Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 3 October 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment

Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2017 and Retransmission Fees: Discussion (Resumed)

5:00 pm

Mr. J.D. Buckley:

-----important partner for us. That is why we signed a long-term agreement with RTE in 2015. That agreement increased the number of channels and ways in which RTE's content could be accessed on Sky's services in Ireland, including the availability of the RTE Player via our on-demand services. We will also launch later this year the RTE Player on our over-the-top service, called Now TV, which we launched recently, and are actively exploring a number of other revenue opportunities with RTE, including using the Sky platform to target advertising more effectively. It is through growing this commercial partnership further within the existing legislative framework that RTE and public service broadcasting more generally will be best served. By contrast, a legislative change in this regard would not only hinder further productive developments, but put existing benefits at risk, harming the entire broadcasting ecosystem in the process.