In this vital matter, we can take the items in order. First of all, technically speaking, there is no dispute that the 625-line standard is a superior medium to the 405-line standard. The 405-line standard was the first medium introduced and is now in use only in Great Britain. The International Radio Consultative Committee favours the general adoption of a 625-line standard in the European region. So much for the technical problem.
It is quite certain that England, within the next decade, will change to the 625-line standard. She would already have done so were it not for the great number of sets there. I do not know whether or not a firm decision has been taken on it but certainly it is coming up for a firm decision in England that there should be broadcasting on bands 4 and 5 on the 625-line standard. That is the start of the change-over in Britain and it will take, perhaps, at least six to ten years. In other words, they will have to continue broadcasting in Britain on the 405-line standard until the present sets there are obsolete. That will probably take the best part of ten years and, after that, you will have broadcasting there only on the 625-line standard. What does that mean?
We have been told that when England changes over to the 625-line standard we shall change. The question is: Do we wait until England has completed her change and put the 405-line standard off the air or do we begin now when she appears to be about to make a decision to change? We should begin now. One of the major impediments is the fact that there are at present 30,000 or 40,000 sets in the country and these will largely be useless for our programmes if we broadcast only on 625. We have no commitment to those people who own those sets now because we have not been collecting licence fees from them. Consequently, if the Government wish in the morning, they could declare those sets obsolete. They represent an investment that might be valued at present at about £2½ million. Perhaps, the fairer solution, although it will cost something, would be that the Government should have a limited number of years, say, three or five years, broadcasting on 625 but have dual broadcasts from the central station here and one booster station in the northern region.
That would provide for those receivers. If we do not do that, every year we put off making the change means that we shall have more 405 receivers to contend with and these will have a moral claim on the Government because they are being installed to receive programmes broadcast on 405. Whatever about dual broadcasting to-day in one, two or three years' time if we want a change, we shall be morally committed to dual broadcasts. That means that we have got to cancel out the expense of dual broadcasting either now or in five years' time. It does not matter which.
I have been informed by reliable engineers that the cost of the extra equipment would amount to somewhere around £100,000. It is not a very big sum, having regard to the sums we are dealing with. In fact, it represents only one year's rental on the sets in existence to-day. Besides that, the equipment would not be totally lost. It could be used afterwards. When we close down the 405 transmission, it is capable of providing a large range of spares for the other.
Financially, there is no argument against this dual broadcasting. I think we would be unwise to adopt just the 625 alone and that it would be unfair to those who have the sets today, but the answer for us is this dual broadcasting. There are many aspects to that. The dual broadcasting would in a way make available for ready sale many of our programmes in England which uses the 405 line standard and most continental countries which use the 625 line standard, so that it would have a slight financial recommendation there, although that is not a very serious one.
The most serious one of all is that which has been expressed so well in the Minority Report—Reservation No. 2 to the Report of the Television Commission by Mr. Hugh de Lacy and Mr. Terence Farrell. Mr. de Lacy is acknowledged as one of our leading experts on television. In fact, he was put on the Commission, I venture to say, solely in that capacity and yet he could not be more forthright in his recommendations.
Incidentally, Chapter X, which deals with line standards, as submitted by the majority, is just a mass of contradictions. I do not wish to take up the time of the Seanad in showing the contradictions in it. If members read it very carefully for themselves, they will see that there is a contradiction in every paragraph. The one thing that emerges from it is that when England turns, we shall turn.
Mr. de Lacy sums up very well when he says:
It has been suggested that the British transmissions from the B.B.C. and shortly I.T.V. in the North would offer a measure of competition to an Irish service on 405 lines particularly in regard to the quality of programmes. This we cannot subscribe to since both B.B.C. and I.T.V. programmes are based on British standards of culture and entertainment, which we submit are very different from Irish standards.
I believe every one of us here heartily agrees with that. He goes on:
To our mind there is grave danger that these British programmes may produce the very reverse of the effect anticipated and their influence may be rather to the detriment of the Irish service in the promotion of its cultural aims particularly in regard to Irish language.
Again, I think we can endorse that. Let me follow through. I think the Minister said this afternoon that our people would only go by the 405 because they can get Radio Éireann and the B.B.C. That does not hold in the region outside, in the six counties bordering on the Six Counties —the Sligo-Dublin line. There is no choice but to buy the set that receives Radio Éireann and that means the set on 625 because in this region we would be only boosting on 625. Even in the Six Counties, which are under the influence of B.B.C. television, would any sensible person in that region buy a 405 set if he knew that the B.B.C. were gradually making the change-over to 625, so that his set would not be able to pick it up in a number of years or that the Irish service had declared that after a certain number of years, three, four or five, it would cease broadcasting on 405?
The only sets bought here would be 625 sets. If adopting that programme slows down the number of sets sold, I am all for it. Do we want to push our people into personal and luxury spending? If it slows it down, it is the biggest argument in favour of it because we have been asked by every leader to try to curtail our personal spending and our luxury spending and spend the money on productive enterprises.
Therefore, I suggest, that is one more reason, if it does slow down the number of sets, for our adopting the 625 line standard. The most important reason of all is that Radio Éireann reaching its people through the 625 line standard and being out of competition in quality, the word used here, with the B.B.C., except for the present 30,000 or 40,000 sets, could then afford to ignore this quality competition. It could afford to set out to develop an Irish service, a service that would be distinctively Irish in character and quality—the type of service that we all hope for and the type of service that would mean in years to come that Irish television programmes or tapes would command a ready sale in America, England and elsewhere, due to their distinctive quality.
We shall not sell programmes here that are shadowed by the quality of the B.B.C. The people needing those programmes can buy them far better from the B.B.C. What we have distinctively Irish we can sell. Television being such a hungry medium, it would appear that there could very well be a substantial profit earned on the programmes we sell to other countries. The help given by this is, if you wish, a type of protection. Our people over the vast region cannot receive B.B.C. programmes for three, four or five years. We are giving Radio Éireann, as it were, a running start.
If somebody says that is objectionable, look at the other side of the picture. If we wait until England makes the change, then the English programme coming from U.T.V. will be on 625 and we will have 300,000 sets which after five or six years, will be able to receive Radio Éireann only. Look at it whatever way you wish, unless the change-over is completely synchronised with the British pattern, it means that at some stage or other, people north of the line, Sligo to Dublin, will be able to receive only one or other programme. Consequently, I suggest it is of vital importance that we grasp this opportunity now to get established a fully Irish television service that will truly reflect our national culture, ideals and everything else we value in this country.
To my mind, that is the greatest opportunity we have got and we should grasp it with both hands. As Mr. de Lacy so well puts it here: "It is apparent that by committing Ireland to the 405 line system we are forging another link in the chain that binds us to Great Britain." Is that the outlook and approach we should adopt in relation to this new medium which will cost so much and which we are starting off here to-day?
