The Irish government is apparently toying with the idea of selling off RTE´s (the Irish national broadcaster) infrastructure and preventing it having a holding in the new terrestrial digital television. The Irish cabinet will hear proposals next month that could result in the transmission and distribution infrastructure of RTE being sold off to the highest bidder. However the sell-off should it proceed will spend the end for any form of structured digital terrestrial television (DTT) in Ireland.

Thw sell-off is an exercise in me-tooism by the Arts minister, Sile DeValera. With the government floating various state owned assets such as Eircom and Aer Lingus, it seems that this is a classic case of trying to get in on the great privatization gig. The move is extraordinarily stupid in that it would plunder a network built up over many years by the citizens of Ireland through licence fees and subsidization. This looks to be motivated purely by greed than any concern for the Irish citizens.

RTE´s assets are its programme making, its archives and its transmission and distribution infrastructure and its technological expertise. The move by the Irish government to sell off RTE´s transmission and distribution infrastructure would effectively reduce RTE to just another programme producer. However sale of the infrastructure without the corresponding technological expertise would be just a government initiated garage sale. RTE is the biggest employer of RF transmission and distribution expertise in the country. Traditionally there had been some Eircom/Telecom Eireann involvement with some of the microwave backhauls. The problem facing any sell-off is that without the knowledge and expertise that created the infrastructure, the whole thing is merely the purchase of the contents of a technology catalogue.

In the early nineties, one of the arguments for switching from terrestrial transmission to satellite transmission was that one satellite transponder could easily cover a country at a reduced cost. However the reality was that satellite distribution required a line of site path whereas UHF/VHF distribution is a lot more forgiving. There were some areas where satellite was not going to be viable. The satellite and terrestrial television markets have developed in tandem. It is only when a conditional access layer is applied can a reliable charging model be imposed.

Over the last twenty years there has been a movement towards pay television. Most of the premium channels on satellite and cable networks are subsciption based. In one sense RTE´s channels have always been subscription based in that they are subsidised by the licence fee. However that licence fee subsidy would no longer be justified if there was no infrastructure - RTE would be reduced to the status of just another programme provider.

The idea of private ownership of the methods of distribution has its own pitfalls. It would effectively place too much power in the hands of one company effectively providing a monopoly. The effects that such a monopoly could have on quality can be seen with Murdoch´s stranglehold/gatekeeper position on the UK´s satellite television market. Sky One is rarely accused of having high quality programming. Any channel wishing to launch a service to the UK has effectively to go through BSkyB.

RTE´s plan for a digital service would effectively allow for the inclusion of other channels on the package and it would have a far higher initial coverage. Providing a private operator with such a stranglehold on the future of Irish communications is not a good thing.