Mr. Noel Curran:

I will go through all the comments and questions, and if I miss some or if people are unhappy with the level of detail, we can come back to them.

We have concerns about UTV coming into an already crowded market. It has come in under a particular section of the Broadcasting Act 2009, for which it has taken criticism. I do not think UTV deserves criticism for that because it is entitled to come in under that section. It means that UTV is not subject to the broadcasting levy and that it does not have requirements for Irish programming. Frankly, if I was the chief executive of TV3 I would be very unhappy about it, but at the same time I think that is an issue for legislation. Another issue to examine in the future is the split that seems to exist. There are things UTV does not get, such as automatic carriage and a whole range of different things, but there are so many platforms now that businesses will get carriage if they negotiate it.

UTV is a very good company. It knows how to make money and has proven that everywhere it has gone. I expect it is not coming into this market out of some sense of public service or for the good of its health. Its management think there is money to be made here and that is an issue for all of us. It is probably more of an issue for some of our competitors, because UTV does not have the requirement to invest in Irish programming, so its character will be much more distinctive from the character of RTE. However, it is a crowded market and another player is coming into it.