Digital terrestrial television in Ireland

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The deployment of digital terrestrial television in the Republic of Ireland has had a chequered history, with the first tests being carried out in 1998, but no public trials until August 2006. The system is expected to begin building phase in 2008 following awarding of A,B and C BCI Multiplex licenses after competition by BCI & RTÉ network building. It is expected to launch proper sometime in 2009 .

Permanent licences were issued in October 2007 to commence in 2008, with RTÉ being assigned one multiplex and the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland being assigned the other three.

The BCI launched the commercial multiplex processes with minimum twenty-four channels specified. Interested parties submitted their applications as specified in ads in National Papers on Friday March 7th 2008.[1]

The BCI’s application process for the DTT multiplex contracts ran for a period of eight weeks, with a closing date of 12 noon on Friday May 2nd according to the BCI website. The application document sought a considerable amount of information including: proposals for programming; financial and business plan; the transmission/multiplexing proposals as well as details regarding the shareholding and management of the applicant group.

9 Applicants consisting of 3 bid consortiums for all 3 muxes made presentations to the Commission, which was open to the public at 1:30pm in the Westbury Hotel, Grafton Street, Dublin 2 on the 12 May 2008 and the award of contract is expected to be offered to the most suitable bid team shortly after July 21 2008 following evaluation by the BCI on the applications received. [1]

Contents

[edit] Historical testing

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DVB-T has repeatedly been tested from RTÉ Network Limited's Three Rock Mountain transmitter, with relatively long tests in 1998 and 2001, and shorter tests in 2004, with a single multiplex carrying the four Irish analogue terrestrial channels, and Tara Television while it was in existence, on both UHF (channel 26) and VHF (channel D). These were under temporary licences for testing, which are regularly awarded.

A contract* to run a nationwide system, with six multiplexes from main sites, and four from relay sites was awarded in 2001 to ITS Digital Limited, trading as "It's TV", who intended to launch a pay TV and broadband service. This failed to materialise, due to lack of funding, and the licence was revoked. A two-year trial managed by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and the Department for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources was announced in 2005, although what happens when this test ends is unknown. Due to the fact that an official service is expected to launch in 2008, it is quite possible that a similar situation to that of Italy will happen, where the trial ends and official service starts on the same day. However by the end of June 2007 there is still no public plan for a nationwide roll out or who would run the network, or which channels would be served. Since the original plans, both ITV & BBC have become available freely via satellite in the Republic of Ireland and Sky Pay TV and UPC Digital have such a high market penetration as to make any Pay TV on DTT look unsustainable.

Nine groups applied to run content on the DTT trials as well as potentially run the network in the future. Seven of these were successful:

BT Ireland and TVONE also applied but were not successful.

*Note: It may never have been awarded. ITS wanted to offer broadband using the DVB-RCT standard (which while fast, is not fast enough with 20,000 people on one mast). They had no broadband licence and no viable business plan without selling broadband, so did not get the DTT licence. DVB-RCT for the "reverse" interactive feature of the set box appears to have been abandoned.

[edit] Current testing

Trials began again on August 4, 2006, with a high power multiplex ("Mux 1") transmitting on channel 54 (-167 kHz offset) from Three Rock Mountain. Transmission parameters are 16 QAM, 3/4 forward error correction and a 1/32 guard interval, with an 8k FFT. Transmissions from the Clermont Carn transmitter began on August 11 on channel 53, meaning coverage is provided to Dublin city and county as well as most of the north-east of Ireland — approximately 30% of the population. The trial officially launched on August 16, 2006, with approximately seven months testing prior to the introduction of extra content.

Mux 1 was extended to the Mount Leinster transmitter in December 2007, providing coverage to nearly the entire east coast of the Republic of Ireland and much of the midlands. It is not clear at present when these tests are on air.

Additional content began to be added during February 2007, consisting of TV and radio "channels" - either channels provided by the content providers (Extreme Sports Channel from chellomedia, Sky Sports 1 from BSkyB) or blank carriers. These transmissions are on lower power multiplexes from the same sites. Multiplex 2 is carried on channel 61 from Three Rock, unknown from Clermont Carn; and Multiplex 3 is carried on 58 from Three Rock, 60 from Clermont Carn. The channels on these multiplexes are encrypted in Conax, and each carry six TV and six radio carriers.

Transmissions on Mux 1 are unencrypted and use standard coding modes - most modern set-top boxes and PC cards on sale anywhere in the EU are fully compatible, and many people have purchased boxes or cards in other parts of the EU to avail of the trial service. The service is however, theoretically restricted to 1,000 selected users, who have received units capable of decoding the Conax-encrypted multiplexes. At least one carrier is broadcasting in MPEG-4, and anyone buying a set-top box or HD TV may wish to ensure that it supports the MPEG-4 HD codec.

Four multiplexes were announced for the trial, with Mux 1 reserved for existing nationally licenced television and radio services, Mux 2 and half of Mux 3 reserved for selected "content managers", for which advertisements were placed in the press, and the remainder of Mux 3 retained for future use. Mux 4 will be reserved for "innovative content". The Republic of Ireland's frequency plans allow for four multiplexes nationally (six on main transmitters) until analogue switchoff, and 9 - 8 UHF, one VHF - nationally after switchoff. To date, all of Muxes 1, 2 and 3 have been commissioned, Mux 4 has not.

EPG information is currently provided for approximately one week ahead on most channels.

[edit] Other proposals

The Green Party/Comhaontas Glas have, as part of their 2007 General Election Manifesto, proposed an all-island free-to-air DTT system, consisting of RTÉ One, RTÉ Two, TV3, TG4, BBC One Northern Ireland, BBC Two Northern Ireland, UTV and Channel 4 to be broadcast all around the island on the one network. Other Irish channels (eg. Channel 6, City Channel) may also be included. The party wish for this to be complete by 2009, three years before analogue signals are due to be switched off in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.[2]

[edit] Channel line-up

This will most likely change once the test ends and the permanent services begin in 2008.

[edit] TV

  • 1 - RTÉ One - (Free-to-Air in MPEG2)
  • 2 - RTÉ Two - (Free-to-Air in MPEG2)
  • 3 - TV3 -(Free-to-Air in MPEG2)
  • 4 - TG4 - (Free-to-Air in MPEG2)
  • 6 - Channel 6 - (Scrambled using Conax in MPEG2)
  • 7 - CBBC - (Scrambled using Conax in MPEG2)
  • 8 - CBeebies - (Scrambled using Conax in MPEG2)
  • 9 - BBC Three - (Scrambled using Conax in MPEG2)
  • 10 - BBC Four - (Scrambled using Conax in MPEG2)
  • 11 - BBC News 24 - (Scrambled using Conax in MPEG2)
  • 12 - Sky News - (Scrambled using Conax in MPEG2)
  • 13 - Sky Sports 1 - (Scrambled using Conax in MPEG2)
  • 14 - Extreme Sports Channel - (Scrambled using Conax in MPEG2)
  • 15 - UKTV History - (Scrambled using Conax in MPEG2)
  • 16 - Setanta Golf - (Scrambled using Conax in MPEG2)
  • 17 - Setanta Ireland - (Scrambled using Conax in MPEG2)
  • 18 - SD 1/Oireachtas TV - (Free-to-Air Standard Definition Test in MPEG4)
  • 20 - HD Ireland - (Free-to-Air High Definition (1080i) Test in MPEG4)

[edit] Radio

[2][3]

[edit] Multiplexes

  • Mux1 - Ch.54 (Three Rock) Ch.53 (Claremont) - (Reserved for existing terrestrial services)
  • Mux2 - Ch.61 (Three Rock) Ch.57 ?(Claremont) - (Reserved for selected "content managers")
  • Mux3 - Ch.58 (Three Rock) Ch.60 (Claremont) - (Half reserved for selected "content managers" half reserved for future unspecified use)
  • Mux4 - Ch.64 (Three Rock) Ch.?? (Claremont) - (Reserved for "innovative content". Currently used to test MPEG4)
  • Mux5&6 - (not yet operational) -reserved for "innovative content".

Broadcasting (Amendment) Act 2007

[edit] References

  1. ^ BCI announces details of DTT multiplex licensing policy
  2. ^ Green Party/Comhaontas Glas - 'Green Party backs all-island corporation tax and free digital TV services'

[edit] External links

DCMNR press release

  • News and details on the DVB trials
  • DVB Project
  • [4]Digital TV fans thoughts]
  • [5]Opinion on Irish DTT, Freesat etc]
  • [6] The Irish Government Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources website, section on broadcasting acts in the Republic of Ireland
  • [7] The Oirechtas online version of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Act 2007 Act Number 15 of the Houses of the Oireachtas 2007
  • [8] Consultation on DTT Multiplexes, Commission for Communications Regulation (radiowave spectrum regulator).
  • [9]Commission for Communications Regulation, "Response to Licensing Digital Terrestrial Television", Document 07/90
  • [10]Commission for Communications Regulation, " License for Digital Terrestrial Television", Document 07/90a.
  • [11]Commission for Communications Regulation, "Technical Conditions for Digital Terrestrial Television", Document 07/90b.
  • [12]Commission for Communications Regulation, "ComReg published License framework for Digital Terrestrial Television", Document: PR09 1107.
  • [13]Silicon Republic.com "DTT licences will cost operators €114k", by John Kennedy
  • [14]Department of Communications commencement order of the Act 15 by the previous Minister for Communications, Ireland in April 2007
  • [15]Information on ComReg's role in Irish broadcasting spectrum regulation
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