Are we ready for digital?

The new era of digital terrestrial television (DTT) is now dawning in Ireland, with three commercial multiplex contracts recently being awarded to the Boxer DTT consortium, and RTÉ beginning to dismantle its analogue masts so that much of the country can receive its free-to-air DTT service from autumn of next year.

This follows a DTT trial of 1,000 households since August 2006, which revealed some 82pc of those involved would recommend it to a friend, citing reception and picture quality as the main reasons for doing so.

European Union member states have agreed the transmission of analogue TV services will cease around 2015, and analogue is due to be 'switched off' here in 2012.

While Ireland may be a little behind other countries in launching DTT services, the appetite for digital TV in general is certainly not meagre since it first arrived here 10 years ago. The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) figures show that 55pc of the population now subscribes to some form of digital TV, whether via satellite, cable, MMDS or internet protocol (IP) networks.

Digital veteran Sky Ireland, which serves 37pc of Irish homes, welcomes the march towards DTT. "Its imminent launch is an exciting development. It provides greater choice for consumers and a number of competing platforms for the provision of digital TV. There is already a significant demand for digital TV in Ireland - we understand it has one of the highest penetration rates in Europe after the UK," says Mark Deering, director of Sky Ireland.

“We are always interested in broadening our distribution beyond satellite. The launch of DTT next year is another potential means for customers to access our channels, and we will discuss this with Boxer over the coming months."

It's not clear at this stage exactly what Boxer's offering will be, but it should have the capacity to offer around 24 channels. Dermot Horan, director of broadcast and acquisitions at RTÉ, expects that it won't be a million miles away from UPC's current standard offering via cable. In competing with Sky Ireland, he sees an opportunity for Boxer to absorb second, third and fourth TVs in a household with a more modest offering.

At the moment, the TV-viewing market is roughly split into three: those who subscribe to Sky, those with cable and people who avail of free-to-air TV via an aerial. DTT will mean consumers who don't want to have a pay-TV service will have an improved selection of channels and better quality reception.

“RTÉ's free-to-air multiplex due to be rolled out next year will include RTÉ1, RTÉ2, TG4 and TV3, but will have the capacity to take up to eight channels," says Horan. "There will be an Oireachtas channel and maybe an Irish film channel, plus the ability to run digital Teletext, which will be a halfway house between the internet and the existing Teletext service."

However, Irish viewers who have been receiving UK channels for nothing up to now, because of the spill-over from Northern Ireland and Wales, will have to subscribe to some form of digital television when analogue is switched off, if they want to continue receiving them, Horan notes.

David McRedmond, CEO of TV3, says while there is a massive appetite for digital TV in Ireland, the bulk of viewing is still of the free-to-air channels. TV3 was part of the OneVision consortium, along with Eircom and Setanta, which lost out to Boxer in its bid for the commercial DTT multiplex contracts.

“TV3 will talk to Boxer or whoever to develop our own digital channels to broadcast on the DTT platform. We have already developed TV3 Today and TV3 Exposé, and recently acquired Channel 6. Over the next three months, we will be experimenting with complementary scheduling with Channel 6, and will launch our digital strategy and brand in the New Year," he says. "We're hoping we can still do what we intended to do with OneVision, but it just means we will be at arm's length to the DTT operator."

Brian Quinn, director of Setanta, is also undeterred by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland awarding Boxer the commercial DTT mandate.

“Setanta is platform-neutral; at present we provide premium sports content across all the major cable and satellite platforms in Ireland," he says.

“Our content is also available over the freeview and BT Vision platforms in Northern Ireland and the UK, which gives us great experience working with DTT platforms. Subject to Boxer concluding its contract, we would be very open to discussing a carriage agreement for our content."

Setanta Sports is now available in around 700,000 homes and growth has been excellent in the past 20 months, says Quinn. "Apart from the underlying regular demand from sports fans for our channels, there have been waves of subscribers coming in on the back of our recent content acquisitions, for example, all the away World Cup qualifiers for the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales."

As more digital offerings come on stream, such as free-to-air channels developing their own digital channels, the market share of free-to-air broadcasting will gradually erode as it has in the UK and the US until it reaches a point where it stays alive, says Redmond.

“Free-to-air is TV that people talk about, while cable and satellite are more about personal viewing. As more people have access to digital TV, the distinction between the two will become more blurred. At the same time, there will always be a distinction," says Horan.
According to Horan, RTÉ is doing better now in digital homes compared to last year. "We understand the days of sitting down passively from 6pm-11.30pm and waiting for the national anthem are gone. For a broadcaster to survive in Ireland, it needs a certain number of appointments to view or 'event' television like soap operas or 'shiny floor' shows. If you get people to watch such programmes, it's likely to be a water-cooler moment the next day at work," he says. "Sport is also hugely important, as well as weather."

RTÉ has also achieved tighter-to-US transmission in the past 12 months when acquiring programming, which helps to bolster ratings. "We discovered that if you hang around for a few months, the average teenager has downloaded the show from the internet and it's lost its currency. We now get episodes of shows such as 'Prison Break' 24 hours after they've been aired in the US," says Horan.

While appointment to view looks likely to be a major hook for watching TV for many years to come, at the same time viewing habits are changing since the arrival of Sky Plus. Using the Sky Planner function, people can watch what they want, when they want - with the ability to record up to 40 hours of programming. They can also pause and rewind live TV.

“At this stage, people are asking each other: 'Did you Sky Plus it?' It has become a verb in people's vernacular, much like Hoover in the Seventies," Deering concludes.