O'Brien-backed group puts case for DTT licence

THE DENIS O'Brien-backed Boxer DTT Ltd consortium yesterday urged the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland to award it the three digital terrestrial television (DTT) multiplex licences on the basis that it is the only applicant with no conflict of interest.

Addressing at a public hearing of the bids in Dublin yesterday, Lucy Gaffney, who chairs Boxer DTT, said: "We have no conflict of interest. We are not in cable, we are not in satellite, we are not in content. We are purely a DTT company.

"If the existing players in the market are simply repackaging their services, then we are not giving the consumer choice."

Boxer is backed by Mr O'Brien's Communicorp group and Swedish DTT provider Boxer TV Access. BT Ireland is supporting the bid.

Boxer's rivals for the three DTT licences are EasyTV, which is backed by RTÉ and Liberty Global, which owns the NTL and Chorus cable TV providers; and OneVision, which is supported by TV3, Setanta Sports, telecoms provider Eircom and DTT specialist Arqiva.

DTT is set to replace the existing analogue signal, which will be turned off around 2012. Irish homes can currently get terrestrial TV stations via an analogue signal through an aerial.

Under the DTT regime, home owners must have a set-top box to receive free-to-air terrestrial TV.

Liberty Global executive Shane O'Neill described EasyTV's financial plan as "robust, fully financed and realistically achievable".

EasyTV is proposing a €16 million marketing budget for the DTT licences and has projected turnover of €29 million by 2012, at which point it believes it will be at breakeven.

By contrast, Boxer is proposing to spend €20 million on branding in its first four years and €6 million in "co-operative" marketing with retailers and other groups to promote the sale of set-top boxes.

Boxer expects to break even by 2014 and have annual revenues of €50 million. Boxer has also offered to lodge a €2 million performance bond to the BCI that it would lose if the group failed to meet the target of 92 per cent population reach by 2012.

OneVision, meanwhile, has set aside a launch budget of €30 million. No projected revenue figure was released by the consortium yesterday.

Boxer said it would offer free set-top boxes to customers, although it is not clear if they will be charged for the smart card that is needed to operate the boxes.

EasyTV said its set-top box would cost consumers €99-€149 depending on the subscription they choose. The consortium plans to enable its set-top boxes for high definition broadcasts and to offer digital video recording capability, that would allow viewers to pause live TV and record programmes.

OneVision plans to charge about €50 for the box.