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Sky News now free-to-air on Irish DTT platform

Posted on 30th November 2021 by The Clean Feed Team
Last updated on 30th December 2022 Filed under News

As of 10.55am today, Sky News has been available free-to-air on Ireland’s Saorview platform, in standard definition.

Test transmissions for the news channel started on the Irish digital terrestrial network last week. Test card and tone was in use initially but this gave way to a Sky News logo (and silence) on Saturday,

At 9.32am today, the channel switched from 528×576 to 704×576. All other SD (standard definition) channels on the platform are 528×576.

At 9.33am, the 2RN test card (with integrated digital clock) and tone appeared. The test card remained in place (albeit with some brief interruptions) until 10.30am.

At that point, the Sky News logo reappeared, but was subject to regular picture distortion. The video clip below starts shortly before the test card gave way to the Sky News logo.

Shortly before 10.40am, we had black screen and flashing green bars. This rotated with the Sky News logo screen for the next fifteen minutes or so.

Our video clip picks up the action at 10.54am (32 seconds in), where the flashing green bars are replaced by the Sky News logo. Audio from the news channel is then faded up before the vision mixes through to Sky News, just in time for the closing seconds of Ian King Live, at 10.55am.

VIDEO: the final stages of the Saorview test transmission for Sky News followed by the launch of Sky News on Saorview. TX DATE: 30th November 2021. COPYRIGHT: Sky plc.

It’s worth noting that the addition of Sky News to the DTT channel line-up has resulted in a couple of changes:

  • A dedicated channel carrying a 2RN HD test signal has been discontinued.
  • A test channel which previously showed a 2RN test card (with integrated digital clock), accompanied by the audio from RTÉ Lyric FM, is now transmitting test tone instead of the radio channel. The digital clock was absent from this test card over the last few days but reappeared this morning. UPDATE: at some point during the day on 1st December, RTÉ Lyric FM sound was restored.

During the test transmissions for Sky News, the Saorview Information channel – which previously carried a video-based help guide on a loop – now showed a static caption, listing out the channel numbers for the various TV and radio services. However, the video loop returned today.

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FEATURE IMAGE:

PICTURED: the close of an edition of Ian King Live on Sky News, as shown on Saorview this morning. COPYRIGHT: Sky plc.

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Tags: Ian King, Ian King Live, Saorview, Sky News

Dates for the Diary

6th/7th February: BBC One West Midlands HD, BBC One East Yorkshire/Lincolnshire HD and BBC Alba HD launch on satellite. BBC One/Two Wales SD services close on satellite.

13th/14th February: BBC One West HD, BBC One South West HD, BBC One Channel Islands HD, BBC One London HD and BBC RB1 HD launch on satellite.

20th/21st February: BBC One North East and Cumbria HD, BBC One North West HD, BBC One Yorkshire HD and BBC Parliament HD launch on satellite. BBC One Scotland SD and BBC Scotland SD services close on satellite.

22nd/23rd February: BBC One South East HD launches on satellite.

February 2023: new set for BBC Midlands Today goes live.

13th February 2023: Sky Kids launches.

Q1 2023: BBC Chameleon branding introduced on air for BBC Weather, CBBC and CBeebies.

April 2023: BBC News Channel and BBC World News merge.

November/December 2023: World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC-23).

Q1 2024: SD versions of BBC channels close on satellite.

2024: BBC Four and CBBC go online-only.

2024: BBC Radio 4 Extra goes online-only.

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