Campaign begins on TV digital switchover

A PUBLIC awareness campaign for Saorview, the digital terrestrial television service, will begin on St Patrick’s Day.

A series of television, radio and online advertisements will be aimed at the 600,000 households that will have to switch over to the service by the end of 2012.

Saorview is aimed at those households that still use an aerial to access television signals.

They are mostly in Connacht/ Ulster (32 per cent) and Munster (20 per cent). They include almost half of all farming households and 28 per cent of people over the age of 55.

The service will feature eight domestic television channels – RTÉ 1, RTÉ 2 HD, TV3, TG4, RTÉ News Now, RTÉjr, RTÉ One+1, 3e and RTÉ Digital Aertel, as well as radio stations.

The switchover will cost RTÉ €70 million. It is mandated by the European Union which wants the changeover from analogue to digital to be completed by end of next year.

Although the service is free, it will cost householders about €100 each for the set-top box.

RTÉ’s digital switchover spokesman Rory Coveney says there will be three stages to the awareness campaign. The first will introduce the public to Saorview, the second will start in May when it becomes fully operational and the final phase will stress the countdown until the digital switchover.

TV3 has written to the Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte urging him to review the decision to grant RTÉ licences to operate new channels. Chief executive David McRedmond said the decision by former minister Pat Carey two days before the general election was a “disgrace”.

Mr McRedmond suggested RTÉ did not have the resources to operate five new channels when it was running a deficit. He did not believe the new RTÉ channels would be anything other than repackaged materials. He believed they would cost the broadcaster substantially more money.