Ms Aisling McCabe:

I will address the question around the mutual benefit. Mr. Horsman and Ms Forbes outlined in their opening statements how these are important platforms for RTE. We reach mass audiences through them and we generate commercial impacts.

Is the relationship mutually beneficial? The answer to that is "No". There is an imbalance in the relationship. Mr. Horsman has demonstrated the scale of the subscription revenues in this market. The figure is €560 million.

Reference was made to the risk to platforms. Ireland has the highest pay-television market in Europe. Two thirds of Irish homes have a pay-television subscription. We pay on average €30 per month for a basic pack. The Irish free-to-air channels are the most popular within those packs.

This is about putting value back into Irish content. By comparison, within the US market approximately 2% of total subscription revenues go to re-transmission fees. We are talking about a negligible cost to the operator and probably nothing to the consumer.

You raised an important point about the priority of channels in the electronic programming guide and the safeguards for consumers, Chairman. That is close to our hearts. It is already under threat. We have talked about the changing interface. People can go in and see it, but it is difficult to find channels sometimes. My understanding is that currently there are no safeguards in the legislation around prioritisation of channels on television interfaces. We negotiate that and sometimes they are difficult negotiations. We see that as part of the negotiation. If a platform knows that its audience or people or customers are watching certain channels, then it in the interests of the platform to keep those channels in a priority position. It is not for debate today but we believe that as part of public policy there is an important point to be made and for discussion with the BAI around regulation of prioritisation of access and findability of publically-funded and public service media content across all devices and platforms.