Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding TV reception; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56958/12]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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TV3 is a commercial broadcaster and is regulated by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI). I have no role in the regulation of TV3 and decisions regarding which platform TV3 is carried on are, in the first instance, commercial decisions for the company itself.

Prior to SAORVIEW, TV3 chose to broadcast from just 11 transmission sites on the RTÉ terrestrial network. This provided approximately 85% population coverage and was adequate to meet its BAI contractual obligations. With SAORVIEW, TV3 is now available to 98% of the population, which is the same level of coverage from the SAORVIEW network as RTÉ and TG4 and is a vast improvement on its analogue coverage.

To date, TV3 has decided not to be carried on SAORSAT, RTÉ’s free-to-air satellite offering. Any decision to be carried on that platform in the future would be a commercial matter for the company and not one in which I, as Minister, have a role.