Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte.

RTE is an independent national public service broadcaster, the remit and obligations of which are set out in the Broadcasting Act 2009. Section 114(1) of the Act states the principal objects and associated powers of RTE, while section 98 provides that it shall be independent in the pursuance of these objects, subject only to the requirements of the Act. As such, the Minister has no function in RTE's general day-to-day matters, including decisions on advertising.

It is clear that commercial revenue remains a key priority for RTE, to which advertising revenue is central. There has been a considerable decline in advertising revenue for all broadcasters since the economic downturn in 2008 and the advertising market remains challenging for RTE. Of late, however, there have been modest and tentative signs of stabilisation. The Minister is satisfied that RTE is continuing its efforts to exploit all commercial opportunities in pursuance of its statutory objects.

The contention that RTE refuses to accept advertising from rival broadcasters is materially incorrect. In fact, it has carried advertisements for several rival broadcasters, including Sky, Setanta, Newstalk, TG4 and TV3, in recent times. It has advised departmental officials that it has no objection to continuing to do so, provided the proposed advertisements conform to its own internal guidelines. Notwithstanding the corporation's continuing objective to maximise its advertising revenue, to which I referred, RTE does have internal guidelines which it provides for all advertising copy houses with broadcaster clients in order for an advertisement to be cleared for broadcast. These guidelines state RTE does not accept advertisements where, inter alia, the advertising broadcaster claims superiority over or denigrates another broadcaster, or requests the audience to tune in to another channel. I am advised that these are the only circumstances in which advertisements for other broadcasters may be refused for broadcast by RTE. It would clearly not be in the company's commercial interests to clear for transmission on its own broadcasting services an advertisement which served to denigrate RTE or effectively asked viewers to discontinue using RTE services. If a broadcaster is not satisfied with RTE's decision to refuse to clear an advertisement for broadcast, it may refer the matter to the Competition Authority, the independent statutory body that enforces Irish and European competition law. The Department does not have a function in the oversight of complaints of this nature.

On a related matter and by way of update, arising from the five year review of funding of public service broadcasters, the Department has commissioned Indecon to conduct an economic assessment of the advertising market in Ireland to inform the development of a revised regulatory framework. This review which is expected to be completed in the coming months will provide a comprehensive overview of the market, including an analysis of issues around pricing and competition, and for the introduction of a revised system for setting advertising minutes.

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