Sky Ireland

Last updated

Sky Ireland Ltd
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Mass media
Founded1990;34 years ago (1990)
Headquarters Dublin, Ireland
Area served
Ireland
Key people
JD Buckley (CEO)
Services Pay TV
Broadband
Phone
Parent Sky UK
Subsidiaries Now TV
Website www.sky.com/ie

Sky Ireland Limited is a subsidiary of Comcast-owned Sky UK and supplies television, internet and telephony services in Ireland. [1] [2]

Contents

Its corporate headquarters are in Dublin which were opened by Taoiseach Enda Kenny on 18 January 2013. [2]

Sky Ireland employs around 900 staff in Dublin. [3]

History

Broadcasting

Sky Minidish Sky minidish.JPG
Sky Minidish

Transmission

When Sky Digital was launched in 1998 the new service used the Astra 2A satellite which was located at the 28.5°E orbital position, unlike the analogue service which was broadcast from 19.2°E. This was subsequently followed by more Astra satellites as well as Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 (now Eutelsat 28A) at 28.5°E), enabled the company to launch a new all-digital service, Sky, with the potential to carry hundreds of television and radio channels. [6] The old position was shared with broadcasters from several European countries, while the new position at 28.5°E came to be used almost exclusively for channels that broadcast to the United Kingdom and Ireland.

New Astra satellites joined the position in 2000 and 2001, and the number of channels available to customers increased accordingly. This trend continued with the launch of Eurobird 1 (now Eutelsat 28A) in 2001. Additionally, some channels occasionally received new numbering However, in early 2006, the majority of channels received new numbering, with some receiving single digit changes, whilst others received new numbers entirely.

Sky is currently transmitted from the Astra satellites located at 28.2° east (2A/2C/2E/2F) and Eutelsat's Eutelsat 28A satellite at 28.5°E.

Standard definition broadcasts

Sky's standard definition broadcasts are in DVB-compliant MPEG-2, with the Sky Cinema and Sky Box Office channels including optional Dolby Digital soundtracks for recent films, although these are only accessible with a Sky+ box. Sky+ HD material is broadcast using MPEG-4 and most of the HD material uses the DVB-S2 standard. Interactive services and 7-day EPG use the proprietary OpenTV system, with set-top boxes including modems for a return path. Sky News, amongst other channels, provides a pseudo-video on demand interactive service by broadcasting looping video streams.

Digital satellite receivers

Sky utilises the VideoGuard pay-TV scrambling system owned by NDS, a Cisco Systems company. There are tight controls over use of VideoGuard decoders; they are not available as stand-alone DVB CAMs (conditional-access modules). Sky has design authority over all digital satellite receivers capable of receiving their service. The receivers, though designed and built by different manufacturers, must conform to the same user interface look-and-feel as all the others. This extends to the Personal video recorder (PVR) offering (branded Sky+).

Electronic programme guide

Technology

Sky maintains an electronic programme guide (EPG) which provides information about upcoming programmes and a list of channels. Channels available on Sky are assigned a three digit logical channel number which can be entered on a remote control to access the channel and determines in what order channels are listed.

The EPG in Ireland gives priority to Irish channels. All channels are grouped into categories depending on their content. What section of the EPG a channel gets allocated is determined by rules set up by Sky Ireland.

Sky Ireland has no veto over the presence of channels on their EPG. Any channel which can get carriage on a suitable beam of a satellite at 28° East is entitled to access to Sky's EPG for a fee. Third-party channels which opt for encryption receive discounts ranging from reduced price to free EPG entries, free carriage on a Sky leased transponder, or actual payment for being carried. However, even in this case, Sky does not carry any control over the channel's content or carriage issues such as picture quality.

In October 2007, Sky's parent company Sky plc (then BSkyB) announced that they would not accept new applications to launch channel on their EPG, citing "very significant memory constraints" on many of its older digiboxes. [7]

In June 2012, Sky Ireland launched a new EPG for Sky+ HD boxes. The update boasts a new modernised look and improved functionality.

Sky Ireland EPG

The Sky EPG lists all channels carried on the Sky platform. Many channels are free, others are available only with a subscription.

Sky Ireland Channels

Channels on this list are owned by Sky and broadcast advertising specifically for the Irish market.

Television channels

Sky, and its sister companies, operate a number of channels in the UK and Ireland with some being joint ventures with other companies:

Active

Entertainment

Lifestyle

  • Blaze [8] (joint venture with A+E Networks UK)

Factual

News

Sports

Movies

  • Sky Cinema Premiere
  • Sky Cinema Select
  • Sky Cinema Hits
  • Sky Cinema Greats
  • Sky Cinema Animation
  • Sky Cinema Family
  • Sky Cinema Action
  • Sky Cinema Comedy
  • Sky Cinema Thriller
  • Sky Cinema Drama
  • Sky Cinema Sci-Fi Horror

Kids

Some other channels available on the Sky platform also carry Irish advertising, such as the channels provided by Channel 4.

Restrictions

Sky subscribers in Ireland have a different choice of channels compared subscribers in the UK, Germany, Austria and Italy. The standard Irish channels RTÉ One, RTÉ One +1, RTÉ2, RTÉ2 +1, RTÉjr, RTÉ News, TG4, Cúla4, Virgin Media One, Virgin Media Two, Virgin Media Three, Virgin Media Four and Oireachtas TV are available to all Irish subscribers. These channels are described in some Sky publications as "bonus channels". [9]

These channels are free-to-air channels but encrypted to avoid being shown outside of Ireland and Northern Ireland (where applicable). The channels are included with the Sky Signature package and are also available unencrypted on Saorview and Saorsat, excluding Virgin Media channels, which are only available on Saorview. [10]

The BBC provide a number of their channels on the Irish version of Sky's EPG. BBC One Northern Ireland, BBC Two Northern Ireland, BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC and Cbeebies along with their HD variants are available on the EPG. Other BBC channels including BBC News, BBC Parliament and the BBC regions can be tuned in manually to all Sky boxes.

Channel 4 provide all of their entertainment channels except 4Seven and More 4+1 on Sky Ireland's EPG. Channel 4's The Box Plus Network's 4Music is available but their other channels (The Box, Kerrang!, Magic and Kiss are also not on the EPG in Ireland. As these are all free-to-air channels, they can be manually tuned.

Welsh-language station S4C was carried by Sky Ireland for many years where its rugby union broadcasts were popular despite the language barrier; it was removed from the EPG in August 2018 due to rights issues. [11]

ITV and the Channel 5 family of channels have to be added manually to Sky boxes in Ireland. [12]

Sky Ireland Broadband

In February 2013 BSkyB launched its broadband and telephone product in Ireland, and have made significant headway into the Irish market as one of the few providers offering 'triple play' (phone, broadband and digital TV) to the public. As Sky's broadband and phone services use the existing telephone network (LLU and non-LLU) and is widely available as a result. Sky Ireland has offered fibre broadband, using the network of former incumbent, eir, with speeds of up to 100 Mbit/s since 26 December 2014.

As of September 2019, Sky has a 13% market share of broadband subscriptions. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

Television in the Republic of Ireland is available through a variety of platforms. The digital terrestrial television service is known as Saorview and is the primary source of broadcast television since analogue transmissions ended on 24 October 2012. Digital satellite and digital cable are also widely used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sky UK</span> British telecommunications company

Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of Sky Group and, from 2018 onwards, part of Comcast. It is the UK's largest pay-TV broadcaster, with 12.7 million customers as of the end of 2019 for its digital satellite TV platform. Sky's flagship products are Sky Q and the internet-based Sky Glass, and its flagship channels are Sky Showcase, Sky Max, and Sky Atlantic.

Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group. In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema on demand content are available through these as well as via Now, EE TV and TalkTalk TV.

Free-to-view (FTV) is a term used for audiovisual transmissions that are provided free without any form of continual subscription. It differs from free-to-air (FTA) in that the program is encrypted.

Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Everyone TV. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Freesat offers a satellite alternative to the Freeview service on digital terrestrial television, with a broadly similar selection of channels available without subscription for users purchasing a receiver.

Freesat from Sky (FsfS) was a British satellite television service from Sky UK. It offered over 240 free-to-air (FTA) channels in its EPG. This is a greater number than its competitors, Freesat, which has 200+, and Freeview, which has 70+. It also had up to six HD channels and used to have Sky Active interactive data service. Sky was not actively promoting the service and the service has quietly been discontinued for new customers as of 2021.

Sky+ HD was the brand name of the HDTV service launched by Sky plc on 22 May 2006 in the United Kingdom and Ireland to enable high definition channels on Sky to be viewed. For the first two years after launch, the service was branded Sky HD. The service requires the user to have a Sky+ HD Digibox and an HD ready TV. A subscription to the original HD pack carries an extra fee of £10.25 a month in addition to the standard Sky subscription, allowing customers to view HD channels corresponding to the channel packs subscribed to. Additional Pay-Per-View events on Sky Box Office HD are not available to customers unless they subscribe to the Sky HD pack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sky Deutschland</span> German media company

Sky Deutschland GmbH, branded as Sky, is a German media company that operates a direct broadcast satellite Pay TV platform in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It provides a collection of basic and premium digital subscription television channels of different categories via satellite and cable television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EE TV</span> British television service

EE TV is a subscription IPTV service offered by BT; a division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BT Group, and was originally launched as BT Vision in December 2006. As of the end of June 2019, BT TV had 1.9 million customers.

Television in Northern Ireland is available using, digital terrestrial, digital satellite and cable.

Saorview is the national digital terrestrial television (DTT) service in Ireland. It is owned by RTÉ and operated by 2RN.

Saorsat is a free-to-air satellite service in Ireland. The service launched on 3 May 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Real Digital</span> Direct broadcast digital satellite television and radio service in the United Kingdom

Real Digital was the brand name for a digital satellite television and radio service in the United Kingdom which was transmitted from SES S.A.'s Astra satellites located at 28.2° east and Eutelsat's 28A satellite at 28.5°E. Real Digital had planned to launch in Ireland. The service ceased transmitting on 31 March 2012 to "undergo essential maintenance work", and promised to return in approximately seven days. On 26 April 2013, David Henry informed The Guardian that the service intended to launch in the autumn.As of January 2015, the service had not launched. The company was dissolved in September 2018.

Astra 2F is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES S.A., launched in September 2012 to the Astra 28.2°E orbital position. The satellite provides free-to-air and encrypted direct-to-home (DTH) digital television and satellite broadband services for Europe and Africa.

Astra 2E is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES S.A., launched to the Astra 28.2°E orbital position on 30 September 2013 after a 10-week delay caused by launcher problems. The satellite provides free-to-air and encrypted direct-to-home (DTH) digital television and satellite broadband services for Europe and the Middle East.

Astra 2G is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES, launched to the Astra 28.2°E orbital position on 27 December 2014, at 21:37:49 UTC from Baikonur Cosmodrome.

This is a timeline of the history of Sky Television.

This is a timeline of cable television in the United Kingdom.

References

  1. "BSkyB Ireland - The Irish Film & Television Network". iftn.ie.
  2. 1 2 "Sky to invest Euro 1bn in Dublin HQ". Irish Times. 28 January 2013. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  3. Slattery, Laura. "Sky Ireland makes management changes as it targets broadband". The Irish Times. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  4. "Sky TV plans €1bn Irish expansion with move into broadband and phone". Independent.ie.
  5. McGreevy, Ronan. "Sky will invest €1.25bn in Ireland over five years, chief says". The Irish Times. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  6. Sky on Eutelsat 28A & Astra 1N/2A/2B at 28.2°E - LyngSat
  7. "Sky to reject new channel applications". The Guardian. 5 October 2007.
  8. 1 2 "Who we are". 25 February 2017.
  9. "Your contracts (p20)" (PDF).
  10. "SAORSAT". Archived from the original on 29 November 2014.
  11. "S4C taken off Irish Sky EPG".
  12. Tuning guide for all uk fta channels, Posters on www.boards.ie, 14 September 2007, retrieved 29 June 2009
  13. Quarterly Key Data Report Q3 2019 - Commission for Communications Regulation, 12 December 2019