Press Releases
New consortium to provide Digital Television launches application to BCI
12th May 2008
“It's just not appropriate for any broadcaster to be directly involved in platform management - including RTE” were the words of Lucy Gaffney, Chairperson of Boxer DTT Ltd at today’s presentation to the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) to operate Ireland’s digital terrestrial television service.
Boxer DTT Ltd is a consortium formed between Communicorp, BT Ireland and leading Swedish digital terrestrial television operator, the Boxer Group.
Boxer DTT presented its extensive plans to the BCI in Dublin today, Ms. Lucy Gaffney said that the consortium was the only one established specifically and solely to provide digital terrestrial television services in Ireland. In her presentation to the BCI, Ms. Gaffney projected investment levels that include €115m in a world-class broadcast network and multiplexing services, €30m in customer support services and €20m in sales and marketing in its first four years.
If awarded the licence from the BCI, Boxer will launch in January 2009 and will offer over 30 channels of crystal clear digital TV through existing roof top aerials. Although the service will debut in major cities, plans are in place to extend coverage to the whole country by 2012, when current analogue TV signals are likely to be phased out.
Promising ‘entry level’ pay television, with services from as little as €9.99 per month, Boxer will open up a whole new world of television services. Independent of both the existing pay TV heavyweights and the main channel suppliers, Boxer will be able to offer exciting new features in the pay TV market. Innovations such as ‘pay as you go’ pricing, ‘plug and play’ installation, and fully portable subscriptions have already proved enormously successful in Scandinavia, where Boxer is Sweden’s leading digital television service and has just won the rights to launch in Denmark.
Boxer DTT will offer Irish consumers the same simplicity, flexibility and control over their pay TV services.
The BCI is expected to announce its decision in July.
For further information please contact:
Sophie Clare, Fleishman-HillardP: 01 618 8444 / 087 6456243
Mark Mortell, Fleishman-Hillard
P: 01 618 8444 / 086 8192844
James Morrissey
P: 086 2550487
About Communicorp Group Ltd.:
Communicorp Group Ltd is a media holding company, founded in 1989 by Irish entrepreneur Denis O’Brien. The company’s media holdings include radio stations, Internet portals and service companies. Today, Communicorp has over 800 employees in 8 different European countries. Communicorp is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.
About BT Ireland:
BT operates across Ireland, north and south. With over 3,000 employees, the company is headquartered in Dublin and Belfast, with offices in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include networked IT services, local, national and international telecommunications services, and higher-value broadband and internet products and services.
About Boxer TV Access AB:
Boxer began trading in Sweden in October 1999 and is owned by networks provider Teracom and the venture-capital company 3i. It focuses exclusively on digital terrestrial television offering attractive programme packages and added-value services at a competitive prices using an ordinary TV aerial. Boxer and Communicorp each own 50% of Boxer DTT Ltd.
