Mr. Noel Curran:

It is getting increasingly difficult because we faced a bubble in the sports rights market.

We were in the middle of the boom, there was a dedicated, Irish-based international sports channel and our domestic competitor, TV3, acquired a new owner, a private equity company, and targeted sports rights. We need to get those rights down, but the sports market is difficult. In the UK, BT Vision has entered the sports rights market and is effectively offering sport as a free add-on to a paid broadband package. This is an entirely different business model. For the past decade, Sky has told customers that they must buy the premium package because it does not unbundle by match online. Three or four months ago there was a complete reversal, and Sky is now unbundling individual matches, for which customers pay.

Relevant to the public funding argument, the danger for us is that not only are sports rights being driven by large companies, but other large companies view it as a free add-on to their core business. This has implications for RTE. Anything that happens in the UK market almost inevitably comes to Ireland.