an inevitable increase in costs".

He also points out that people who decide to replace analogue aerials with satellite dishes will not be able to get the four Irish channels because they are all encrypted.

"Why should our national stations - which we fund via the licence fee - not be free-to-view?" Fleming asks.

"We don't have the rights," an RTÉ spokeswoman told Pricewatch. When RTÉ buys anything, from Desperate Housewivesto the All-Ireland football final, the broadcast rights only cover the Republic, or - at a pinch - the whole island. For years RTÉ has been blocked from broadcasting on free satellite services under threat of legal action from broadcasters and programme-makers in other jurisdictions.

The spokeswoman said RTÉ gets frequent complaints and exasperated queries from viewers who want to know why the service is not available on freesat services. She says the broadcaster has been "trying to resolve it for years" without success.

"It is a highly complicated area, it is a simple as that," she says.

Under the 2007 Broadcasting Act, RTÉ has an obligation to create an international channel, featuring only home-produced programmes from RTÉ1, RTÉ2 and TG4 and that should be available from next year.

Once the analogue signals are turned off, people using satellite services will be able to access RTÉ free through separate set-top boxes, although dual boxes that take signal from DTT and satellite service will also be available at a cost.

WHILE RTÉ WILL offer a free service with a small number of channels and Boxer plans to offer more channels at a low cost, it is still not equivalent to the freeview service enjoyed by the British consumer - while a tenner a month may not sound much it is still €120 a year in someone else's pocket. Last month a new digital television service was launched which does not involve any monthly payments, although the one-off payment is on the hefty side.

Freesat dishes cost just over €100, but installation for many may be problematic. Sat4Free, which is based on the FreeSat service provides access to 76 digital television channels, including BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, CBeebies, Film4 and BBC News, as well as a selection of British and Irish radio stations. Critically, however, it does not give access to the Irish channels although it will carry RTÉ International, the highlights channel which will include content from RTÉ's international channel, possibly by the end of the year.

Speaking at a ComReg forum in Dublin last month, European Commission information society commissioner Viviane Reding described the switchover to digital television as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" and said it was essential the additional spectrum was made available for new services and not reserved for broadcasters. It remains to be seen if her wishes are heeded.