RTE Ireland chooses Eutelsat KA-SAT

RTE Ireland chooses Eutelsat KA-SAT

The national broadcaster of Ireland, RTE, has selected Eutelsat’s KA-SAT for its unique satellite-based approach to ensure that all homes in the Irish Republic will benefit from free digital reception of the RTE public service television and radio channels.

To complement its existing SAORVIEW terrestrial service, the RTE is switching on a new digital satellite service. The service will deliver coverage to the 1 to 2 percent of households, which lie beyond the reach of terrestrial DTT reception.

Working in close partnership with Eutelsat, RTENL (RTE Transmission Network Limited) has chosen the coverage area of KA-SAT, which is dedicated exclusively to the island of Ireland. The service will broadcast RTE’s five TV channels and ten radio stations. Eutelsat and RTENL have also ensured that should any other broadcaster wish carriage provision, additional capacity on SAORSAT will be available for this future expansion.

Des Mac Giolla an Chloig, Ceannaire Digiteach, Head of Digital, RTENL commented, “The extremely close co-operation between Eutelsat and RTENL during the KA-SAT project enabled the teams to tailor a bespoke engineering solution, which presents RTE with a unique opportunity to extend the cover of its public service channels to all of the population on a free to air basis for the first time.”

For the RTE, the combined offering of SAORVIEW and SAORSAT is the only effective solution for achieving one hundred percent national coverage of the RTE free-to-air public television and radio services. Additionally the KA-SAT solution carries the benefit of providing full national back-up cover in the event of an emergency or a catastrophic failure of the terrestrial network.

To receive SAORSAT viewers will need a satellite dish equipped with a Ka-band LNB and a DVB-S2 set top box. This one-off cost should be within the region of €200 with equipment available from the majority of Irish retail outlets.

Michel de Rosen, CEO of Eutelsat, also added, “The integration by RTENL of the KA-SAT platform into its digital broadcast network is further evidence of how our new satellite is contributing to Europe’s digital infrastructure. We are delighted that KA-SAT’s service area and performance ticks all the boxes for RTENL and RTE, enabling the transmission authority and the broadcaster to put in place an efficient solution for ensuring nationwide access to free to air Irish digital.”