Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

It is accurate to state that this amendment was the subject of enormous concern on Committee Stage, particularly from TV3. I acknowledge the Department has spoken in detail to the station's representatives to try to allay their fears. For the record, TV3's fears were based on its expenditure of up to €50 million to secure exclusive rights to broadcast programming in Ireland over the next five years in fields such as drama, sport, situation comedy or whatever. As a result, TV3 had a legitimate expectation that it held exclusive rights for the broadcast of the programming for which it had purchased the rights over the next four to five years. This amendment potentially had proposed that on the introduction of DTT, broadcasters based outside Ireland would be allowed to retransmit programmes in Ireland without being obliged either to have exclusivity rights for such programming or to compensate Irish broadcasters that may have purchased exclusive rights to the same programming for the next four or five years. Essentially, the money spent by a commercial broadcaster such as TV3 to nail down exclusive broadcasting rights would become worthless and a number of people from TV3 expressed a genuine fear that this simply would put the station out of business.

This was the reason Deputy McManus and I were determined not to allow the Minister to simply push through this amendment without much detailed further consideration. To be fair, the Minister has given this matter much consideration, as have his officials, who supplied me with a useful detailed briefing note in this regard for which I thank them. Is it correct to state the fundamental difference between the Minister's proposals on Committee Stage and what is now proposed is that the exclusive rights issue is only being done away with in the context of encrypted commercially-run multiplexes? Is it correct to state that foreign broadcasters will not be able to avail of the free-to-air multiplex to retransmit programming to which, for example, TV3 may have the exclusive rights to broadcast in Ireland? In other words, those who receive free-to-air television will still only be able to access programming for which TV3 has purchased exclusive rights from that station. The only compromise in that regard would be if one were to pay an additional sum to One Vision, or whatever organisation will be providing the commercial DTT product in the future, to have an encrypted service broadcast into one's home. Is this analysis correct? This is an issue of fundamental importance and I cannot overstate how concerned one broadcaster in particular is about this amendment. 12 o'clock

If we introduce legislation that puts the only independent television broadcaster in Ireland out of business, essentially, that will be an enormous error. We cannot afford to do that. I appreciate that the Minister has considered this issue in detail. He has examined what is being done elsewhere as part of the transition from analogue to digital. I accept that it is a complex matter. The digital terrestrial television service about which we are talking is restricted to the island of Ireland. It is not an international broadcast system like Sky Television. In the case of the new digital service, we cannot impose the kind of legal restrictions that apply to the analogue service when RTE, TV3 or anybody else purchases the exclusive right to broadcast a certain programme. Broadcasters are entitled to take a punt on programmes in the hope of increasing their advertising revenues and viewing figures, etc. We need to make sure we do not fundamentally undermine that principle in this Bill.

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