Saorview ( ) is the national digital terrestrial television (DTT) service in Ireland. It is owned by RTÃÂ and operated by 2RN.
The service began operation on 29 October 2010 on a trial basis with a full launch on 26 May 2011. By legislation it was required to be available to approximately 90% of the population by end of October 2010 in a public testing capacity and nationwide by December 2011. The national public launch was preceded by a public information campaign, which began on 15 March 2011, with television and radio advertising beginning on 17 March 2011.
Saorview was officially launched on 26 May 2011 by Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte and the service became the primary source of broadcast television in Ireland following the ending of analogue transmissions on 24 October 2012.
Saorview is Ireland's national DTT service. The Irish word means "free"; thus it is a partial calque of Freeview, the name of the DTT service of the United Kingdom.
Saorview is available from 64 DTT transmitters covering 98% of the population as of the end of Q3 2012. The previous analogue terrestrial television (ATT) network was available to 98% of the population from 150 ATT transmitters, however TV3 and TG4 were not available on all transmitters.
The service is a DVB-T/MPEG-4 HD broadcast that is received via set-top box (STB) receiver or iDTV and a UHF aerial is required. MHEG-5 is the middleware standard for digital teletext. Programme information is displayed through the receiver's own inbuilt EPG. Either DVB or Teletext subtitling can be displayed when broadcast.
Mary Curtis became Director of Digital Switchover (DSO) in September 2010 and reported to the Director General. She oversaw the transition from Analogue to Digital TV broadcast, which was completed in October 2012.
The service was launched in 2011 with the ASO campaign phase beginning Dec 2011. Two campaigns were launched. The first campaign was marketing Saorview and was paid for by RTÃÂ, this cost RTàover â¬3million, meanwhile, a second campaign featuring Gay Byrne was also launched by the Department of Communications, it also cost in the region of â¬3million. Both campaigns used social media such as Facebook and Twitter alongside their own websites www.goingdigital.ie (now defunct) and saorview.ie.
Saorview on launch carried just one High Definition (HD) channel â RTàTwo HD, along with 7 Standard Definition (SD) channels and along with RTÃÂ's 10 radio stations. The second HD channel to launch was RTàOne HD on 16 December 2013. TG4 HD joined the platform on 1 December 2022.
UTV Ireland joined Saorview for its launch on 1 January 2015. It was later bought by rival TV3 and rebranded as be3, later all TV3 channels would be rebranded as Virgin Media Television, and this channel was renamed Virgin Media Three.
Radio Maria Ireland was added to the service in September 2018. In December 2021 UCB Ireland radio joined Saorview, however they left the platform in March 2025.
On November 30, 2021, Sky News joined Saorview on Channel 23.
Virgin Media Four began broadcasting on 24 August 2022. Sky-owned Challenge joined its sister channel on the platform on 1 February 2023.
In September 2023 TG4's time shift service, TG4+1, and its children's channel, Cúla4, were added to the line up.
As of November 2023 there are 16 television services, of which 3 are HD, and 12 radio stations of which only 2 are non-RTÃÂ radio stations.
July 2016 Irish TV said it would join the Saorview platform, however this did not happen due to the eventual closure of Irish TV.
As part of RTÃÂ's "New Direction" they plan to drop RTÃÂ Radio 1 Extra, RTÃÂ Radio Jr, RTÃÂ 2XM, RTÃÂ Chill and RTÃÂ Pulse, but in a change to their "Strategy 2024" they plan to retain RTÃÂ GOLD. These services closed on 31 December 2025. RTÃÂ's time shift channels (+1 channels) are also due to close by 2028 under this plan.
RTÃÂ operates two DVB-T PSB multiplexes for transmission of Saorview television and radio channels. Both multiplexes are free-to-air and feature MPEG-4 encoding.
Initially, only one multiplex was available on the service, the second public service Mux was launched with the introduction of RTÃÂ One in upscaled HD on 21 October 2013.
A further four multiplexes are available for commercial pay DTT.
2RN has the capacity to provide commercial DTT capacity on its network for pay TV services that can agree terms with it and the BAI. However the option to launch commercial muxes was not pursued in the aftermath of the 2008 licence process. The BAI said at the time: It continued:
To date, the BAI have not announced any plans for a competition for a commercial DTT service. In August 2013, the BAI confirmed that it would launch another attempt of finding a service provider for the commercial DTT service.
This was to allow the PSB side to proceed with an ASO transition to DSO, a stabilized economic backdrop by that time (3 years time) to emerge and changes in the Broadcasting Act 2009 to allow it have statutory mediation powers in dealing with RTÃÂNL (now 2RN) that it currently has with the broadcasters and interested parties but not with 2RN. 2RN is currently regulated by ComReg.
In August 2013 a report into Commercial DTT by Oliver & Ohlbaum was given to the BAI, the report outlined the main problems associated with DTT in Ireland including the lack of free-to-air services on Saorview. Based on this report the BAI have decided not to proceed with a licence competition for pay-DTT. The report was published on the BAI website in January 2014. On its publication Bob Collins, Chairperson of the BAI said "The contents of the report raise a number of policy implications for consideration by Government and also for the BAI, having regard to its statutory obligations and its enduring objectives in respect of diversity and plurality. In submitting copies of the review to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, the BAI would now welcome the opportunity to discuss the findings of the report and the policy implications arising at an early date."
The Saorview service offers a variety of television and radio channels. The television section includes both full-time and timeshift channels, with a mix of Irish-language programming, commercial channels, and news services. Channels like RTàOne, RTÃÂ2, and TG4 are available 24 hours a day, while others provide targeted content such as childrenâÂÂs programming and informational services.
Saorview also broadcasts a number of hidden channels and test cards, likely reserved for future services. These channels are not visible on most receivers and include blank TV and audio channels. On some receivers the testcard channels can be accessed by typing in LCN's between 24 and 33.
On the radio side, Saorview provides a range of stations, including RTÃÂ Radio 1, 2FM, and several digital-only channels. These are available on different multiplexes, with varying broadcast hours and bitrates.
At 10am on 24 October 2012 all analogue television transmitters in Ireland were switched off and Saorview became the primary source of Irish terrestrial television. The process was televised live on RTÃÂ One and RTÃÂ News Now, with the kill-switch being thrown by television personality Miriam O'Callaghan.
Following the failure of the commercial DTT process RTÃÂ submitted a revised DTT plan including an FTA satellite option to the Department of Communications in mid-June 2010 for approval. RTÃÂ publicly announced at an Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications discussion in mid-July 2010 that a satellite service, called Saorsat, would be offered to complement the terrestrial DTT service. Saorsat will enable Irish public service channels to be made available, unencrypted, for the first time, as a means of covering the last 2% of the population who will be unable to receive the Saorview terrestrial service.
RTÃÂ said the combined offering was designed to be the most cost-effective solution for viewers and broadcasters; to offer for the first time 100% coverage of public service television services in Ireland, and to provide full national backup coverage on satellite in the event of an emergency or catastrophic failure of the DTT system .
Approval for the revised National DTT plan and the new Saorsat satellite service was announced by the Minister for Communications at the end of July 2010.
Test loop transmissions were detected from the end of May 2011 and were received on generic DVB-S2 HD set-boxes.