DTT current state of play?

Eddiethehill

Folks,
A newbie question.
I noticed that the last (only?) bidder for operating DTT in Ireland seems to have dropped out. Does this mean that there will not be a DTT service in Ireland? Is RTE still testing equipment?
Thanks in advance.

Is Mise...

DMC

I've heard nothing in months.

Elmo

I think RTE is splitting up its operations into 6 seprate companies. I think that this is due to them wanting to start a DTT service I could be wrong. But since one of the new companies will be RTE News and another RTE Interactive this would suggest a move towards DTT from RTE.

They say they are planning News Education Parliment and Specific Services for Young People.

http://wwa.rte.ie/about/organisation/english.pdf

watty

Absolutely EVERYTHING (inc sell off of existing RTE transmitters etc) was put on ICE when the sole DTT bid collapsed.

Basically UHF based Digital TV can only do 26 .. 30 channels which is not viable for a new pay TV. Also the market is small. Rural they would be competing against Sky (150+ channels) and Chorus Digital MMDS (60+ now, 120+ anytime they want by turning of analog). Big Cities they competing against Cable.

Unlike UK DTT, the original Irish DTT has a wireless "reverse" link using the same aerial, no phone line.

The bidder claimed that they thought they could make money selling "always on - high speed" internet access. They couldn't make money from just the TV.

They claimed the fine print didn't allow selling Internet services. A more practical difficulty is that "TO" the user any data is mostly "Multicast", like Sky Satellite Interactive. and the reverse channel bandwidth is shared by EVERY box on the same transmitter, meaning that the reverse bandwidth might be OK for pressing a menu button, ordering a film, writing text, but useless for Email Attachments, Uploads, Self Hosting etc. The "download" per user, rather than Sky Digibox type multicast, would be similarly limited. It would be likely that if Email and Webbrowsing was allowed it would be much slower than analog phone (more like GSM & Nokia Communicator).

The "bottom line" reason the bid collapsed was that they did not have the money to start, nor any idea how to make money out of it. The second issue is WHY there was only one bidder!

As explained above the "Published" reason for bid withdrawal doesn't quite hold water, unless they didn't understand the specs of the system in the first place.

Finallly, last time:
1) Yes, the Irish DTT spec would allow 2 way access without phone
2) Yes, it could have allowed "free"/"low cost" Internet access. But it was unlikely to be much different to what a Digibox does today. (i.e. VERY limited).
3) No, it could never even equal 50K modem or ISDN never mind "High Speed" e.g. ADSL at 512k down / 128Kup etc.
4) The "Wireless" access was simply to replace what the Sky Digibox and UK DTT pay boxes do to confirm purchases etc over the phone. Never designed as "high speed" Internet.

icdg

Originally posted by Elmo
I think RTE is splitting up its operations into 6 seprate companies. I think that this is due to them wanting to start a DTT service I could be wrong. But since one of the new companies will be RTE News and another RTE Interactive this would suggest a move towards DTT from RTE.

http://wwa.rte.ie/about/organisation/english.pdf

Its' only an internal reorganisation to make the business more effective. Nothing to do with DTT whatsoever. Its' kind of like the BBC under John Birt, which split into a number of seperately run companies - BBC Broadcast, BBC News, BBC Resources, BBC Technology, and BBC Worldwide. All part of the one BBC. (But don't get started on Producer Choice...).

The demerger of RTE Network has been cancelled now, although I believe it will remain as one of the new business units in RTE.