RTÉ is preparing to launch its new station in Britain by the end of the year, providing Irish-made programming to the emigrant population. The new station - RTÉ International - will be available on free-to-air satellite service Freesat. The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) is to examine a proposal from RTÉ on the station tomorrow.
RTÉ International will broadcast a mix of programming from RTÉ One, RTÉ Two and TG4. It will broadcast for 12 to 14 hours a day and will run Irish news and current affairs programming, as well as lifestyle content. It is also likely to show some Irish-made dramas such as popular soap Fair City, although programming rights will have a considerable impact on content.
It is understood that strict rights arrangements with the GAA, for example, mean that there will be little or no sports content on the new station. The details of programming and the various rights issues are being worked on by the broadcaster. The station will primarily have a public service role and is not expected to accept advertising.
The costs of setting up a sales office would be high, given that little interest from advertisers is expected. It will cost several million euro annually to run and, although RTÉ had been seeking extra funding for the service, it is expected to come out of its existing coffers. RTÉ International is on track to launch later this year and will have a low-key launch.
A service for the Irish diaspora has been touted for several years, but legislation fast-tracked through the Dáil, in 2006, explicitly required RTÉ to provide this service. The act did not limit the service to Britain, although it is understood there is no pressure on RTÉ to make the station available in other countries.
(Source: Sunday Business Post)
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on Jul 20th, 2008 at 11:36
That makes sense, when they issed the request for uplink providors to tender for the uplink contract the proposed date for the start of the contract was given as September 1st 2008.
on Jul 20th, 2008 at 14:12
It will be interesting to see whether they buy an EPG slot with FreeSat, but not with Sky Digital, or whether they buy a slot on both.
on Jul 20th, 2008 at 14:33
As I understand it, RTE have no plans to put RTE I on Sky Digital.
It remains to be seen whether or not they will allow their STB’s to display via ‘Add Channels’ manual tuning.
on Jul 21st, 2008 at 00:03
I can’t see why they should limit what is free, they get free EPG on Sky already. With a low key launch & no Sky EPG are we sure they want this TV slot at all?
They could get it blocked from other channels as if it were a interactive stream but it can’t be blocked from FTA boxes.
By the time we see its 12 hour schedule many will wonder why could this not have been done as soon as Tara closed? and the answer will be two fold, no reason & the Sky encryption of RTE1, RTE2 & TG4.
The only media outlet to think that the RTE MW closure was a good idea & RTE International is a bad idea is the London Times, a Murdoch title.
on Jul 21st, 2008 at 07:13
I bet the service will be using the Astra2D satellite which is tightly focussed on the United Kingdom with a little bit of overspill to Western Europe(to secure rights issues with certain programming;so preventing people from easily picking it up out of the main footprint without recourse to huge dish antennae, results out of the main target zone of Astra2D are quite mixed with not all areas europe receiving all the channels from it due to variations in signalstrength on H&V transponders).