As a lot of you know, you can get a Digital version of RTÉ (including Widescreen) on Sky Digital and NTL. However you must have a Sky/NTL subscription to see it. Many people, including myself, believe this is fundamentally wrong as we already support RTÉ through the mandatory TV licence.
Please sign the petition from Brian Greene demanding that RTE make digital broadcasts of their programming available for “free”. If you are a blogger, consider adding the badge in support.
Whilst I’m at it, maybe someone can tell me why I was talking to RTE about Digital Terrestrial TV in 1998 and we still don’t have it? RTÉ is another taxpayer funded organisation in dire need of a good kicking.
June 15, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I pay my TV Licence every year, and what do I get for that is a very poor picture of RTE1, RTE2 & TG4 and and unwatchable TV3. Why should our part of our Licence fees that we pay go to SKY so the can carry Irish terestial channels. RTE and the Irish Government could do a deal directly with SES-ASTRA just like the BBC have done. Cut out the middle man SKY who are profiting from us two fold, through our TV Licence and Sky subscription due to poor TV reception in black spots around the country.
June 15, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Amen to that!
June 18, 2007 at 7:12 pm
the problem is slightly more complicated. RTE pay a per viewer type fee for alot of the US programming it has. This is based on it only being available in Ireland. Broadcasting in clear on astra2 or eurobird (ses astra sat’s used by sky and bbc), we’d be broadcasting to UK and a chucnk of Northern Europe. RTE’d then have to pay more for the likes of Lost, sports etc.
June 18, 2007 at 7:38 pm
I’m pretty sure Sky can still control access to different stations by location even if with FreeView. So RTE doesn’t have to be full FTA, just “F”.
Of course if they had rolled out DTT 8 years ago when they were supposed to, this would be moot. Now they are rolling it out just as IPTV becomes feasible.
June 19, 2007 at 10:27 am
You mean the way Five and channel4 do it? Problem here is that viewers still need a sky box, which retail for €100+, and they’d have to pay sky 15€ a month for recording rights on a sky+ box.
ideal world would be FTA, not FTV, as that allows viewers to use any sat box they’d like, but there’s no sat’s which have an Ireland only footprint, so massive overspill, and we just happen to overspill into the UK.
June 19, 2007 at 10:40 am
OK, who is up for raising some VC cash so we can launch PaddyBird1? If Channel 6 can get funding……….
June 19, 2007 at 11:27 am
builders wont fund it, they’ve got lovely deals done with Magent etc, for cable systes, they then start a management company, fill it with their cronies and implement a “no dish policy”, limiting people to an aerial in the attic or the cable system.
June 19, 2007 at 11:31 am
you are the most cunning of them all!
June 19, 2007 at 11:37 am
you can get sat dishes that look like nice posh outdoor lights.
am in the middle of trying to get my motorized sat system up and running, I gave up cos of the rain at the weekend.
July 8, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Conor on your site but can’t find the petition
Pat
July 8, 2007 at 2:11 pm
http://www.petitiononline.com/rte2fta/petition.html
July 23, 2007 at 2:43 pm
WE NEED A FULL DIGITAL TV AND DAB RADIO SERVICE FOR THE WHOLE ISLAND CARRYING ALL THE CHANNELS NORTH AND SOUTH.
BUT RTE WOULD SEEM TO BE MORE INTRESTED TO HOLDING ON TO THEIR MONOLOPY FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE.
August 13, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Shame on RTE. Even ‘poor’ countries like Romania, Poland, and the vast majority of other east European countries have at least one FTA channel. So WHY NOT Ireland??? RTE must start thinking of the Irish people and the good this would do for the image of Ireland. Also, although I pay a licence fee, I get miserable reception where I live. I have spent over 200 Euro in antennas/amplifiers etc. I have a satellite dish with motor and receive channels from all over the world except Ireland. Even BBC have FTA channels on Astra 2D. So, WAKE up RTE and LISTEN to the Irish people
September 9, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Pay SKY money to watch RTE when I already pay for a tv license! Just how much money was in the brown envelope?
I get BBC 1,2,3,4 and ITV 1,2,3,4 and Aljazeera english, France24, CNN, Euronews, movies, kids shows and music etc, etc from my Lidl box.
I don’t pay for SKY because I have all I need , except a clear RTE and TV3 signal.
SKY got a sweet deal to broadcast RTE encoded – too sweet, and it is time RTE do what the UK public service broadcasters did: go FTA and let anybody watch withouth the SKY toll booth.
September 9, 2007 at 5:30 pm
I’ve seen a lot of positive comment about those Lidl boxes. Good on the German’s for sticking it to Sky!
September 23, 2007 at 6:31 pm
yes i think rte should be made available free to air.paying for a tv license,then also paying sky,
October 1, 2007 at 11:57 pm
We pay RTE a licence fee and also have to put up with ad breaks on tv. RTE is on a winner regarding revenue. It is also supposed to be a public service broadcaster, so of course the tv channels should be available on FTA. It’s radio stations are.
October 16, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Hi there,
i believe that RTE have been put under pressure from the European commission to at least broadcast one of its channels as a free to Air channel. I believe its only a matter of time before at leat one Paddychannel is beaming down all over europe from the Astra sattelite at 28.2.
October 30, 2007 at 11:32 am
I was at one time paying €27.99 for chorus basic cable package and I got RTE 1, 2, TV3, TG4, BBC 1, 2, UTV, Channel4, Sky One, Sky News, MTV one, Cartoon Network, Eurosport, E4, Qvc and The Racing channel. I’m sure you might think that’s plenty, having said that, thats only when the chorus hasn’t gone on one of it’s lenghty and frequent gaps in service, so I got a box and dish from Lidl and fixed up my old aerial, now I get BBC 1-4 ITV 1-4 several news channels, (including Sky News, CNN) several music channels, (that actually show music videos) several kids channels, and several movie channels (including Film Four) and the only thing I have to pay is the Licence fee. I hardly watch RTE any more.
I was just wondering about the trials in Louth and Dublin. What are the other channels they are getting?
December 22, 2007 at 5:52 pm
maybe they are waiting on a grant from the EEC lol
and as far as RTE in the north is concerned, its blasting in , can hardly get BBC radio at times. I think it’s called over powered transmitting. So God help us when you go digital.
January 13, 2008 at 1:56 pm
If Fine Gael take it on board to make RTE Free-to- Air they will definitely win the next election. Not to mention all those caravan owners/holiday homes etc. They should also allow these owners who remain in Ireland for their holidays to pay a maximum of 6 months RTE licence fee. N.B. The BBC give an excellent world wide service and receive a licence fee only, while RTE receive a licence fee AND ALSO CHARGE HEAVILY FOR ADVERTISEMENTS. THE MONEY IS WASTED ON USELESS CROSS-TALKING PRESENTERS WHO DO NOT ALLOW THEIR SUBJECTS TO FINISH THEIR SENTENCE.
January 13, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I’ll revisit that exact topic when I review the Guerilla Gourmet Garbage they served up the other night.
February 21, 2008 at 7:43 pm
well iv not paid a tv license EVER as i cannot receive any of the irish channels, but can get bbc and a lot more fte via satellite.
when i can receive IRISH TV free, i will gladly pay the license fee.
April 24, 2008 at 10:11 pm
well said fintan
March 4, 2009 at 11:41 am
we are paying a license for something we cant see!!
October 1, 2010 at 11:10 pm
About time all the young emigrating irish people could see some irish tv on sat while forced to be abroad so much for Presidential speil about the irish disporia.
January 30, 2011 at 12:23 am
SKY should allow RTE 1 & Network 2 to be on Freeview.We are all paying through the nose for everything.yes I think a lot of people will agree.
RTE 1&2 AND TV3 should be on freview.