RTE TWO On DSat In N. Ireland

Any other NI viewers having problems receiving RTE TWO on DSat?

I'm sure it was blocked when I was flicking through the channels yesterday as well.

I first checked at lunchtime today. It has been blocked ever since. I reported the problem at around 5.30pm. I don't hold out much hope of having it corrected any time soon. I got a 'well, there's not much I can do only log it' response.

Yep, still blocked at half 2 in the morning!

At last - back to normal this morning!!

They appeared to be fiddling with things in the wee small hours. On the analogue service, I noticed that the old Network 2 DOG had returned at some point around 2am. It was still there a couple of hours later.

Here we go again!! RTE Racing was blocked out from 1.30pm. The blocking came in right at the start of the programme. Now, here we are ten minutes after the programme has finished and the channel remains blocked!!

Surely there must be some sort of automated way of peforming this function?!?!

But of course there is - they just haven't come to that page in the handbook yet.
"Ah sure it's only one channel, there's a good fillum on RTÉ 1 they can watch for the time being"

It is automated. There is a flag in the EPG information which triggers it. I would hazard a guess that someone has set the trigger to switch ON the "ROI ONLY" function, but forgot to set another one to switch it off again on the following event.

Don't forget that the planners compiling the schedule information suddenly speed up their work in the couple of weeks before Christmas and would have spent less time on each day than normal so they could get some time off.

It's amazing how much easier the job of a Pres Director is over the holidays when there are no people in offices making changes for the sake of it...

That being the case, I suspect that the only reason we were seeing RTE TWO this morning is because the start of the new day (6am or whenever) triggered an automatic reset of this flag within the EPG software to its default setting?

Lo and behold, first thing this morning, RTE TWO re-appears.

We have RTE Racing again at 1.15pm today - undoubtedly that will be blocked. Question is, can they cock this up three days in a row and have the blocking remain in place for the rest of the day?

The answer:

YES!!!

Absolute bloody farce. Exactly the same thing again. Block put in place for the RTE Racing programme. Still there over an hour-and-a-half after the programme has finished.

I've rung in a complaint. They are either offering a service or they aren't.

Why is the racing being blocked - are the rights only for the ROI?

I'm not sure why this is being blocked. It hasn't been in the past. I wouldn't be surprised if this is an example of an 'It's sport - if in doubt, just block it' policy. I'm sure I've noticed inconsistencies in the blocking of sports coverage before.

Well, I don't anticipate seeing RTE TWO again until 6am tomorrow morning. This type of couldn't care less attitude really pisses me off.

Presumably they put a few extra pennies on their ad charges to take transmissions in the North into consideration??

RTE TWO has re-appeared within the last half an hour - a little earlier than on the previous few nights.

That's hopefully an end to the afternoon and evening blackouts now. No racing tomorrow.