Mr. J.D. Buckley:

Thank you Chair. On behalf of Sky I would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to appear today as part of the pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2017. I am managing director of Sky Ireland, a position I have held since 2012. I am joined here today by Mr. David Wheeldon, Sky's group director of policy and public affairs. Along with representatives from Eir, Virgin and Vodafone, we are also joined by Ms Tabitha Elwes and Jon Zeff of CIL Management who are both experts in this particular area.

I would like to start by outlining the important role that Sky plays in the Irish broadcasting sector and our strong commitment to the Irish market. Sky has been offering television services in Ireland since 1990. In 2013, we significantly expanded our presence in Ireland and announced a €1 billion investment plan over five years which we are currently progressing in a number of ways. These included sustained investment in customer service for our Irish customers, new products such as broadband as well as investment in content, marketing and corporate social responsibility initiatives. We are the number one television platform in Ireland. We are present in more than 40% of Irish homes, watched by over 2 million viewers and we deliver over 500 channels, including the Irish public service channels, to our customer base. We also operate 26 wholly owned channels across general entertainment, news, sport and film. We currently employ almost 1,000 people in Ireland and in our last financial year our contribution to the Exchequer in terms of corporation tax, VAT and employer PRSI was in excess of €150 million. During the same period, Sky’s activities in Ireland supported a total contribution to GDP in excess of €650 million.

Sky is also major investor in home grown programming across the UK and Ireland. We recently announced a €2 million fund for an original Irish entertainment production which will be commissioned for Sky One in this financial year. This is a crucial step that will allow us to build on previous successful Irish commissions such as the Emmy award winners "Moone Boy" and "50 Ways to Kill your Mammy" as well as previous productions filmed here such as "Treasure Island", "MoonFleet" and "Penny Dreadful". As many committee members will know, we have also just opened a new Sky News Dublin bureau. This initiative will allow us to cover Irish news stories as they happen and in depth. Both of these moves demonstrate our sustained commitment to content production in Ireland.

In addition to all of this, we also collaborate closely with, and provide significant value to, Irish public service broadcasters, including RTE We currently beam RTE’s channels into over 40% of Irish homes and place them in the most prominent positions on our electronic programme guide, that is channel 101, 102 and so on. This ensures that RTE’s public service broadcasting reaches the widest possible audience, thereby helping it to achieve its public service objectives.It also enables RTE to drive high viewing figures and earn significant advertising revenues in the process. We estimate that around €32 million of RTE’s advertising income is derived from viewing on the Sky platform alone. Beyond this, our current commercial agreement with RTE means we provide specific financial contributions and benefits in kind to RTE in return for certain services.

I hope this makes clear the significant contribution Sky makes, both to the Irish broadcasting sector and to the economy as a whole. It also highlights the very real stake we have in policy decisions taken around public service broadcasting. In that context, it is worth emphasising that we are very supportive of the Bill as drafted. In particular, we are encouraged by the proposals aimed at tackling the difficulties associated with the current television licence system. Licence fee evasion is estimated to reach €40 million this year and it is clear that measures need to be taken to reduce this level of evasion.