Following the recent death of Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh (June 25th 2024) it reminded me of a post I wrote when he retired in 2010.
Irish Overseas Broadcasting was written in September 2010 for the website ilikeradio.net now archived here on radio.ie
It is still a good read and a bit dated, but it guessed the demise of DAB where RTE put Mediumwave funding after it closed that service to the UK (March 24th 2008) . In general it takes a look at RTÉ and how they are slow to move with new technology and are really bad and serving the Irish abroad, although their plan to put RTE Radio in UK cities with small scale DAB is now a legal reality, if though RTÉ may now not have the cash for this venture any longer.
Since the article was written RTÉ pulled the plug on DAB (March 31st 2021) and Longwave 252 (April 14th 2023 minutes after President Joe Biden gave a public address from Ballina Co, Mayo). These 2 broadcasting withdrawals were seemingly unrelated to the other controversies that have engulfed the national broadcaster. Now RTÉ has a 5 year plan and 3 year funding to continue in a slimed down state.
The internet is a healthier place for delivering content in a technical capacity, but as this medium has matured it has also become a more difficult place to disseminate content due to rights issues and geo blocks.
It takes vision to see beyond the roadblocks and see and hear the diaspora, so they can see and hear Ireland via its national broadcaster. Irish Overseas Broadcasting or content delivery is still much needed and there is a wonderful archive of content in RTÉ that should be on the RTÉ Player or opened up to be on any Irish Player that cares to serve this content with new context.
If other groups see a market in the gap to serve the largest national diaspora on planet earth, then every assistance of our national broadcaster should help make it happen, after all, we all fund RTÉ, it is our public service channel.
Technical changes means integrated streaming and broadcasting players which are truly cross platform (such as DVB-I) can deliver Irish content to wherever people want to see and hear it.
Read the 2010 post here Irish Overseas Broadcasting.