The new Broadcasting Bill 2008 was published today which the Minister describes as significantly changing the broadcasting landscape in Ireland.

The main headlines are the scrapping of the BCI and BCC to establish a new single content regulator to be known as the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. Two new free-to-air television services, Oireachtas TV and an Irish movie channel, are to be established and it includes a “right of reply” mechanism for members of the public.

However, hidden away from the headlines are three sections of interest to us.

The first, Section 133, leads the way for full licencing of DAB Mulitplex’s. Of even more interest, Section 134 appears to allow up to a four year extension on existing FM licences for broadcasters in that spectrum who simulcast on DAB.

The third and final item is of interest to the independent radio programme making side of our operation. This item is Section 116 which allows RTÉ to set aside €500,000 per annum specifically for radio programmes made independently of the station. We really welcome this initiative and hope it will allow for the development of as successful relationship between RTÉ Radio and independent radio producers as has been enjoyed by independent television programme makers over the past 20 years.

The Bill now goes through it’s final legislative stages in the Seanad and Dáil before being signed into law by the President.

The public presentations by candidates for Ireland’s DTT Multiplex Licence’s were held today at the Westbury Hotel, Dublin. The ladies above were not present, I just loved this picture from Flickr!

On with the synopsis starting with what all have in common;

All will use the RTÉ NL transmission system so coverage predictions were all similar 60%+ in 2009 to 90%+ in 2012 as were investment figures of approx €120m.
All made play on how “Irish” they were!
All will have small free offering but mainly subscriber based.
All have large marketing budgets for launch.
All have various customer support call-centres lined up.
All predict 200,000+ subscribers by 2012.
All expect to break even by Year 5.

And then the differences;

Boxer (Boxer DTT Sweeden, Communicorp, BT)
USP: They are the only candidate who has done DTT already. Boxer in Sweeden, BT on the Irish trial. (However OneVision involves Arqiva who have done DTT in the UK). They are also the only company who are not a content provider and said it would be inappropriate for broadcasters to run muxes.

Package: Free Set Top Box with six FTA and seven additional channels for €10 a month. An extra €23 gives you another eighteen channels with additional premium movies/sports available. They also offer a pre-pay facility.

For marketing they shall use the computer generated “Robert” character from the Sweedish campaign. Their closing Rocky movie themed commercial was very slick.

EasyTV (RTE, LibertyGlobal aka UPC)
USP: Most broadcast experience in Ireland and relationships with installers nationwide. Offering the lowest price and highest quality picture.

Package: Set Top Box from €99 including one with HD recording. Basic package offers eight FTA and nine additional channels for €8 per month. An extra €8 gets you another thirteen channels with additional premium movies/sports available. They also offer a pre-pay facility.

Of all the candidates they are spending the least on marketing (€16m) and their video presentation was the weakest.

OneVision (Eircom, TV3, Setanta, Arqiva)
USP: Arqiva have been doing TV networks for 50 years and have 10 years DTT experience in the UK. OneVision will also introduce two new indigenous Irish channels, TV3 Today (Rolling News) and TV3 Expose (Rolling Entertainment News).

Package: Buy a Set Top Box (price not mentioned) and get ten FTA channels. Subscribe for €10 a month and get twent-three channels. Again brief mention was made of premium movies/sports.

Their opening video presentation was very slick set to the song “One Vision” by Queen.

Conclusion
From experience I know better than to pick a winner, however obvious they might be from the public presentations. What you don’t see publicly is the level of detail in the submissions nor do we know how the BCI board are thinking or what they would place as priority.

The BCI will decide the winner at their board meeting on July 21st.

Just reading an interesting note on DigitalSpy about DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) in France.

The article makes comparative mention of the sales of DTT Freeview boxes in the UK and notes that since October 2002 27m Freeview boxes have been sold there. 27m - that’s a lot. Well after all it is TV and TV always bags the spotlight. That’s why Freeview in the UK is such a stellar success.

However, before we run away with ourselves, here is an interesting note of my own. In roughly the same period, the DAB digital radio, that’s right it’s just a radio, has sold 7m sets. Radio sets. No screen. No HD. Just a small box with a speaker. Not quite as sexy which might explain why we’re not seeing that in a spotlight. It is a sobering thought though to think that one in four people investing in digital is investing in a new digital radio.

One other quick point - there are more DAB radios in the UK than there are iPods. Did you know that?

And they said radio was dead!

Nice feeling today. In March we promised to deliver the most advanced radio website in Ireland by today May 5th. It’s just gone online, on time and on budget!

Why the most advanced? Take a look at some Irish radio websites and you’ll see they are very static affairs. Even finding basic information like schedule is like trying to uncover a state secret. The over-riding thing you’ll notice is that not one of them will give you detail about what is happening right now on air.

We believe if you are coming to the radio station website it’s to either listen or get relevant content. Our new All 80s website achieves both in droves.  You’ll not only see the song playing now and a picture of the artist but the latest news or trivia we have on them. You can rate the song, make comments or click relevant links on Google, Amazon, iTunes or YouTube which bring you right to that artists content.

On the right side of the screen we update our news on what 80s artists are doing now daily (including weekends). We show you 80s artists touring in Ireland, 80s movies on tv this week and my personal favourite an on-demand programme section.

My overall favourite is the fact you can even play Space Invaders while listening to some great tunes!

So there it is - our All 80s station showing all the “modern” stations how it should be done. Check it out for yourself at www.all80s.ie 

While the UK radio industry continue to the debate where they’re going with DAB, listeners keep buying new radio sets in their droves.

RAJAR numbers for Q1 2008 were released this week containing lots of good news for digital radio with Reach and Share both up. The big figure is the increase in ownership of DAB radios. 27% of the population now own a DAB set at home. As a friend of mine always says, that’s 14 million unsubsidised radios. Could Sky TV beat that? I don’t think so!

I put this growth another way to someone recently and got an interesting reaction. “Over 70% of radio listening is done on AM or FM”. Naturally the reply was “So what?”. I responded with “Five years ago it was 100%” and suddenly was pumped with questions about what was “taking over”. The answer of course is digital.

Across the three main digital platforms, DAB is the outright leader with almost 70% usage. Digital TV and Internet follow with 20% and 15% respectively. While the RAJAR figures show substantial growth for DAB, it’s interesting to see relatively stable figures for tv and internet.

The general industry opinion in the UK is that digital is here to stay. Too much has been invested by the broadcasters and takeup is too strong by listeners to let it go. Meanwhile digital see’s new launches this year in Germany, Australia, Ireland and many other countries worldwide.

Digital is happening with tv, with newspapers and our phones so it’s inevitable the same will happen with radio.