it is swings and roundabouts.. a little silly though.. like i have freesat with my tv.. so have itv hd1/bb1hd but on my sky hd box.. cant get either without manually tuning so cant record from them.. it would be nice if you could record from 'other channels' on sky.. that would be a help.. then to add to the crazy.. irish channels are being launched on irelands own version of freesat next year called saorsat.. (where did they get the inspiration for that!)
The
RT Network Limited (RTNL)
analogue terrestrial television (ATT) network has never been capable of providing 100% population coverage in Ireland. Currently ATT population coverage amounts to some 98% for
RT One and
RT Two, 95% for
TG4 and 85% for
TV3.
Saorview DTT faces a similar difficulty.
The Board of
RT approved a unique satellite based approach developed by RTNL from early 2010, that will for the first time enable the Irish PSB channels to be made available free-to-air and unencrypted as a means of covering the last 2% of the population who will be unable to receive the Saorview terrestrial service. Broadcasting the channels unencrypted from the
Astra 2 satellite at 28ø East was not considered an option due to its large footprint covering the UK, France, Holland and many other countries and programming is purchased that allows Irish channels to broadcast to 4.5 million people and not to approx 100 million people within the Astra footprint.
RT submitted a revised DTT plan including the FTA satellite option to the Department of Communications in mid June 2010 for approval.
[2] RT publicly announced at an Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications discussion in mid July 2010 that a free-to-air satellite service, called Saorsat, would be offered to complement the terrestrial DTT service.
[3][4]
The satellite option is a narrow-band satellite operating in the
Ka band as opposed to the normal
DTH Ku band (which Sky and Freesat use), with a
spot beam being dedicated exclusively to Ireland which will also provide coverage throughout Northern Ireland. The spot beam with frequency reuse means reception in Britain and continental Europe is not possible. RT states that the chosen satellite option will cost approximately ?1.5 million per year.
RT said the combined offering was designed to be the most cost-effective solution for viewers and broadcasters; to offer for the first time 100% coverage of free-to-air public service television services in the Republic of Ireland; and to provide full national back-up coverage on satellite in the event of an emergency or catastrophic failure of the DTT system.
Approval for the revised National DTT plan and the new Saorsat satellite service was announced by the Minister for Communications at the end of July 2010.
[5]
RT has not indicated which satellite or satellite orbital position Saorsat will broadcast from.
At least a Ka Band LNB, dish and DVB-S2 receiver will be required to receive Soarsat. Reception of Sky or Freesat from the Astra 2 satellites at 28ø East will require separate equipment.
Unlike the UK's, Freeview and Freesat services which are different organisations, Soarview is really just the RT NL name for the public service broadcaster multiplexes. As such the proposed RT NL operated Saorsat is expected to be a copy of Saorview. A dual feed dish (with Ku and Ka LNBFs) or a separate second boxed Cassegrain "dish" is required with a Diseqc switch and HD DVB-S2 tuner to have Freesat and Saorsat on the same set-box or IDTV receiver. RT has made it clear that Saorview/Soarsat will not carry UK TV and that people in Ireland should avail of Freesat.
[6]
daveh75:
Well to be fair you don't get BBC1 HD on the Irish EPG because you don't contribute to our TV license, and you only currently get BBC HD because Sky pay the BBC for it to be included.
ITV1 HD is down to licensing issues, as for the rest of the channels you're barking up the wrong tree to be honest - You should be asking those broadcasters why their channels are excluded from the Irish EPG...
Oh and don't forget you do get channels included on your EPG, that we don't get in England, so it's swings 'n' roundabouts as far as i see it!