Euro 2024 blocked on Saorsat

I know it's odd but they don't look at it like that it's to do with broadcasting fta on satellite in general. It seems regardless of footprint of beam the rights would cost them a hell of a lot more and they wouldn't bother. But your are right it's crazy in this day and age. A card system tied to proof of residency in the south and encrypting the channels would have been a better system. They could still be used as soarview backup by 2rn if needed.

Doesn't really matter though, does it? Saorsat is supposed to be an infill service for Saorview. It's clearly not fulfilling the brief if it can't/isn't providing an equal service. (Not to mention the lack of the VM channels).

It's odd though, the choice of band and satellite was deliberately selected to minimise overspill. Plus, do BBC/ITV have Euros rights for RoI? Doubt it. And their overspill is far beyond that of Saorsat.

Thats exactly how it is. We're only a tiny part of the overall number for them across the pond.

That is true but that's the nature of the game. There rights cover fta on terrestrial and encrypted on satellite. Stupid I know but like I said earlier why it was not free to view instead of free to air from the start. It would incur another change for a cam or a receiver with card but it would be once off and would eliminate this issue and open all programs and events to licence paying viewers.

Sky subscribers in Northern Ireland (only) get access to a limited range of RTE services on the Sky platforms as the product of historical reciprocal cross-border agreements.

I've long said that I'd love to know an estimate of the number of households which use Saorsat. I'm willing to be that the number is tiny - even with any overspill accounted for.

Also, the only place you can really get Saorsat outside of RoI is in NI and some of the west of GB. All of these places already have the Euros FTA anyway. It doesn't really make sense to block them, and the only people actually impacted are those in RoI who can't get Saorview (you know, the people Saorsat is supposed to serve).

Agreed entirely with this… the beam is so tight that there's not a lot of overspill in reality - it's not like you can get it in London or Leeds because of how the beam pattern works..

I for one would much rather add another LNB to my dish and plumb saorsat into my distribution system along with Astra 1, Astra 2, and Hotbird rather than having a massive aerial pointing at Dublin - but we are where we are with it; the channel selection, quality, and programme availability on saorsat is worse than saorview, and the irony really is that the radiation patterns from Kippure and from Clermont are designed to push signals far into the north which is why you see houses everywhere with aerials pointing at Irish transmitters, despite the avialability of Saorsat and RTE on the freeview NI multiplex

Viasat purchased eutelsat's share of ka-sat a few years ago but not the orbital slot. The slot reverts to eutelsat once ka-sat reaches end of life.

Eutelsat's Konnect satellite at 7 degrees east is an interim geosat, manufactured and launched fairly quickly, when a cooperation agreement between them to launch a high-throughput (HT) European satellite fell through about 2017/18.

It has a lower throughput than ka-sat, 75 Gbps vs 92 Gbps iirc with a similar spot beam structure. Also a different payload; Hughes Jupiter vs viasat, again iirc, so different CPE required, dish/router, for internet use (not Saorsat).

With Konnect being rushed out eutelsat was procuring its own HT satellite, Konnect VHTS, 500 Gbps . This went operational at 3 degrees east last October with approximately 230 spot beams.

The interim Konnect geosat may be repurposed for Africa only coverage in future.

Viasat has been developing it's own fleet of 1 Tbps HT geostationary sats, Viasat 3. Three sats covering the Americas, EMEA and Asia. Much delayed, the Americas sat was launched last year but is practically a write off following a solar panel unfurling issue.

The plan now appears to be to place the EMEA sat over the Americas later this year.

The European EMEA sat was required by the ITU to be in it's European slot by last July. Viasat has leased an Israeli slot, 13.8 degrees east, to operate it's satellite.

Unknown now the future for Viasat over Europe or even the future for geostationary platforms overall now that LEO and MEO sats will dominate this market.

What happens Saorsat once ka-sat is retired or fails? Likely it will cease as there is no planned Ka band replacement for the slot and if Saorsat moves to another Ka band sat who pays for the existing dishes to be realigned?

The future backup/replacement for DTT could be fibre, DVB-I, broadcast over fibre. The Italians have opted for this as a backup in case of transmitter failure and difficult coverage areas.

Good website here for spot beam info -

https://www.satbeams.com/satellites

What happens the eutelsat Konnect customers if they move that sat to the 9E slot?

Not forgetting Ka-sat users are Viasat subscribers and Konnect users are eutelsat subscribers. There is no obligation on eutelsat to provide any backup to Viasat.

Also different payload on Konnect versus Ka-sat CPE, Hughes Jupiter versus Viasat.