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. Liam O'Brien:

To reiterate, Vodafone is a strong supporter of public service broadcasting. Like all of our partners in the industry who are here today, we firmly believe in the value of public service broadcasting. To answer Deputy Dooley's question about must-carry, we have a must-carry obligation. To return to his previous question in respect of prominence and our discretion, the legislation requires that we display the channels with prominence. At our discretion we display it at 101, so it is actually top of the list. That is where the discretion comes in, in case there was a question on that.

I am reliably informed by my colleague that we not only carry Oireachtas TV but also the committee rooms, so there is more value in our bundles. As the newest entrant to the market, we would welcome the members' business. Joking aside, we have already mentioned that we have many existing partnerships with RTE which generate commercial value for RTE.