Ireland's Second City Denied Live Gaa Coverage

[slievegullion]

Is anyone else from Belfast or the surounding area angered that we were unable to watch three of the four football provincial finals?

TV3 can be picked up with terrestial aerial in some border regions as far as I know but cannot be picked up in Belfast and I assume the surrounding areas and counties such as Antrm (unless you use some sort of super strong aerial? but not that I know of). Setanta was carrying this coverage until its recent collapse, even then you were only able to watch the games if you were a setanta subscriber.

I think this is wholly unacceptable that many Ulster Gaels have been denied the chance to watch these games live. Blame for this must be placed squarely with the GAA. They should ensure when selling TV rights that the broadcaster has the ability to provide the coverage to the whole county and on a free basis.

[Mike Sheehy]

reception was fine in Cork from what I hear

[slievegullion]

Typical partitionist response.

[boojangles]

Don't rise to the bait Gullion.Hav to agree with ya here,total disgrace.GAAs response would probably be along the lines,Sure if ya wanna see the games,travel to see them.

[Gnevin]

Can't you pick up an old Sky box from a Mexican and use that?

[slievegullion]

Is anyone else from Belfast or the surounding area angered that we were unable to watch three of the four football provincial finals?

TV3 can be picked up with terrestial aerial in some border regions as far as I know but cannot be picked up in Belfast and I assume the surrounding areas and counties such as Antrm (unless you use some sort of super strong aerial? but not that I know of).

TV3 use the same transmitter infrastructure as that of RTÉ but don't use all the sites available. The main (only?) TV transmitter that can be received in Belfast is the Clermont Carn transmitter in Co. Louth and this carries not only RTÉ 1 and 2, but also TV3 and TG4, reception varies in different parts of the city & greater area from completely dead to fine on an indoor aerial on an upstairs bedroom.

If you are able to receive RTÉ1, RTÉ2 and TG4 terrestrially in the city (not just TG4), then TV3 is also available, it needs to be tuned into UHF channel 66 or E66, if it asks for an actual frequency it is 831.25MHz.

Setanta was carrying this coverage until its recent collapse, even then you were only able to watch the games if you were a setanta subscriber.

I think this is wholly unacceptable that many Ulster Gaels have been denied the chance to watch these games live. Blame for this must be placed squarely with the GAA. They should ensure when selling TV rights that the broadcaster has the ability to provide the coverage to the whole county and on a free basis.

TV3 officially only cover 85% of the population of the Republic in the first place with their terrestrial network, various "backwaters" such as Castlebar, Westport, Clonmel, Dungarvan, Greystones, Listowel, Letterkenny and Monaghan just to mention some are not officially covered. Even RTÉ only officially cover around 97-98% of the population in the Republic, which still leaves around 100,000 people outside of their coverage with either sub-standard coverage or having to rely on satellite, cable or MMDS which are all pay TV platforms. RTÉ's geographical coverage in the north is at around 80-85% though I haven't any figures for population coverage, I suspect it's around 50-60%.

if the same transmitters carry all the channels then how come i can get tg4 perfectly with a roof aerial but struggle with rte and have absolutely no signal for tv3? i take your point about rte not being available to everyone either but at least it is available on digital with sky or virgin on the cheapest basic package, so in theory everyone has access . tv3 is undeniably unavailable to a significant amount of people and when it was available on digital it was at a premium rate.

[slievegullion]

Is anyone else from Belfast or the surounding area angered that we were unable to watch three of the four football provincial finals?

TV3 can be picked up with terrestial aerial in some border regions as far as I know but cannot be picked up in Belfast and I assume the surrounding areas and counties such as Antrm (unless you use some sort of super strong aerial? but not that I know of).

TV3 use the same transmitter infrastructure as that of RTÉ but don't use all the sites available. The main (only?) TV transmitter that can be received in Belfast is the Clermont Carn transmitter in Co. Louth and this carries not only RTÉ 1 and 2, but also TV3 and TG4, reception varies in different parts of the city & greater area from completely dead to fine on an indoor aerial on an upstairs bedroom.

If you are able to receive RTÉ1, RTÉ2 and TG4 terrestrially in the city (not just TG4), then TV3 is also available, it needs to be tuned into UHF channel 66 or E66, if it asks for an actual frequency it is 831.25MHz.

Setanta was carrying this coverage until its recent collapse, even then you were only able to watch the games if you were a setanta subscriber.

I think this is wholly unacceptable that many Ulster Gaels have been denied the chance to watch these games live. Blame for this must be placed squarely with the GAA. They should ensure when selling TV rights that the broadcaster has the ability to provide the coverage to the whole county and on a free basis.

TV3 officially only cover 85% of the population of the Republic in the first place with their terrestrial network, various "backwaters" such as Castlebar, Westport, Clonmel, Dungarvan, Greystones, Listowel, Letterkenny and Monaghan just to mention some are not officially covered. Even RTÉ only officially cover around 97-98% of the population in the Republic, which still leaves around 100,000 people outside of their coverage with either sub-standard coverage or having to rely on satellite, cable or MMDS which are all pay TV platforms. RTÉ's geographical coverage in the north is at around 80-85% though I haven't any figures for population coverage, I suspect it's around 50-60%.

if the same transmitters carry all the channels then how come i can get tg4 perfectly with a roof aerial but struggle with rte and have absolutely no signal for tv3? i take your point about rte not being available to everyone either but at least it is available on digital with sky or virgin on the cheapest basic package, so in theory everyone has access . tv3 is undeniably unavailable to a significant amount of people and when it was available on digital it was at a premium rate.

TG4 have a transmitter on Divis Mountain to broadcast into parts of Belfast on channel E59. This is relayed from Clermont Carn. This was set up as part of the Good Grief Disagreement.

There have been some issues in the Clermont Carn TV service area regarding reception of TV3 and TG4, this is because they use higher frequencies than those used by RTÉ1 and RTÉ2 which are prone to being screened a little bit more, plus aerials designed for that part of the UHF band that TV3 and TG4 are on are at the very edge of the band where they don't perform as well, especially cheaper aerials. Many of the RTÉ aerials in Belfast were erected when there was only two channels broadcasting in the south and so were optimised for them and not for TV3 and TG4 who both came about later. Belfast viewers also never had the same inkling to put massive aerials for fringe signals on 20 metre poles with guy wires like southerners have done for decades to receive UK television broadcasts from either up north or from Wales, indeed most RTÉ aerial installations I've seen in Belfast aren't designed for fringe reception yet many still complain of poor reception. Only places like pubs seem to be willing to get the job done properly or at least pay for it to be done right.

TV3 has never been formally available in N.I. except via terrestrial overspill - it has never officially been carried by Virgin Media and in not available to northern viewers on Sky, and while their spat with UTV continues they won't be for the foreseeable future. Also I would not count on being only available in a certain area via a pay-tv platform towards counting towards universal access.

To cap of, TV3 does have issues with it's coverage, but it has questions hanging over that in its own jurisdiction let alone northwards as well.

So you're agreeing with me then.

Anyway back to the point, it is completely unacceptable and I believe the GAA has shown a real neglect for Ulster Gaels in allowing this to happen.

[Cúig huaire]

Is there anything stopping these "Ulster Gaels" from going to the games?

[deiseach]

You're effectively saying that all live matches should be broadcast on RTÉ. I'd love to see the GAA try to negotiate a TV deal with RTÉ when the Montrose mandarins know that they are the only game in town

[pintsofguinness]

Is anyone else from Belfast or the surounding area angered that we were unable to watch three of the four football provincial finals?

TV3 can be picked up with terrestial aerial in some border regions as far as I know but cannot be picked up in Belfast and I assume the surrounding areas and counties such as Antrm (unless you use some sort of super strong aerial? but not that I know of). Setanta was carrying this coverage until its recent collapse, even then you were only able to watch the games if you were a setanta subscriber.

I think this is wholly unacceptable that many Ulster Gaels have been denied the chance to watch these games live. Blame for this must be placed squarely with the GAA. They should ensure when selling TV rights that the broadcaster has the ability to provide the coverage to the whole county and on a free basis.

It's a joke alright, I wish the GAA would need to get their coverage sorted, not just for Ireland but abroad as well.  That said I think TV3 does a good job with the coverage, I'd rather them than RTE in fact but it's no good if most of the north can't watch!

[magickingdom]

its bulshit that rte 1,2 tv 3 and tg4 are not available to everyone free in the north. thought under the good friday agreement it was to be done. it should have been done long ago

[pintsofguinness]

Is there anything stopping these "Ulster Gaels" from going to the games?

[slievegullion]

You're effectively saying that all live matches should be broadcast on RTÉ. I'd love to see the GAA try to negotiate a TV deal with RTÉ when the Montrose mandarins know that they are the only game in town

How am I effectively saying that? I'm saying the GAA should ensure that there are structures in place for every province in Ireland to be able to access the games before they agree a deal with a tv company. It would not be hard to organise that games would somehow be shown in the north.

[slievegullion]

Is there anything stopping these "Ulster Gaels" from going to the games?

Thats reasonable rational thought right there. Exactly, sure why should they broadcast into a home in Coleraine when they could simply travel the 9 hour drive there and back to Cork to watch a Hurling qualifier.

[deiseach]

How am I effectively saying that? I'm saying the GAA should ensure that there are structures in place for every province in Ireland to be able to access the games before they agree a deal with a tv company. It would not be hard to organise that games would somehow be shown in the north.

I would say it would be very hard. It would require a level of cooperation between broadcasters across the island that seems unlikely. Don't get me wrong, money isn't everything and the GAA should be motivated by the desire to ensure the coverage is truly nationwide. But don't come complaining when the rights are sold for the equivalent of a few magic beans