ITV, particularly Ulster Television, provided more viewing for those in the Republic. This was despite attempts by the ITA to force the signals to adhere to the border. A futile task, if you ask me!
At this stage, no domestic television had been launched by the Irish Government. There was talk of tendering for an ITV-style company for the Republic, but the idea was shelved, presumably due to the difficulty of sustaining an independent company without the support that the ITV Network provided.
This didn't stop the Government from levying a TV licence. With no television service to spend it on, it went straight to Government coffers.
Even with the launch of Telefís Éireann in 1961, British television continued to be popular. Dublin grew a forest of TV aerials pointed to the north or east, and it is said that it became so bad, it caused problems with the navigation equipment on aircraft crossing over the capital.
The Government took action towards the end of the sixties by launching a cable service called RTÉ Relays which carried the by now 3 UK TV Stations and Telefís Éireann.
There was a certain amount of disgruntlement when the UK authorities found out that so many people were watching their TV channels outside the UK. Worse - they were watching the BBC without paying a penny for it!
A levy was agreed, and soon, cable companies across the country were carrying UK TV legally.
Many outside the cabled areas continued to watch via aerials - the size of which depended on location. People in many border counties survived with something you'd find in much of the UK itself.
But many people in areas where no cable was available, especially in the South West, were restricted to Telefís Éireann. Various 'deflectors' sprung up - these were locally-run groups, who received and rebroadcast the UK stations illegally. Some of these have since been licensed, but the rest have been generally forgotten by British authorities since the main objective of getting revenue from the cable companies was achieved.
And most people were happy. For the moment.
Fast forward to the late nineties. Sky Digital launched with a blaze of publicity in the UK in October 1998 and many in the Republic were keen to get it too. They had to wait until December of that year, but this was not the only problem.
The price in the UK was initially £200 plus installation. Although much higher than at present, this did include a subsidy from BIB (British Interactive Broadcasting, later Open, now Sky Active). The subsidy was subject to plugging the box into the phone line for a year.
The price in the Republic was not subsidised, as BIB had no plans to launch a service there. This meant the Irish had to pay more, over £300 (Sterling). Worse, when Sky launched their free box offer in the UK, to compete with OnDigital, it did not alter their Irish prices, as it had no digital competitors in the Republic. The monthly fees were about 10% lower than the UK, but this did not compensate for the huge start-up costs. And to cap it all, the service did not include the BBC channels, nor Channels 4 or 5, which UK viewers received.
Fair enough, Irish viewers were not paying the UK licence fee, but given that these channels had been available via other suppliers for years, it seemed rather odd.
So whilst it was very common by the year 2000 for Sky minidishes to be seen across the UK, it was a rare sight in the Republic of Ireland. People generally received multichannel TV by cable, or by MMDS, a microwave-based system, relying on local transmitters and wire-mesh receivers. Some used analogue satellite, but again, as this did not supply the UK terrestrials (apart from Channel 5), it was not particularly popular.
In the spring of 2000, the 'free' box offer was finally launched. Still having no interactive services in the pipeline, the interactive subsidy was not used. Instead, the Irish former state-owned phone company, Eircom, provided subsidy. This is presumably because defectors to cable companies would get their phone service too. Getting Sky would make them more likely to stick with Eircom for their phone.
But it took another year for any UK terrestrials to appear. BBC One, then BBC Two appeared, along with a subscription hike some time later. This helped sell Sky subscriptions, especially since the Family Pack was required to receive the BBC channels.
Still to this day, ITV 1 and Channel 4 are still unavailable on Sky in the Republic of Ireland, despite persistent rumours to the contrary. All cable companies carry them, but there still seems to be rights issues surrounding the inclusion of these two channels.
Ulster Television plc is very keen to have its ITV regional service on Sky in the south, but it appears that Granada, who owns the rights to many top ITV shows (particularly soaps) is unwilling to allow them to broadcast. It isn't surprising really, since TV Three, the Irish third channel, in which Granada has a large stake, shows many of these shows too. A cut-down version of UTV, minus Granada programming has been rumoured for some time now, but things seem to have gone quiet recently.
It seems rather odd, that in this multichannel world, it has become so difficult for people to watch particular TV channels. The logistical problems have been eliminated. Only red tape seems to be holding things up. |
