Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

This amendment involves the complex interface between commercial DTT issues, copyright law and broadcasting policy. Accordingly, it was developed in close co-operation with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to ensure compatibility with copyright matters. While the amendment was withdrawn on Committee Stage in the Dáil, it was reintroduced on Report Stage as it is considered necessary to provide a fair environment for commercial DTT.

Cable and MMDS television services are closed service offerings which are only accessible to the subscribers of the service. In the same way the commercial digital terrestrial television, DTT, service will also be a subscription-based service accessible only to its subscribers. The amendment amends section 2 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 to ensure the rules governing the acquisition of copyright by DTT providers are the same as those which apply to cable, MMDS, multichannel multipoint distribution service, and internet protocol television, IPTV. While there are changes to the definitions of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, the effective change is to the existing section 174 of the Act by including DTT retransmission along with MMDS and cable in the definition of cable programme services. DTT retransmission is put on the same footing as MMDS and cable.

Section 174 reflects EU Directive 93/83/EEC, the cable and satellite directive, which requires member states to have such rules for cable and MMDS. DTT did not exist as a technology in 1993 and section 174 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act provides mechanisms for cable operators to retransmit channels from others jurisdictions without directly clearing rights with the rights holders. The law differentiates between the retransmission service offered by the cable operator and the broadcasting or transmission service operated by broadcasters. The cable service is a closed, subscriber-based service and is not accessible free-to-air to the public. Under these circumstances, retransmission rights may be required to provide the right to retransmit the programmes in a controlled manner to the subscriber base.

A copyright collection agency is responsible for managing the acquisition of cable retransmission rights between the rights holders and the cable operator for cable services. The amendment seeks to extend the legislation to provide a similar mechanism for the management of retransmission rights for subscriber-based DTT networks. This will mean when channels from other jurisdictions are broadcast under commercial subscription DTT platforms, the same collection agency approach will apply. This will help to ensure the development of DTT in Ireland and allow for a level playing field vis-À-vis the cable-MMDS multichannel offerings.

Having withdrawn the amendment on Committee Stage in the Dáil, my Department, in co-operation with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and its legal advisers, gave detailed further consideration to the issues. This consideration included examining the situation in other European countries in which such a legal regime exists. As Senators may be aware, certain Irish broadcasters expressed concern about the amendment tabled on Committee Stage. The concerns have been listened to and there is a significant change in the corresponding amendment tabled on Report Stage, that is, the stipulation that the services must be encrypted. This will draw a distinction between channels from other member states which may be retransmitted free-to-air and which may be encrypted because they are paid services. Where a channel from another member state is retransmitted free-to-air on DTT in Ireland, it cannot avail of the benefit of the amendment but where it is encrypted, it can do so. This draws the necessary distinction between broadcast rights for Irish free-to-air broadcasts and non-Irish free transmissions to meet the concerns raised. While I appreciate the Senator's concerns, I do not propose to accept his amendment to amendment No. 291.