Irish public broadcaster RTE is following in the footsteps of its UK counterparts with a demand for €30 million a year in retransmission fees.
The broadcaster could seek the sums from Sky and Virgin Media, despite their refusal to meet similar requests from the BBC and ITV.
Communications Minister Denis Naughten is conducting a review of broadcasting legislation and could force the fees introduction.
The Irish Independent has been given sight of a report commissioned by RTE from Mathew Horsman’s Mediatique.
Based on subscriber numbers Sky could pay €19 million and Virgin €11 million. In a survey 49% of respondents said they would leave Sky if it did not carry the Irish public broadcaster. 63% said they would leave the cable service.
The report itself was completed at the end of 2014.
In July 2017, UK broadcasters ITV and Channel 4 were told they shouldn’t expect to receive retransmission fees from platforms carrying their services. The Digital Economy Bill closed a clause in Section 73 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, which prevented the collection of retrans fees.
