by Katherine Easi

Created on: August 11, 2008   Last Updated: August 13, 2008

This Helium article is about Digital Television in Ireland.

At the time of writing there is a great amount of choice when it comes to Digital Television in Ireland. Irish national broadcaster, RT, is trialling MPEG4 services from, at the time of writing, Clermount Carn, Three Rock and Mount Leinster.

Satellite
Sky Digital
Sky Digital has over 900 tv and radio channels at the time of writing. There include RTE, BBC, ITV , UKTV, Discovery, CNN and MTV. Being satellite, Sky is available to 98% of the population. Sky also has interactive, Box Office and HD. It currently, at the time of writing has 19 channels. There are 9 movie HD channels coming in the near future and there is speculation as to whether Voom HD Networks entire line-up could launch on Sky. Sky has currently closed the option to launch a channel on the platform but there are still channels that have applied and are waiting to launch.

Availability 9.5/10
Channels 9/10

Freesat
Freesat is a free-to-air satellite platform. Launched in May 2008 it is still in it's infancy so it currently has very little channels. It currently has BBC, ITV, Channel 4, BET, Chello Zone, some CSC Media Group channels and some entertainment and film channels. It also has a couple of kids and music channels.
Availability 9.5/10
Channels 4/10

Freesat from Sky
Freesat from Sky is very similar to Freesat however it has over 280 channels including BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Setanta News, Sky Three and Five.
Availability 9.5/10
Channels 6/10

Cable
UPC
UPC (Chorus + NTL) are Irelands biggest cable provider. View have over 100 channels, broadband and phone services. Their channels include RTE, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, UKTV, Discovery and more.
Availability 5/10
Channels 7/10

Magnet Entertainment
Magnet provide IPTV, broadband and phone services over their fiber-to-the-home network. Channels include BBC and RTE. Their probuscts
Availability 2/10
Channels 5/10

DTT
On 21 July 2008, Denis O'Brien and Boxer TV Access Sweden announced plans for an Irish Pay DTT platform. It will be based on MPEG4 technology with Viaccess encryption. There will also be a Public Service Broadcaster multiplex with free channels such as RTE, TV3, TG4, Oireachtas TV and the Irish Film Channel.
Boxers plan is to have 7 channels for 9.99 per month and more for 22.99 per month. Boxers system will use RTENLs network of terrestrial transmitters

Smart Telecom provide IPTV on their Next Generation Network and also on ADSL2+. Homevision also provide IPTV over ADSL services. SCTV also provide MMDS services in Cork.

Roadmap
2009
UPC have HD services
DTT service introduced

2012
Analogue switch-off

So there is a lot of choice here in the Emerald Isle. DTT is launching here in 2009. Communication minister Eamon Ryan has said that services on Irish masts will be available by September 2009. At the moment this is not physically possible as there are no plans to start tests till late 2008.

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