A NEW advertising campaign on TV and radio is extolling the merits of Saorview, the new Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) service which is set to roll out across the State this year. DTT will replace the old analogue transmission system which has operated since the launch of Irish television in the early 1960s. According to the campaign, the new service will provide consumers with “more choice and better quality pictures and sound”.
But, for most households in Ireland, the switch from analogue to digital happened years ago; commercially owned satellite and cable providers such as Sky and UPC already hold a commanding share of the Irish television market with their own digital services, offering hundreds of channels in a bewildering array of packages, often bundled with phone and broadband services. The choice offered by Saorview pales in comparison: eight channels, all based on services already offered by RTÉ, TG4 and TV3.
However, Saorview, as its name implies, will be free-to-air, once viewers have made the initial investment in the set-top box required to receive the signal. As such, it is a direct replacement for the older-style, aerial-based system upon which an estimated 340,000 households still exclusively rely. That it is now being rushed into place a mere 18 months or so before the EU-wide compulsory shutdown of the analogue signal is testament to a long history of legislative sluggishness and regulatory confusion which meant that the original proposal – for a number of commercially funded digital platforms which would include a public service broadcasting element – collapsed. As a result, the elderly, rural and lower-income households who are more likely to depend on the service will lose out.
RTÉ’s competitors, including TV3 and the National Newspapers of Ireland, have criticised the plans as giving excessive power to the State broadcaster. RTÉ in turn cites the expenditure on Saorview imposed on it by government as one of the reasons why it is under such severe financial pressure. The fact is that nobody, including the consumer, should really be satisfied by this outcome. While several European countries have experienced difficulties in getting viable DTT systems up and running, few have lagged as far behind as Ireland. The result is a cobbled-together service which maintains the principle of a free-to-air network available to all licence-payers but fails to take proper advantage of the opportunities which new technology can offer.