Ireland pushes on with DTT despite setbacks

The Irish digital-terrestrial TV platform to be built by public broadcaster RTɒs networks arm must cover 90% of the country’s population by the end of October, according to an order signed by communications, energy and natural resources minster Eamon Ryan.

A full DTT service should be launched by the end of next year, according to Ryan. However, no commercial DTT operators have yet been licensed by the broadcasting regulator, the BAI. Plans for the Irish DTT platform have suffered a series of setbacks. Last month Easy TV, a joint venture between RTÉ and cable operator Liberty Global that had been offered the contract to run a commercial service, collapsed. Earlier, a joint venture between Swedish pay-TV group Boxer and Ireland’s Communcorp, and a separate consortium backed by Setanta, Eircom, TV3 and Arqiva also pulled out of plans to run the service.