Ms Dee Forbes:

First, in terms of Sky, Virgin or any of the cable and satellite platforms, there is a must-carry provision in law, which means that public service broadcasters must be carried by those providers. We do not get paid anything by Sky or Virgin for the provision of our channels in that environment. That has been the case forever. We do get a fee for our player, because the player is a new way of viewing, but it is a small amount compared to what the value of the channels would be to Sky and Virgin. We have had many conversations with the joint Oireachtas committee and with Sky and Virgin about this. The provision of funds to public service broadcasters by cable and satellite providers is a subject that is being discussed in many countries at the moment, but that is not the case in most countries. Where we benefit from being on Sky and Virgin is from advertising because we can sell advertising to the entire outlet of households that have Sky and Virgin, but there is no payment from them.