BAI Announces New DTT Introduction Plans | The Irish Film & Television Network

At a meeting held recently the BAI reiterated its disappointment that, having discharged its responsibilities under the 2009 Act, the outcome was that none of the three applicants including Boxer, One Vision and Easy TV had been able to bring matters to a satisfactory conclusion. It was furthermore decided that it will not be practicable to re-activate a commercial DTT multiplex licensing process in the immediate future.

The Authority has cited a number of factors that were taken into account in making this decision, including;

The prioritisation by the Government of the introduction of the Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) multiplex in the final quarter of 2010;
The prevailing economic circumstances which had impacted on the proposed introduction of commercial DTT following the award of the original commercial DTT licenses in 2008;
The outcome of a review and de-briefing exercise which it had undertaken with the consortia who took part in the first process. All three highlighted the economic circumstances and two made particular reference to the role of RTÉNL as the main contributing factors to the failure to achieve a successful outcome.

The BAI further stated 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. The group explained that this will enable it to engage formally with the provider of transmission services and to exercise or to invoke a statutory mediation process in the event of disagreement on the terms of the transmission arrangements between RTÉNL and any future successful applicant. The Authority is to discuss this matter further with the Department.

The BAI 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 whereby the Authority has said it 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. A year after the ASO deadline.

Finally, a statement from the group has stated that “The broadening of choice for viewers and the development of new sources of Irish originated content continue to be important priorities in the development of DTT in Ireland. The Authority will discuss with the Minister ways in which those objectives can most effectively be met within the context of the proposed PSB multiplex, pending the development of further commercial DTT possibilities.

Where the national DTT service is concerned the 2009 Broadcasting Act means that RTÉ must establish and launch the national DTT multiplex (a section of spectrum) to provide its own and other broadcasters’ services to the public at a level of distribution aimed at replicating the level now in place for Irish licensed free-to-air channels. The broadcaster has appointed Mary Curtis to the new senior executive position of Director of Digital Switchover, with responsibility for an effective transition by audiences in the coming two years to digital television using the DTT system.

RTÉ has selected MHEG as the interactive middleware for the rollout the system. “Our principal initial objective with reception equipment is to encourage the development of a competitive horizontal market,” Emer Conlon, IT Project Manager for RTÉ Publishing has said. “The key reason for selecting MHEG is the broad consumer choice based on existing product development in other markets and the short-term availability of receiver products using existing supply channels. We have seen the success of MHEG in the UK and elsewhere and that simply isn’t the case for other middlewares. MHEG has very strong manufacturer support.”

RTÉ has initially specified the MHEG 1.06 profile with the addition of HD capabilities with the broadcaster looking at further options as the DTT project develops. The broadcaster will be providing a free-to-air service to the Republic of Ireland’s approximately 1.6 million TV homes and it will launch with the digital teletext service RTÉ Aertel. There will be two DTT multiplexes with HD content forming part of the offering soon after launch. A satellite service – similar to Freesat in the UK – will provide access to the small number of households who can’t receive the DTT signals.

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