RTE One HD and RTE One+1 launch on Sky

icdg

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

OK, so the channels are to be carried on the Sky platform.

These are channels to which we have contributed via our licence payment.

Are these channels going to be 'in the clear' so people do not have to pay a second time or are they definitely behind a paywall?

Who gains financially from this arrangement?
If it is RTÉ then will this affect the distribution of the licence monies?

They are behind a paywall, but are available to all Sky subscribers. As is the case on UPC, incidentally, where *every* channel is behind a paywall.

It would be great if RTE could be free to air on Astra, but unfortunately the UK broadcasters will never allow that. The price of RTE being free to air on Astra would be the loss of RTE's ability to bid for US and UK programmes and sports (other than maybe GAA). I am not sure licence fee payers would consider that a price worth paying to benefit mainly non licence fee payers.

Johnboy1951

icdg wrote: »

They are behind a paywall, but are available to all Sky subscribers. As is the case on UPC, incidentally, where *every* channel is behind a paywall.

It would be great if RTE could be free to air on Astra, but unfortunately the UK broadcasters will never allow that. The price of RTE being free to air on Astra would be the loss of RTE's ability to bid for US and UK programmes and sports (other than maybe GAA). I am not sure licence fee payers would consider that a price worth paying to benefit mainly non licence fee payers.

They could make them free to Irish Sky card holders, even if the card is not current ..... out of subscription, could they not?

lertsnim

And who would pay to maintain that service? What you are suggesting is FTV cards for this country.

Widescreen

What could happen is that when an Irish Sky subscriber cancels his Sky package after the contract period expires that the Irish channels should be kept active but without recording capability. This would a get rid of the crazy situation whereby anyone who cancels Sky here can still get all the English channels without contributing a bean.

Not exactly a FTV scheme but some kind of compromise.


Won't happen though will it:D

Sam Russell

Widescreen wrote: »

What could happen is that when an Irish Sky subscriber cancels his Sky package after the contract period expires that the Irish channels should be kept active but without recording capability. This would a get rid of the crazy situation whereby anyone who cancels Sky here can still get all the English channels without contributing a bean.

Not exactly a FTV scheme but some kind of compromise.


Won't happen though will it:D

I get all the UK channels without contributing a bean. I have Freesat which gives the full UK TV setup for any region - free. I do not subscribe to Sky or UPC, and pay nothing for the privilege. Why does anyone pay Sky?

icdg

Two words:Sky Sports.

Unfortunately, not available (well, except on a phone) without taking a pay-TV package of some sort.

Widescreen wrote: »

] This would a get rid of the crazy situation whereby anyone who cancels Sky here can still get all the English channels without contributing a bean

Wouldn't change it at all, and most other people in Ireland would not call it crazy (though many UK licence payers would have a different view). That's a whole different topic to RTE though.

STB.

galtee boy wrote: »

Good for you, so have I, but I also have Sky. I, like many others only use Saorview for the kitchen and bedroom, but Sky is for serious viewing, in particular recording, series link etc. I've always said the lack of a PVR for Saorview is a serious drawback. I'm looking forward to finally being able to record RTE1 in HD. There are over 600,000 Sky subscribers in Ireland, so I'm sure I'm not the only happy camper.

I have several non Sky boxes in my house for viewing RTE HD and UK Satellite stations.

One or two are serious linux boxes. Best of all I can record and keep the recording for ever (Unlike Sky) and hey I get no bills from Sky. Thankfully I have not been brainwashed by their must use proprietary box either!

600,000 yeah right. They love when people re-subscribe......it makes their number go up.

galtee boy

STB. wrote: »

I have several non Sky boxes in my house for viewing RTE HD and UK Satellite stations.

One or two are serious linux boxes. Best of all I can record and keep the recording for ever (Unlike Sky) and hey I get no bills from Sky. Thankfully I have not been brainwashed by their must use proprietary box either!

600,000 yeah right. They love when people re-subscribe......it makes their number go up.

According to searches I did for Irish Sky subscriber numbers, which Sky don't actually release, I'm being conservative. Both the Business Post and Irish Times reckon it's closer to 700,000. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Linux boxes need a good level of IT skill for installing software for EPGs etc and wouldn't be a plug and play option for many people ? Also, no Sky Sports, Sky Go, Box Sets etc. It's horses for courses, all I'm saying is that for the hundreds of thousands of us who are happy with Sky, it's great to have RTE1 HD on the way. It will mean that of the Irish terrestrial channels, we will only have 3e and TG4 not available in HD on Sky. TG4 would be nice, but 3e is no loss.

Kensington

Widescreen wrote: »

What could happen is that when an Irish Sky subscriber cancels his Sky package after the contract period expires that the Irish channels should be kept active but without recording capability. This would a get rid of the crazy situation whereby anyone who cancels Sky here can still get all the English channels without contributing a bean.

Not exactly a FTV scheme but some kind of compromise.


Won't happen though will it:D

Nope it won't.

Sky gift the transponder, encryption and EPG slots to RTÉ in return for only clearing the channels to paying subscribers.

Just as UPC and Eircom carry the RTÉ channels in both SD and HD without the need for an aerial or dish but only for paying subscribers.

irishgeo

When is the next price increase I wonder?

machiavellianme

galtee boy wrote: »

According to searches I did for Irish Sky subscriber numbers, which Sky don't actually release, I'm being conservative. Both the Business Post and Irish Times reckon it's closer to 700,000. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Linux boxes need a good level of IT skill for installing software for EPGs etc and wouldn't be a plug and play option for many people ? Also, no Sky Sports, Sky Go, Box Sets etc. It's horses for courses, all I'm saying is that for the hundreds of thousands of us who are happy with Sky, it's great to have RTE1 HD on the way. It will mean that of the Irish terrestrial channels, we will only have 3e and TG4 not available in HD on Sky. TG4 would be nice, but 3e is no loss.

But according to the most recent census, there are only 1.65m households in Ireland. That would mean almost 40% of houses have Sky? Somehow I find that hard to believe. UPC hold a 20% share or thereabouts.
There might be that many sky dishes alright though :pac:

galtee boy

machiavellianme wrote: »

But according to the most recent census, there are only 1.65m households in Ireland. That would mean almost 40% of houses have Sky? Somehow I find that hard to believe. UPC hold a 20% share or thereabouts.
There might be that many sky dishes alright though :pac:

I don't know, I'm only going on what the papers are reporting. If you drive around the countryside, it's actually quite difficult to see a house without a Sky/satellite dish attached, but as you say, every dish may not be an active Sky subscriber. I would think that Sky's share would be a good bit higher than UPC though.

lertsnim

galtee boy wrote: »

it's actually quite difficult to see a house without a Sky/satellite dish attached, but as you say, every dish may not be an active Sky subscriber.

I know for a fact that where I live 70% of the houses with a Sky mini dish is an ex subscriber. It wouldn't surprise me if it was similar numbers elsewhere. Sky is an absolute rip off and most people have copped on to that a long time ago.

icdg

machiavellianme wrote: »

But according to the most recent census, there are only 1.65m households in Ireland. That would mean almost 40% of houses have Sky? Somehow I find that hard to believe. UPC hold a 20% share or thereabouts.
There might be that many sky dishes alright though :pac:

About 380,000 households take some sort of UPC TV package, which would be around the 25% mark.

However, the vast majority of UPC subscribers would be in the ex-NTL franchises, Dublin, Galway, and Waterford, along with Cork and Limerick cities. In Dublin in particular they are still the majority, though nowhere near as dominant as they used to be. Outside these areas it would be the opposite, with satellite dominant in rural areas. Soon, it will no longer be possible to get UPC TV outside of an urban area as MMDS will be switched off.

Wanderer78

id love to know the number of households watching tv by errr emm 'other' means! id say its pretty damn big. think sky tv service is better than upc tv service though. that horizon box is terrible

lertsnim

Wanderer78 wrote: »

id love to know the number of households watching tv by errr emm 'other' means! id say its pretty damn big.

What amazes me is how many advertise it openly for sale on the likes of Facebook and nothing is ever done to them.

Johnboy1951

I watch Free to Air TV and distribute it throughout the house on Cat5e cable.

I do occasionally try some of the 'other means' such as streams of TV broadcasts, but none are watchable that I have found ..... particularly so for fast moving content such as sport etc..

Wanderer78 wrote:

id love to know the number of households watching tv by errr emm 'other' means! id say its pretty damn big. think sky tv service is better than upc tv service though. that horizon box is terrible

Of the 6 houses near me, 4 have Satellite dishes and at least three of those do not pay a Sky subscription.
Most (if not all) of the dishes were Sky at one time, including my own.

Wanderer78

lertsnim wrote: »

What amazes me is how many advertise it openly for sale on the likes of Facebook and nothing is ever done to them.

thats true actually. risky business though. some lads have been pinched, receiving big fines and prison sentences. i know tons of people receiving these services. must be a lot of people round the country doing it

Wanderer78

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I do occasionally try some of the 'other means' such as streams of TV broadcasts, but none are watchable that I have found ..... particularly so for fast moving content such as sport etc..

a lot of crap streams out there alright but theres a couple of gems if you keep looking but i suspect you have to pay for the really good ones

mass_debater

Wanderer78 wrote: »

a lot of crap streams out there alright but theres a couple of gems if you keep looking but i suspect you have to pay for the really good ones

Cardsharing and streams can be glitch free with the right supplier, I know plenty get their sports this way. I'd say Sky are losing an absolute fortune to it compared to what they were making 5 years ago.

galtee boy

I got a warning earlier for mentioning VPN's, surely discussing card sharing and illegal streaming is equally a " no no " ? And also, this thread is gone way off topic.

icdg

Indeed it has, Wanderer78 can also take a warning.

Galteeboy back seat moderation is also against the charter. I don't work for Boards and even if I did I wouldn't be able to give every thread 24/7 surveillance. Use the report button if you have a problem. I'll give you one more chance but you will get a ban without warning for your next violation in any thread in Cable and Digital

Anyway, any word if the rte digital radio stations are part of this deal with sky?

Infoanon

zorro2566 wrote: »

Anyway, any word if the rte digital radio stations are part of this deal with sky?

No mention in the press release and in recent years RTE has reduced the radio channels on Sky so its unlikely that eg Gold will be added to Sky

That's a pity,Gold would be great on satellite!

Sam Russell

RTE only have four radio channels on satellite - Radio 1, FM2, Lyric, and RnaG.

By the way, is there any chance that RTE do not push the availability of FTA satellite because of this deal with Sky. You rarely hear anyone on RTE advocating FTA satellite on any of the main magazine programmes or on any of the consumer items. Wonder why.

twinklerunner

zorro2566 wrote: »

That's a pity,Gold would be great on satellite!

It would also be nice to have the BBC radio stations on the Irish epg, for recording purposes.

ftakeith

Sam Russell wrote: »

RTE only have four radio channels on satellite - Radio 1, FM2, Lyric, and RnaG.

By the way, is there any chance that RTE do not push the availability of FTA satellite because of this deal with Sky. You rarely hear anyone on RTE advocating FTA satellite on any of the main magazine programmes or on any of the consumer items. Wonder why.

Irish Times and Irish Independent do tell their readers about saorview and FTA satellite

I have Sky TV in my main TV room

But I have saorview and freesat in 2 other rooms
my freesat has wifi in built humax freesat freetime

sky multi-room is a rip off

Sam Russell

ftakeith wrote: »

Irish Times and Irish Independent do tell their readers about saorview and FTA satellite

I have Sky TV in my main TV room

But I have saorview and freesat in 2 other rooms
my freesat has wifi in built humax freesat freetime

sky multi-room is a rip off

The Irish Times assume that one has UPC or Sky from looking at their listings. Most of the Freesat channels are ignored like ITV2, ITV3, and ITV4, Ch 5, while UTVi is positioned between BBC2 and Ch4 instead of between TV3 and BBC 1 which is where I would expect it. They also list Sky 1, Sky Atlantic, History, National Geographic, and Discovery. They also include all Sky sports and Film channels, but do include Film4.

So while their news coverage might mention FTA, their listings do not list them - I assume this is because most of the journos have Sky or UPC and none that matter have FTA or Freesat.

I never read the Indo - even if it is wrapped around a packet of chips.

irishfeen

Talks on DS that a HD flagged channel has begun early stages of testing - could be RTÉ One HD!

STB.

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

OK, so the channels are to be carried on the Sky platform.

These are channels to which we have contributed via our licence payment.

Are these channels going to be 'in the clear' so people do not have to pay a second time or are they definitely behind a paywall?

Who gains financially from this arrangement?
If it is RTÉ then will this affect the distribution of the licence monies?

These channels are already available FTA via Saorview and Saorsat.

Under the must offer rule, RTE must offer its channels by alternative platforms if requested. In turn those platforms that request them, cannot charge anymore for them. Its FTV via Sky and UPC, using those platforms proprietary hardware and cards.

Who gains financially ? RTE do not contribute to Sky for allowing them their channels. That's the way its gone. The BBC and ITV no longer pay Sky for TP space. Sky want the content!

Johnboy1951

STB. wrote: »

These channels are already available FTA via Saorview and Saorsat.

Under the must offer rule, RTE must offer its channels by alternative platforms if requested. In turn those platforms that request them, cannot charge anymore for them. Its FTV via Sky and UPC, using those platforms proprietary hardware and cards.

So they will be available FTV on an out of subscription Sky set up?
Just wondering ..... I use FTA only.

Who gains financially ? RTE do not contribute to Sky for allowing them their channels. That's the way its gone. The BBC and ITV no longer pay Sky for TP space. Sky want the content!

The Cush

STB. wrote: »

The BBC and ITV no longer pay Sky for TP space. Sky want the content!

The BBC and ITV pay for their own transponders, its the retransmission services provided by Sky they no longer pay for.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

irishfeen wrote: »

Talks on DS that a HD flagged channel has begun early stages of testing - could be RTÉ One HD!

There are two labels flagged as HD but they are not switched on yet. The frequencies are as follows if anyone wants to keep an eye on tnem 11.537 V 23.0 2/3 DVB-S2 8PSK the label number is 54051 and the other frequency is 11.612 H 23.0 2/3 DVB-S2 8PSK the label is 55401.

total former

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

So they will be available FTV on an out of subscription Sky set up?
Just wondering ..... I use FTA only.

No.

Sam Russell

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

So they will be available FTV on an out of subscription Sky set up?
Just wondering ..... I use FTA only.

You have to pay to get the Free Irish channels.

Johnboy1951

Sam Russell wrote: »

You have to pay to get the Free Irish channels.

total former

As per media reports, this deal is costing Sky €1-2 million per annum.

Why would anyone expect them to give the content away for free?

STB.

total former wrote: »

As per media reports, this deal is costing Sky €1-2 million per annum.

Why would anyone expect them to give the content away for free?

They cannot charge anymore for it. IE they cannot add it on as an extra (even for HD). Its part of the basic sub.

The only reason they have it in the first instance is that RTE must offer the content under the must offer rule.

The term "free" here is what is causing confusion. Obviously the reason it is encrypted in the first place is due to the programme rights RTE have being restricted to Ireland.

STB.

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

So they will be available FTV on an out of subscription Sky set up?
Just wondering ..... I use FTA only.

Johnboy you knew the answer to that.

FTV once you are a subscriber! You know well that RTE uses encryption on 28.2 and why that is. Unfortunately Sky own that, so whilst Sky cannot charge anymore for these channels, you must be a paid up subscriber!

STB.

The Cush wrote: »

The BBC and ITV pay for their own transponders, its the retransmission services provided by Sky they no longer pay for.

They no longer pay Sky for the TP space that Sky use for retransmitting the BBC's. The costs were £10m pa. And Sky's profit was partly offf that content. ITV Ch4 and Ch5 also brokered the same deal at a cost of £15m to Sky.

Amazing how all this went away when the BBC started a campaign of threathening to charge for its content.

The Cush

STB. wrote: »

Amazing how all this went away when the BBC started a campaign of threathening to charge for its content.

Similar situation happening in Italy at the moment, Mediaset have basically withdrawn their channels from the Sky platform in a dispute over retransmission fees. Mediaset hold the broadcast rights to the Champions League for the next 3 seasons.

robwen

munchkin_utd wrote: »

sure why would anyone post a link to an announcement they are quoting?

anyhow,
http://www.rte.ie/ten/news/2015/0904/725719-sky-rte-announce-long-term-partnership/

Any date yet for the RTE Player & RTÉ News Now and RTÉ One + 1/HD etc. arriving on Sky?

Johnboy1951

STB. wrote: »

Johnboy you knew the answer to that.

FTV once you are a subscriber! You know well that RTE uses encryption on 28.2 and why that is. Unfortunately Sky own that, so whilst Sky cannot charge anymore for these channels, you must be a paid up subscriber!

No I didn't, otherwise I would not have asked.

Do FTV channels not work in a Sky box with an expired card?

I thought they used to.

Probably mis-remembering, as it is many years since I handled a Sky box and/or card.

lertsnim

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

No I didn't, otherwise I would not have asked.

Do FTV channels not work in a Sky box with an expired card?

I thought they used to.

Probably mis-remembering, as it is many years since I handled a Sky box and/or card.

You are correct. If a subscription is needed to view something then it is not FTV

The Cush

robwen wrote: »

Any date yet for the RTE Player & RTÉ News Now and RTÉ One + 1/HD etc. arriving on Sky?

This as posted recently

ftakeith wrote: »

I phoned Sky this morning

The original bundle is going up to 30euros per month

He also told me RTE1hd and rte catch up should be available in a few weeks
I predict in early November the new RTE content will come to sky, at the same time subscribers are getting letters/e-mails to explain why the increases are happening

STB.

lertsnim wrote: »

You are correct. If a subscription is needed to view something then it is not FTV

That is untrue and is a common misconception about how FTV works.

• Free to Air (FTA) are channels in the clear without the need for proprietary equipment.
• Free to View (FTV) channels are those broadcast encrypted and can only be viewed with reception equipment that includes a suitable proprietary CAS.

In the case of Sky for Ireland, active subscription is required to view the Irish channels, but no extra cost is or can be charged for these channels.

Bear in mind that all across Europe, Free-to-view channels are also supplied by pay-TV providers, and it is the access to these free-to-view channels that you will have to pay for, even though you won't be paying for the free-to-view channels themselves. It is because they are delivered via a subscription service using a CAS.

In Germany HD+ also requires active subscription and they still differentiate that this is FTV TV, rather than pay TV.

Mickey Mike

zorro2566 wrote: »

Anyway, any word if the rte digital radio stations are part of this deal with sky?

I sincerely hope RTE go all the way and launch the remaining Radio stations on Sky and just get done with it.
There is plenty of room for them from 0160 to 0168, just like the order on saorview. It would be a job well done.

robwen

Nearly December & still no sign of the RTE player etc. arriving?

irishgeo

robwen wrote: »

Nearly December & still no sign of the RTE player etc. arriving?

you dont just lash it on.

i am sure it has to be reprogrammed to work with the skybox programming.

probably rounds of testing to be done.