SOUNDING OFF: Ripped off? Stunned by good service? Write, blog or text your experience to us
A number of readers were prompted to get in touch about last week's piece on digital terrestrial television. First up was Donal Hannigan who says he found it hard to accept RTÉ's argument that it could not broadcast imported programmes such as Desperate Housewiveson freeview satellite systems because it did not have the broadcast rights. He pointed out that other broadcasters also have to buy these programmes from the USA "and I'm still able to watch their offerings on my freeview system". He cites Channel 4 as a case in point and asks "who is RTÉ kidding?" We did put that point to an RTÉ spokeswoman when researching the piece but were told that as a small broadcaster in a relatively small market, it was more exposed to the threat of legal action.
Incidentally, our suggestion that RTÉ might have to scale back its DTT plans in light of current economic difficulties was denied, so we were surprised a week later when the national broadcaster announced it was scrapping its plans for an international channel to allow it broadcast at least some of its programming on freesat services.
We were also contacted by Stuart Lawn, a director of one of the companies involved in the recent Irish HD Trial. "I would like to say that Ireland's apparent late entry into the DTT market will serve us for the better rather than the worse," he wrote. "The UK DTT system uses the now-inferior MPEG2 system and will have to be replaced by the MPEG4 system when the freeview systems go to high-definition broadcast. This will mean that consumers in the UK will have to dump their existing freeview set-top boxes for a new 'HD Ready' box."
For his part, however, David O'Higgins remains to be convinced of the merits of the digital television. He says it will increase cost to the consumer significantly "while delivering very little real benefit".
He points out that, at present, it is possible to feed multiple TVs in a house from a single analogue cable feed "if you live in the right place", with each user able to select what channel to watch; however, the "digital world will require a set-top box (or boxes) for each TV in order to achieve the same result", so he is afraid that will create the "potential for a large variety of installation and rental charges in the process. Life is about to get a whole lot more complicated!"
Would you credit it?
Jayme Street wants to know why Bank of Ireland "never bothered" to let him know that the credit card he has had for years has an APR of 20.1 per cent "and that they have much more competitive rates available". He cites the bank's "Clear" card, which has an APR of only 9.5 per cent. "It's my own fault for not being more diligent, but it's shocking that they do not inform their customers of things like this. They're pretty quick to contact me when they have something to sell!"
Cash mash
We are always hearing how Lidl and Aldi are so much cheaper than the competition so we were interested in a mail from Maitiú Standún which offered an alternate view. He bought a four-kilo bag of rooster potatoes in Aldi for €4.49, then discovered Get Fresh on the Sundrive Rd in Dublin was selling 10kg bags of the same variety of potatoes for only €5.99, and 20kgs for only €9.99. "I know where I'll be taking my business in future," he writes.
Pain gain
Colum Kenny was travelling in the UK recently and was "once more struck by the fact that paracetamol tablets costs less than half the price per tablet compared to standard prices in the Republic". He says the cheapest standard pack of 24 tablets in Ireland usually costs between €2 and €2.20 or approximately nine cent per tablet. "In the UK, you can readily find, for example, packs of 16 tablets for 50 to 55 pence, which equates to about 65 cent or approximately four cent each. If this is indicative of mark-ups generally in Ireland, it is not hard to understand why our health system soaks up so much money."
