Ahern vows to regulate foreign satellite broadcasts

jordanf1

From Unison.ie :

Ahern vows to regulate foreign satellite broadcasts

12:56 Friday August 22nd 2003

Communications Minister Dermot Ahern has vowed to do all he can to regulate foreign satellite television broadcasts into Ireland. Mr Ahern said he was unhappy with the situation whereby organisations like Sky can broadcast freely into Ireland without being subject to the same advertising restrictions as domestic broadcasters. He said he hoped to raise the matter at European level after Ireland assumes the EU presidency in January. Mr Ahern said he would like to see an EU-wide content code to regulate television advertising. "It's not just a matter of advertising revenue," he said. "It's in relation to a level playing field for regulating the content of the material that's being broadcast into our country."

Mossy Monk

minister ahern bores me :rolleyes:

carrolls

If regulation means that the Sky service becomes more expensive, or we lose some of the more controversial channels from the EPG, we don't need it. A fairer way to sort this out is to un-regulate and un-tax the cable companies.
Fianna Fail's attitude of taxing everything that moves is being slowly undermined by technology.;)
Buying goods with high excise duties (Fags, Drink, books) over the internet is a good example.
Ahern, you are on a loser here.

Mike 1972

I really dont see what theyre complaining about I mean arent UK advertising regulations in many respects more stringent than Irelands.

shinzon

Already has been discussed in this thread no need for a new one methinks

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=111090

Shin

chernobyl

Originally posted by jordanf1
From Unison.ie :

Ahern vows to regulate foreign satellite broadcasts

Why dont they just say:

"Ahern vows to regulate Sky"

sceptre

I'm wondering (sometimes I wonder:rolleyes: ) exactly what he's going to try and get out of this. There's a litle voice in my head that says that this is prompted by the BBC going FTA. More than that, the possibility of ITV following suit and taking more precious advertising revenue away from RTE (note the placement of the word "just" in Dermot's statement). And Sky themselves and E4 already doing that.

Does he think he can stop the British channels beaming into Ireland without getting his pound of flesh? (hint Dermot: the answer is no. Technically impossible and the Germans would block it anyway)

Apart from the plans for a windo^H^H^H^H^Hdish tax as a little contribution to the government and Comreg for being incredibly nice chaps, what's he planning on doing?

Lukin Black

Originally posted by sceptre
Apart from the plans for a windo^H^H^H^H^Hdish tax as a little contribution to the government and Comreg for being incredibly nice chaps

They're bringing in a tax on what? Satellite dishes. My Gawd, Fianna Fail, what are they gonna tax next?

Paddy20

Dear Mr Ahern,

Get real. Get a life. You are full of S***e, or have you just signed the political suicide pact along with the rest of your sad political cohorts.

P.:mad:

sceptre

Originally posted by Lukin Black
They're bringing in a tax on what? Satellite dishes. My Gawd, Fianna Fail, what are they gonna tax next?

Mr Men avatars

sorry, they take away my crap comedian card if I don't use it once a day

sceptre

Is the ITC's power dependent on the uplink being in the UK or is it enough that Sky are targetting the UK by selling a service there?

johnnyq

Didn't he Vow to stop BBC going FTA also. He is a man of many words !

shinzon

ok everyones talking about generating a revenue for the government and thats why he wants to regulate Sky in this country, but how can he possibly expect us to pay a tax on the dish thats stuck to the side of our houses.

God does he own the mortar or something,

Shin

sceptre

Originally posted by johnnyq
Didn't he Vow to stop BBC going FTA also.

Nope

You may be confusing "Dermot Ahern" with "IBEC". They didn't like the idea of the BBC broadcasting FTA and tried to get Ahern to go along with their idiot plan.

Originally posted by shinzon
God does he own the mortar or something,

Nope. You may be confusing "own the mortar" with "in charge of spectrum regulation". Too lazy to post a link - we've already discussed it though so you may do a search on this board.

Ahern was interviewed on the news at one, on radio one today.
He believes that he has a lot of the new entrant E.U countries behind him on the issue.

I haven't heard that he has been flying round Europe discussing this as an agenda topper with them
Indeed I doubt that it is.

mm

Mike 1972

How the hell could they tax satellite dishes I mean if yore dish isint visable from the street (at the back of your house say) how would anyone know you had one and bar introduucing a special 25% VAT rate on Sky subscriptions they can do bugger all about broadcasters from outside the state.

Indeed restricting reception of broadcasts from outside the state is the kind of thing one associates with Pre 1989 Russia Pre 1945 Germany or present day Iran

Meadows

what does it all mean anyway
does this mean we are going to loose channels or just see irish advertising on sky channels (other than sky one and irish channels). If thats the case then thats not so bad but whats this about a tax. I sure would hate to pay more money for nothing, my sky bill went from €45 to €52 anyway 2 months ago, gotta ditch the movies (they are useless anyway)

Originally posted by Meadows
what does it all mean anyway
does this mean we are going to loose channels or just see irish advertising on sky channels (other than sky one and irish channels). If thats the case then thats not so bad but whats this about a tax. I sure would hate to pay more money for nothing, my sky bill went from €45 to €52 anyway 2 months ago, gotta ditch the movies (they are useless anyway)

A specific example of the current situation would be , the ability for Ryanair to run advertising critical of Irish government policy in regards to airports on Sky One, Sky News and E4.
As was the case recently they were pulled from the Irish based stations.
With the sky channels regulated here, then the same rules regarding the restrictions on advertising could apply to them as they do to the irish based channels.

I believe what Ahern is proposing is not only to subject channels that are beaming to the Republic of Ireland on the Sky EPG to BCI programme standard regulations, but to bring the entire platform under Irish regulation also.
This would bring Sky Digital the television channel provider into line with the cable companies and force it to apply for a licence to use the broadcasting specrum it currently uses which is "Irelands property". It would then be paying a percentage of it's turn over to Com REG in the same way that the cable co's are.
It would also probably have to charge Irish Vat on it's subscriptions at a rate of 21% to it's customers here.
As it is supplying it's service from outside the jurisdiciction of this state , it can get away with not charging this at the moment.
It's subscription price is inclusive of UK VAT at 17.5 %.

{ Note: the instalation fee's by Irish installers and the Satellite receivers sold as part of the instalation are sold to include Irish Vat, as the transaction originates in Ireland , unlike the way it is with the Subscription transactions }

The effect of the change-over to Irish VAT on subscriptions here would be a nearly 5% rise in subscription fees to the customer.
As maybe only 10% or so of it's ROI subscribers would probably leave as a result of this, the Irish exchequer would be up by close to €1.5 million on the deal, based on most people having the minimum of the family pack.
You could add close to another million on to that when you count the fee's to Com REG.

So the net benefit of Aherns plan to the Irish exchequer would be close to €3 million if all goes according to plan.
That would go a long way on the lease of a jet for the period of our presidency of the E.U next year...
I can't help but feel, given politicians records in other areas of communication laws, that a campaign to regulate Sky here has more to do with, preventing , the "ryan air" loop hole mentioned above and with bringing in some more money, than it has to do with the Satellite viewers interests in the Republic of Ireland:rolleyes:

mm

DMC

Rod licence, anyone?

johnnyq

My understanding of this is that Ahern is trying to make everyone (SKY & NTL) equal, Would that mean a change in the NTL having CH4 & UTV and sky not ?

sceptre

Originally posted by johnnyq
Would that mean a change in the NTL having CH4 & UTV and sky not ?

Nice thought but no. The carried channels would continue to be at the complete discretion of the carrier (with the usual exceptions - hardcore porn and the like)

johnnyq

I sent off 3 emails anyway to see what responses i will get. I sent one to the BCI,the Minister and to COMREG ( all the good that will do!)

johnnyq

Here is the responce I got from COMREG :


Good morning,

I wish to acknowledge your e mail dated the 4th of August regarding Sky
Television and its regulation in Ireland.

There are a number of operators who provide television by satellite such
as the Sky Digital service. It should be noted that currently where
broadcasting services are not originated in Ireland then any content
regulation is the responsibility of the country of origin. The UK's
Independent Television Commission licenses and regulates Sky's programme
channels such as Sky One, Sky Sports etc and regulates the advertising
carried on those channels, however they are not responsible for consumer
complaints.

My email was acknowledged my the minister but no responce from the BCI
:rolleyes: