Four RTÉ radio stations on Ireland’s terrestrial TV service have started a move to new Saorview capacity, with more to come.
All affected stations are currently duplicated on the channel list, broadcasting on their old and new positions.
RTÉ Chill became the first station to migrate last week. Chill has since been followed by RTÉ Pulse, RTÉ 2XM and RTÉ Gold, which are moving from multiplex 1 to multiplex 2.
The old copies of the stations are denoted by a full stop at the end of the station name.
TVs that have been retuned (either automatically or manually), will place the old copies of the stations in the 214-219 channel range.
The new copies are then listed on their usual channel numbers, in the 200-209 channel range.
RTÉ Radio 1 Extra is set to be the next station to switch. It has started broadcasting on multiplex 2 and is expected to swap shortly with the multiplex 1 version, taking over channel 201.
▶️ Overview of changes
If your Saorview TV has retuned itself or has recently been manually retuned, the following table applies:
↔️ swipe across on mobile devices to see the full table
| RTÉ stations dual broadcasting | New copy on multiplex 2 | Old copy on multiplex 1 (With full stop at end of station name) |
|---|---|---|
| RTÉ Pulse | 205 | 215 |
| RTÉ 2XM | 206 | 216 |
| RTÉ Gold | 208 | 218 |
| RTÉ Chill | 209 | 219 |
| RTÉ Radio 1 Extra* | 214* | 201* |
Saorview is yet to issue a statement about the changes or when dual broadcasting will end. It is likely that users of older devices that don’t auto-retune may be advised to retune or update their channel list to retain the stations when the simulcast on both multiplex frequencies ends.
▶️ Northern Ireland
- Viewers in Northern Ireland may receive these RTÉ stations via overspill Saorview reception using a Freeview TV or box.
- You may need to retune if you lose RTÉ stations in the coming weeks.
- However, some Freeview TVs may automatically add the new RTÉ stations to the bottom of the channel list, below channel 800. This may result in your TV having a working and a non-working copy of the affected stations once the dual-broadcast ends.
Marc Thornham