RTÉ revisited in flick of a switch

CHORUS AND NTL digital TV subscribers already have access to hundreds of television and radio stations, and can record hours of material on their set-top boxes, but they could soon be able to look back at old RTÉ programmes from the comfort of their armchairs.

Shane O'Neill, chief strategy officer with Liberty Global, the ultimate parent group of Chorus NTL, told me this week that the cable TV group is in talks with RTÉ about making its State broadcaster's iPlayer available through its digital set-top boxes.

The player allows you to catch up on RTÉ programming up to 21 days after it has been broadcast. It is currently only available online. O'Neill wants to replicate a similar deal in Britain, where Virgin Media carries the BBC's iPlayer on its cable services. "We've started talking to them and I'm very confident that we will get to do it in late 2010," O'Neill said. "We know this is something people really value." O'Neill hopes the addition of the RTÉ player onto its digital set-top boxes might bolster Chorus and NTL's flagging TV subscriber base.

Chorus and NTL had 518,700 analogue and digital TV subscribers at the end of June. This was 7.8 per cent lower than a year earlier and it is now the number two in the market here to satellite group BSkyB. "We are disappointed with our TV [ subscriber] numbers," O'Neill admitted, "but we've been playing with one hand behind our back." That's a reference to a much-needed €1 billion investment in its network in recent years. "You will see us really ramp up on high-definition TV now and video-on-demand is coming too."

In time, you might not have to wait for the next episode of your favourite show to be broadcast in sequence. "If you're a mad fan of, say, The Wire, and you don't want to wait for the next episode, you might pay €2 extra to see it straight away."

Separately, the proposed launch of City Channel, which Liberty Global co-owns with David Harvey, into Hungary has been put on ice. "We had great hopes for it but the ad market in Budapest just collapsed."

Liberty, he said, has no interest in buying troubled Smart Telecom, as its focus is mostly business customers and would not fit with the residential broadband and fixed-line services offered by Chorus and NTL.