More digital infrastructure needed, this time Ireland...
Cable TV moves will herald digital services
01/14/99
Irish Independent
Copyright (C) 1999 Irish Independent; Source: World Reporter (TM)
DAVID MURPHY on the new licences which will pave the way for interactive systems
THE agreement by a number of TV cable companies to begin negotiations on a new regime of licences will herald a dramatic changes for Irish consumers.
A key element of the deal will be the rolling out of a digital infrastructure. This will allow the cable companies to introduce interactive services to householders like video-on-demand, home cinema and high speed email.
This is already a reality in Edinburgh where householders can get the Internet, home shopping (where people can order goods from shops electronically) and telephone, through the same cable which carries television signals.
The company which provides this service in Scotland is Telewest, in which the US cable company TCI has a 27pc shareholding. TCI is also involved in Ireland through Princes Holdings, a joint venture with Independent Newspapers.
Building a digital infrastructure will cost cable companies significant sums. In the case of Cablelink it would have to invest between GBP120 and GBP150m to upgrade its system.
The main cable companies are Cablelink, Cable Management Ireland and Princes Holdings (which also trades under the name of Irish Multichannel). These three service 550,000 subscribers.
At the same time many consumers will continue to get signals through satellite as they have done for some years. But householders will also be offered digital terrestrial television, a new signal which will be carried on airwaves as opposed to on a cable.
Sources expect this to begin to kick into operation in the next 18 months or two years when the Government publishes legislation on the issue.
This will operate on a number of different levels, from a basic service of providing the Irish channels and the popular UK stations, to being able to take hundreds of channels.
Consumers will need a digital aerial and set top box and a TV built in the last five to six years to receive the signal.
RTE will have 40pc of the digital terrestrial franchise and the remaining 60pc will be held by strategic partners.
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