Easy TV awarded Irish Pay DTT licence

Watty's picture
Submitted by Watty on 30 April 2010 - 9:04am

April 29th 2010: Easy TV offered Licence for DTT.

It took Government and its Quangos A YEAR to realise that OneVision would never agree contracts.

It was last May that Boxer withdrew (the winning bid).

Well...

Either it will launch and go bust or it will not launch.

Will it be 1 week (should be) or 1 year to decide if taking Contract?

"Easy TV"  is a consortium held by RTE and UPC owner Liberty
Global.  However Liberty Global has expended much (Debts?) on Cable Fibre upgrades worldwide and on  Sirius XM  satellite Radio in USA, which is losing money. RTE doesn't have the money to fund the Pay DTT roll out. In present climate (dramatically different from two years ago when the Tender offered) will either have appetite for it?

Links (open in new tabs/windows)

See this comment on 9th March

Liberty Global, owner of UPC Ireland (who took over NTL and Chorus). A partner in Easy TV

RTENL. who operate and maintain Ireland's TV broadcast network for RTE, TV3 and TG4. They also manage the DAB network and RTE's analogue radio transmitters.

Broadcast Authority of Ireland

RTE (the Broadcaster), a partner in Easy TV.

The regular Irish stations and a couple of new ones will launch free, in any case, on the Public Service Mux as Saorview.


Watty's picture

Update: SBP

Submitted by Watty on 2 May 2010 - 8:14pm.

Update:

SBP Article

http://www.thepost.ie/news/ireland/...

Quote:

RTE is obliged to have the public service side of DTT
operational by October, but for DTT to appeal to a wider audience, it
must have a commercial selection of channels. Otherwise RTE will be
investing up to €100million for a service that will have limited appeal
and is unlikely ever to take off.

The basic Irish Channels will launch and be free.

Quote:

The awarding of the DTT commercial licence dates back
to 2008,when there were three groups keen to run the service. Denis
O’Brien’s Communicorp joined forces with Swedish digital television
specialist Boxer. Eircom,TV3 and Setanta joined British digital company
Arqiva to form OneVision. The third party was EasyTV, comprising RTE and
UPC.

Actually it dates back to 2001 and the failure of "
It's TV
" They had no viable fanacial model then, There isn't one for Commerical DTT now. RTENL/RTE is not the problem.

Quote:

The BAI appointed Isolde Goggin, a former chairwoman
of ComReg, to review the positions of RTENL and OneVision in relation to
DTT. Earlier this month, she reported a significant gap between the two
sides. With both sides refusing to budge, no solution could be found.

Actually she reported that RTENL's requirements were reasonable. The Issue was Onevision's inability to have a viable financial model and provide a bond.

Quote:

If talks between Easy TV and RTE do get under way,
the failed consortiums will be watching closely to ensure that no fair
advantage is given.

It is more than a possibility that the whole
licensing process could have to start from scratch, with even more
delays.

Actually the whole prcoess like NBS is a nonsense. Let's get on with providing the Indigenous Irish Channels in Digital and HD on Terrestrial, it's TEN years behind now from the original launch proposal. Trails were in 1999!

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