Irish DTT test in October
June 3, 2010
Minister Eamon Ryan has said a DTT test will launch in Ireland this October of this year, the latest in a long line of trials for the standard since 2006.
Minister Ryan said he had told RTE that a full DTT service will be up and running in Ireland by 31st December 2011. This will make it extremely difficult for Ireland to meet an EU deadline which requires member states to have made the analogue switch-over by 2012 at the latest.
DTT has suffered a number of setbacks in Ireland since it was first mooted in the late 1990s, the latest of which has been a failure to gain commercial involvement in the platform. RTÉ now seems destined to go it alone with a single multiplex, meaning digital television will offer viewers only a handful of extra channels at best.