Mr. Pat Kiely:

I covered resistance in my presentation. There would be an understandable reluctance on the part of RTE to share rights if it felt it did not have to do that. If RTE did not have the option of running up a deficit last year it would have had to sell more rights, such as the Euro 2016 example I gave. We offered to take half or more of those rights but ended up doing a smaller deal. We publically complimented RTE on the decision to sublicense those rights. We thought it was the beginning, but unfortunately it was not a great experience in the end because the games RTE sub-licensed were typically the smaller, less popular games or games which were up against all-Ireland championships. It was evidence of RTE's embarrassment of riches in terms of sport that it had such schedule clashes.

Growing up I cannot remember a football tournament that was not shared straight down the middle between BBC and ITV. We have never had that. We have offered to share rights with RTE. RTE referred to the burden of content in terms of FIFA World Cups and UEFA European Championships it has to broadcast. We will share that burden.

Studios is another example. The committee might be familiar with two of the major shows in the UK "The Graham Norton Show" and "The Jonathan Ross Show" on the BBC and ITV. Both are recorded in the same studio one night after each other. Studio infrastructure is shared by two arch rivals for the purposes of efficiency.

I have covered the diaspora channel. Imagine a schedule where one goes from "3News at 5.30" to "Six One News", "Red Rock", "Fair City", "RTE News: Nine O'Clock" and "The Tonight Show". We could have those programmes in one schedule and, through all of the various technological options, distribute the channel around the world, not least in the UK where Virgin Media UK would be only too happy to distribute the channel.