Saorview Updates - 2024

Aidan McCarthy

To get rid of these test card channels. They could put some channels from the UK on them too.

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122235132#Comment_122235132

I would prefer Euronews and France24 and perhaps Al Jazeera. UK channels are free on satellite anyway (at the moment).

doney84

As had been said numerous times "they" don't decide what channels go on the platform. The channel owner makes that decision and approaches Saorview for carriage. At the end of the day it's an Irish tv service and I think British programming is currently well served on it.

Euronews and the like would be a good additions and even something like an Irish film channel which was talked about a long time ago.

With the DVB-I testing ongoing, I wonder if this is the future of the platform will the picture quality be improved?

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122236860#Comment_122236860

RTE have free access to Euronews so could put it on one of their five channels at no extra cost. They could do the same withFrance24 if they were granted the channel for free. In fact they could include it as part of RTE NEWS on ch 21, instead of repeats of previous news broadcasts.

Mickey Mike

We have all those channels on free to air satellite, no need to clog up our own service, no need for sky news and that rubbish Challenge tv, we already have them. Just bring better quality with the Irish channels that we have.

Aidan McCarthy

I agree with you for what you said about euronews on saorview and I don't know about an Irish film channel. This country is too small for Another tv channel. New Zealand is the same Size as ireland and they have 29 tv channels over there hopefully we would not come to that over here

Aidan McCarthy

Yes I agree for what you said. Euro news France 24 and maybe Al jazeera English would be good

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122235132#Comment_122235132

Saorview cannot "put" anyones channels on unless the channel owners opt to do so and pay for it. This has been explained before.

thesandeman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122237412#Comment_122237412

No we don't.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122233937#Comment_122233937

I thought the PQ on last weekend's rugby was particularly poor. HD yes, in theory, but any time the camera panned across the grass it went blocky as hell.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122237412#Comment_122237412

They're paying for the bandwidth, if Irish channels want more bandwidth it's just a question of paying for it.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122238266#Comment_122238266

NZ does not have free to air access to huge numbers of UK channels.

pizzahead77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122237412#Comment_122237412

Not everyone has or is able to install a satellite dish to receive the UK free to air channels.

And the issue with the quality is that the channels (especially Virgin Media) are not willing to pay 2rn for the higher bandwidth for HD

Aidan McCarthy

That is correct. That's the reason why I am saying is to put more channels on saorview and get rid of the test cards

Hotblack Desiato

There is zero commercial motive to do so, edge cases who don't have fibre broadband and can't have a satellite dish don't make a business case. Saorview would get rid of all wasted bandwith in the morning if someone was prepared to pay for it. Saorview is not a charity.

Johnboy1951

Would it not be a better commercial decision to try to attract some channels to the 'spare' capacity on Saorview than having 'wasted bandwidth'?
Could they not offer near-free trials for a few months to some channels in the hope that one might agree to a long term contract?
Even if any such channel only lasted a few months and was replaced by a different channel and so on, the users of the service would benefit, and the bandwidth would not be wasted.
In such situations there would need to be no guarantee of carriage etc.
It would be better than the present test cards!

Gerry Wicklow

The annoying thing in all this is that we tax payers are paying for that wasted bandwidth regardless of its content.

Aidan McCarthy

And what channels will be available for a few months in the free trials

Glaceon

If everything goes the way the current trends are showing, then I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t get anything else on Saorview. If anything, we might lose content to IPTV services as the fibre rollout expands.

Johnboy1951

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122260109#Comment_122260109

Maybe consider

'what channels will COULD be available for a few months in the free trials?'

Also note I said "near-free" which is rather different.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122255324#Comment_122255324

You are, surely, by now aware that Saorview cannot just "put more channels on", as they do not operate any channels.

Channel owners have to decide to put channels on Saorview, and pay for it.

Glaceon

I just noticed that the single test card on mux 1 is different to the ones on mux 2. The mux 1 version has no clock.

Channel 32 (mux 1):

Channel 9 (mux 2):

Aidan McCarthy

ALso channel 10 test card has a clock on it and so does channel 28 has a clock and channel 31 has a clock and channel 32 has no clock. I think they maybe Launching a Another channel on channel 32 but who knows

TAFKAlawhec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122236968#Comment_122236968

I thought that the fees for broadcasting on Saorview were based on their, for the lack of a better term, "average bitrate share" percentage on a multiplex whose costs are covered pro rata for each SD & HD service? If that's the case, then RTÉ or anyone else looking to put on another service on any of the Saorview mutliplexes wouldn't be able to do so at "…no extra cost" but that doing so would change the fees for each broadcaster on a multiplex?… (Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong).

…If so, it would demonstrate that launching a third multiplex would be impossible unless there were at least four new services (IMO) ready to broadcast on it to cover the share of multiplex costs, and that 2RN can't simply do "trial runs" for broadcasters for free or minimal cost broadcasts.

At this stage, if anyone wants to see a broadcaster appear on Saorview, the only practical way would be to contact said broadcaster and tell them that you'd like to see them on the platform.

Johnboy1951

RTÉ I understand is broadcasting five test cards on five different channels.

All those combined must be equal to at least one SD channel, which could be broadcast, for limited hours if necessary. Based on "average bitrate share" that would mean no extra cost on RTÉ.

If required for technical reasons, the test cards could be transmitted when the extra channel is off air.

TAFKAlawhec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122280228#Comment_122280228

It can be argued that the test cards are not broadcasting a public service or channel - though with a combined bitrate they could definitely broadcast at least one, possibly two more SD services or even one more HD service at a heavy push. In terms of cost that would have to come down to the agreements that were finalised years ago.

With the multiple test cards currently being broadcast on Mux 2 as well as Mux 1 having a large amount of null packets, I'd love to know what 2RN are really doing with what they've been doing in the past few weeks - I still maintain that a possible power reduction (by simulating a lower multiplex data rate) is more likely than new services in the future, otherwise not much is making sense to me with what they're doing.

The Cush

The 30s range of LCNs hasn't been allocated to any particular category of channel yet

My thinking is these LCNs may be allocated to OTT HbbTV channels.

It was posted here a while ago, on LCN 32 iirc, video with a HbbTV tag

Shan Doras

From reading RTE's five year "New direction" plan which came out last week, it's obvious that they see on demand and streaming as the future, Indeed "digital" seems to mean online now. They also reaffirmed their intention to close the +1 channels of RTE 1&2. I didn't realize that RTE 2+1 only opened in 2019.

Aidan McCarthy

RTE 2 plus 1 came on air since 19 of February 2019 and I would say is it will go off air some time next year or the year after

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122236968#Comment_122236968

Any channel that RTÉ would put up for free would have to be approved by the Minister, OTV on saorview is technically an RTÉ channel as they pay for its broadcast on the system, the minister gave permission for this move.

Do we think that sky are planning to add Sky Mix and Arts to Saorview? Is this the reason for the test channels?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122315719#Comment_122315719

Plan looks to be 2028 toward the end of the New Direction btw … They must ask the minister for permission to remove any channel sound or vision from broadcast.