Cable television in the Republic of Ireland on:  
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Cable (originally known in Ireland as "piped" television) first started in 1963, when several companies, including state broadcaster
RTÉ
(RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...
, started relaying the UK's terrestrial TV channels in some cities and larger towns. Today all Irish cities and many larger towns have cable networks.
Technology
Ireland's cable television networks are entirely digital
DVB-C
Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable (DVB-C) is the DVB European consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital television over cable. This system transmits an MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 family digital audio/digital video stream, using a QAM ...
services. However, in many areas, a small number (approximately 16) analogue channels were carried alongside digital services until 2019.
The legacy analogue cable television services provided unencrypted
PAL
Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...
System I television channels.
Frequency plan
A frequency plan, bandplan, band plan or wavelength plan is a plan for using a particular band of radio frequencies, that are a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Each frequency plan defines the frequency range to be included, how channels a ...
s varied from place to place and channels were carried in VHF Band I, Band III, Hyperband and sometimes UHF Band IV.
In the past, additional encrypted premium analogue channels were also available. To view these channels a set top box was required. Cablelink /
NTL Ireland
NTL Communications (Ireland) Limited was a cable television and Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) company in Ireland. As of 2005 it was owned by Liberty Global Europe (see history, below), having been divested by NTL. It was r ...
used Cryptovision, while some other companies, notably Cork Multichannel, used
Jerrold
Jerrold or ''Jerold'' are masculine English given name variants of Gerald, a German language name meaning "rule of the spear" from the prefix ''ger-'' ("spear") and suffix ''-wald'' ("rule"). Jerrold was initially brought to Great Britain by the ...
(
General Instrument
General Instrument (GI) was an American electronics manufacturer based in Horsham, Pennsylvania, specializing in semiconductors and cable television equipment. They formed in New York City in 1923 as an electronics manufacturer. During the 1950s, ...
) scrambling systems.
Cork City
Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city' ...
and other areas cabled by Cork Multichannel Television required a
Jerrold
Jerrold or ''Jerold'' are masculine English given name variants of Gerald, a German language name meaning "rule of the spear" from the prefix ''ger-'' ("spear") and suffix ''-wald'' ("rule"). Jerrold was initially brought to Great Britain by the ...
(
General Instrument
General Instrument (GI) was an American electronics manufacturer based in Horsham, Pennsylvania, specializing in semiconductors and cable television equipment. They formed in New York City in 1923 as an electronics manufacturer. During the 1950s, ...
) set top box for all channels. The entire Cork analogue cable network was encrypted from the late 1980s onwards. The Cork network also carried more channels than other cable networks in Ireland at that time.
When digital cable was launched in Cork,
Virgin Media Ireland
Virgin Media Ireland is Liberty Global's telecommunications operation in Ireland. It is the largest digital cable television provider within the country. As of 31 December 2014, the company offers broadband internet, digital television and ...
rapidly swapped analogue set top boxes for digital boxes and then shutdown the analogue service entirely. The network carried analogue terrestrial channels,
RTÉ1,
RTÉ2
RTÉ2 is an Television in the Republic of Ireland, Irish free-to-air television channel operated by public service broadcaster RTÉ. It was launched in 1978 as the Republic of Ireland's second television channel.
History
In the 1970s, the Iri ...
,
TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to:
Television
*Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso
*Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala
*Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...
and
TG4
TG4 ( ga, TG Ceathair, ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television network. The channel launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond.
TG4 was formerly known ...
in some parts of the network until 2018. This means that Cork became the first city in Ireland with an exclusively digital cable network.
For analogue cable in Ireland there was no set frequency plan. Most cable networks for analogue used
Harmonically related carriers (carrier frequencies of exact 8 MHz multiples). Some cable networks such as Limerick used Irish terrestrial channel alignments or even a mixture of the two-channel plans.
Digital cable operates using
DVB-C
Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable (DVB-C) is the DVB European consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital television over cable. This system transmits an MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 family digital audio/digital video stream, using a QAM ...
, although encryption, as well as other platform details varies by provider. Most providers require the use of a set top box to view their television services.
Digital networks have far more sophisticated trunking systems. The five main Cities (
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
,
Cork
Cork or CORK may refer to:
Materials
* Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product
** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container
***Wine cork
Places Ireland
* Cork (city)
** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
,
Galway
Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...
,
Limerick
Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...
, and
Waterford
"Waterford remains the untaken city"
, mapsize = 220px
, pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe
, pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe
, pushpin_relief = 1
, coordinates ...
), along with towns like
Longford
Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...
,
Dungarvan
Dungarvan () is a coastal town and harbour in County Waterford, on the south-east coast of Ireland. Prior to the merger of Waterford County Council with Waterford City Council in 2014, Dungarvan was the county town and administrative centre of ...
,
Clonmel
Clonmel () is the county town and largest settlement of County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, Cromwellian army which sacked the towns of Dro ...
,
Thurles
Thurles (; ''Durlas Éile'') is a town in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is located in the civil parish of the same name in the barony of Eliogarty and in the ecclesiastical parish of Thurles (Roman Catholic parish), Thurles. The cathedral ch ...
,
Kilkenny
Kilkenny (). is a city in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region and in the province of Leinster. It is built on both banks of the River Nore. The 2016 census gave the total population of Kilkenny as 26,512.
Kilken ...
etc. now enjoy state of the art
Hybrid fibre-coaxial
Hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) is a telecommunications industry term for a broadband network that combines optical fiber and coaxial cable. It has been commonly employed globally by cable television operators since the early 1990s.
In a hybrid fi ...
networks which are used to deliver a myriad of services, including digital TV, broadband
DOCSIS
Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) is an international telecommunications standard that permits the addition of high-bandwidth data transfer to an existing cable television (CATV) system. It is used by many cable televisio ...
3.0, and
cable telephony
Cable telephony is a form of digital telephony over cable TV networks. A telephone interface installed at the customer's premises converts analog signals from the customer's in-home wiring to a digital signal, which is then sent over the cable conn ...
services.
Overhead cables (strung between buildings rather than
utility poles
A utility pole is a column or post typically made out of wood used to support overhead power lines and various other public utilities, such as electrical cable, fiber optic cable, and related equipment such as transformers and street lights. It c ...
as is the case in the United States) are common in areas constructed before the foundation of the local cable firm, or where the cable firm did not have a construction agreement with the builders; underground cables are more common in developments build post-1985.
History
In the early years of television Irish viewers had access to the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
via signals coming from
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
and
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
. By 1959 Northern Irish viewers had access to one public service broadcaster (BBC) and one commercial broadcaster (
Ulster Television
UTV (formerly Ulster Television, branded on air as ITV1) is the ITV region covering Northern Ireland, ITV subsidiary and the former on-air name of the free-to-air public broadcast television channel serving the area. It is run by ITV plc an ...
). The Secretary of the
Department of Posts and Telegraphs
The Minister for Posts and Telegraphs ( ga, Aire Poist agus Telegrafa) was the holder of a position in the Government of Ireland (and, earlier, in the Executive Council of the Irish Free State). From 1924 until 1984 – when it was abolished ...
- Leon O'Broin -had tried to progress the idea of an Irish channel since 1953, this new medium coming from the north was to spur the Irish government into action.
Teilifís Éireann began broadcasting on 31 December 1961. During these years many Irish radio listeners where listening to
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...
so the interest in
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...
would continue, some had been watching since 1953 via spillover signals. 1963 saw the first cable service from RTÉ under the name
RTÉ Relays, these tests were in preparation for the building of the
Ballymun
Ballymun () is an outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland, at the northern edge of the Northside, the green-field development of which began in the 1960s to accommodate a housing crisis in inner city areas of Dublin. While the newly built housing was ...
apartment blocks, which were built during these early years of RTÉ Television. RTÉ relays would opt to provide their service with the BBC and Ulster Television (later Cablelink would also provide
HTV from Wales).
The first major city outside Dublin to build a purpose-built Cable TV network under the new 1974 regulations was Waterford, which initially delivered service to some 6,000 homes in 1974. It supplied an analogue service to an estimated 14 - 16,000 homes in Waterford City, along with almost 5,000 cable broadband customers, including VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephony services.
Other cities followed suit, but not until the 1980s. First Cork in 1981, then Limerick in 1983 and Galway by 1985.
However, due to legislation regarding the use of microwave links at the time, companies were forced to lay untold kilometres of cable to get from the
headend to the city.
The cable connecting Cork to the Comeragh Mountains was 100 km (60 mi) in total: the longest cable TV route ever built in Europe. Casey Cablevision of Dungarvan, County Waterford held the Irish record previously, with a 25 km (16 mi) line connecting to the Comeragh Mountains headend. Cork Communications (Cork Multichannel TV) had initially built a head-end in the Knockmealdown mountains, but reception there was less than satisfactory and a deal was done after a few months in 1982 to use Casey Cablevision's headend.
The majority of major cable systems in Ireland now use fibre optics, however some smaller systems still use a mixture of microwave links, UHF antennae and direct satellite feeds to local headends.
By the 1980s cable television was well-established as the most popular multi-channel television reception system in Ireland. In addition to providing Irish and British terrestrial television, Irish
CATV
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...
systems generally began adding additional services during the 1980s as English-language services started to appear on European satellites that were receivable in Ireland. This greatly enhanced the number of channels available to customers. Property developers also began to pre-wire new homes for cable service where it was available. By the end of the decade, cable television was more popular than both direct reception of UHF television from the UK and satellite television.
Timeline of when Irish cities and towns received cable
* 1974 - Dublin City
* 1975 - Waterford, Celbridge, Arklow, Dundalk and Cavan
* 1976 - Glenties, Enniscorthy and New Ross
* 1978 - Boyle, Sligo and Mullingar
* 1979 - Carlow, Greystones, Rush and Ashbourne
* 1980 - Navan Town
* 1981 - Clonard Estate, Dundrum, Athlone, Dungarvan, Cork City and Naas
* 1982 - Longford and Swords
* 1983 - Bagenalstonwn, Maynooth and Limerick City
* 1984 - Portlaoise, Clane, Tullamore, Kilkenny Town and Portarlington
* 1985 - Buncrana, Carrigaline, Ballina , Clonmel and Nenagh
* 1986 - Galway City, Donegal Town and Newbridge
Further towns such as Thurles, Tipperary, Tullow, Ennis, Castlebar and Birr would be cabled during the late 1980s.
The provision of cable television was regularly debated in the Irish parliament (Dail Eireann) who set out details of years of cable licence operations in the country.
Multichannel
Long before any
coaxial cable
Coaxial cable, or coax (pronounced ) is a type of electrical cable consisting of an inner conductor surrounded by a concentric conducting shield, with the two separated by a dielectric ( insulating material); many coaxial cables also have a p ...
had been laid for the distribution of television in Ireland, the Irish were enjoying multi-channel TV. Even before Teilifís Éireann had begun to broadcast, Irish viewers were watching the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and