Channel 4 FTA In two months.......

clarkbelt

Anyone heard the story going re. Channel 4 going FTA within two months ???

Seemingly all or most of the rights issues have been addressed . Although its also reported that if it does not go FTA withn this time period , that it will be many years before it does .

Before you ask , I got this information @ the recent Sky Seminars , all be it from somone employed by BSkyB . Trade suppliers are also putting this info out .

Chong

This wont happen.

Capt'n Midnight

Anyone heard the story going re. Channel 4 going FTA within two months ???

Yeah I hear it every few months. :v:

Mossy Monk

clarkbelt wrote:

Although its also reported that if it does not go FTA withn this time period , that it will be many years before it does

anyone else who attended these seminars hear anything, personally i dont believe it, but who am i to say

watty

We will see in July if FilmFour is FTV or FTA. If Film Four really FTA in July, perhaps C4 then too. But I'm very skeptical.

channelsurfer

tony mentioned something about it in a post on another tread. He said that Mark Deering did say it will be sorted either way in 2 months or so.

L1011

Unless C4 buy out their contract, its not going to change in any way till the contract is over. It may be "sorted" as goes what happens -after- that contract is over, though.

Tony

Willem D wrote:

This wont happen.

I remember a similar comment about ITV being posted here

Tallspoon

If this happens I would imagine Chorus would go down the toilet!

watty

Tallspoon wrote:

If this happens I would imagine Chorus would go down the toilet!

Nope.
But UPC will speed up dropping of Analog MMDS so as Digital MMDs is 120 Ch instead of 60 and also increase rollout of Digital Cable in Chorus areas.

Chorus is really effectively gone already with new owner (UPC/UCG) plans to Merge NTL Ireland and Chorus plus rebranding to probabily UPC and chello.

Skyuser

Tony wrote:

I remember a similar comment about ITV being posted here

Get over it

bk

Tallspoon wrote:

If this happens I would imagine Chorus would go down the toilet!

Not really, Chorus is now owned by UPC Ireland along with NTL:Ireland. Together they make the biggest pay tv company in Ireland. C4 going FTA would be as much of a threat to Sky as it would to UPC.

UPC will counter Sky and FTA sat by pushing 120+ channel digital, BB and probably a phone service.

By next year they will probably also have High Def channels, VoD and a PVR.

They will of course lose some customers to FTA, but they will also probably get lots of existing customers and even new customers to upgrade to these new high margin extra value services.

Tony

Skyuser wrote:

Get over it

Get over what??

com7

channel 4 going fta will make no difference to chorus , chorus and ntl are only a small part of ugc european busisness DO YOU REALLY THINK theyr e bothered about ch 4 with 12 million subs

L1011

bk wrote:

Not really, Chorus is now owned by UPC Ireland along with NTL:Ireland. Together they make the biggest pay tv company in Ireland. C4 going FTA would be as much of a threat to Sky as it would to UPC.

UPC will counter Sky and FTA sat by pushing 120+ channel digital, BB and probably a phone service.

By next year they will probably also have High Def channels, VoD and a PVR.

They will of course lose some customers to FTA, but they will also probably get lots of existing customers and even new customers to upgrade to these new high margin extra value services.

Erm, you're missing a big, big problem here:

Most of Chorus's network is analogue! It will not be upgraded to basic SD digital within one year, no matter how much money is pumped into it!

watty

The MMDS can be changed over to 100% digital in weeks. Most of the the cable will take Digital TV on its own and could be upgraded in a month or two. Upgrade for phone and DOCSIS will take a year or more.

L1011

watty wrote:

The MMDS can be changed over to 100% digital in weeks. Most of the the cable will take Digital TV on its own and could be upgraded in a month or two. Upgrade for phone and DOCSIS will take a year or more.

If it can be done in a "month or two" why has it taken them 7 years since telling me that it was "coming soon"? They need to re-haul large quantities of cable, put proper high bandwidth links in between nodes rather than the Microwave/satellite/off-the-air mash they have now, replace amps, etc.

If they started burning money on it today they would not have even half of the remaining analogue only nodes converted by this time next year. Not a chance.

Blaster99

bk wrote:

C4 going FTA would be as much of a threat to Sky as it would to UPC.

I don't know if C4 affects UPC (I guess it does as NTL Ireland keeps harping on about having C4), but I can't see it being anything but positive for Sky. What's the negative aspect of this for Sky do you think?

rogue-entity

I am with Watty on this one, assuming that C4's contract is due up in 2008, then it is highly unlikly that they can go FTA in a few months. Although if Film Four goes FTA then it is a possibility. Rights are not the reason for the encryption, at least not anymore. Since the EU ruled that broadcasters are not liable for copyright violation for overspill into countrys that they are not operating in. ITV went free after this, and C4 will most likly follow suit when they can. I dont know about five though.

bk

MYOB wrote:

If it can be done in a "month or two" why has it taken them 7 years since telling me that it was "coming soon"? They need to re-haul large quantities of cable, put proper high bandwidth links in between nodes rather than the Microwave/satellite/off-the-air mash they have now, replace amps, etc.

If they started burning money on it today they would not have even half of the remaining analogue only nodes converted by this time next year. Not a chance.

Most of that work has already been completed. UPC bought Chorus just over 12 months ago. They have been pumping money into Chorus to upgrade all the network infrastructure since then. Supposedly Cork is done and they are busy working on Limerick at the moment.

Chorus didn't do it until now because they were a cheap crap company until UPC took over.

watty

MYOB wrote:

If it can be done in a "month or two" why has it taken them 7 years since telling me that it was "coming soon"? They need to re-haul large quantities of cable, put proper high bandwidth links in between nodes rather than the Microwave/satellite/off-the-air mash they have now, replace amps, etc.

If they started burning money on it today they would not have even half of the remaining analogue only nodes converted by this time next year. Not a chance.

Chorus blew the Wireless phone licence, the Power net Wireless broadband and having Digital Cable and Digital MMDS before Sky Digital was properly launched in Ireland.

The main reason was lack of money and resources. There were probabily other management related reasons. With good project management and the resources of UPC and the combined engineering expertise of NTL and Chorus they could achieve more for customers in 6 months than in the last 10 years.

It will benefit everyone. How many folks are put off getting Sky because of shoddy picture quality and customer service on an multichannel service they have had in the past and just stick with a TV aerial?

L1011

bk wrote:

Most of that work has already been completed. UPC bought Chorus just over 12 months ago. They have been pumping money into Chorus to upgrade all the network infrastructure since then. Supposedly Cork is done and they are busy working on Limerick at the moment.

Chorus didn't do it until now because they were a cheap crap company until UPC took over.

The cities are -relatively- easy to do.

Chorus's network covers a hell of a lot more than the cities. They have cable nodes in Donegal that aren't even on their network map! (take a look - no Donegal Town, no Buncrana, no MMDS - all three are still in operation)

They can get the big important areas digital quickly, but my local node is still cobbled together at a headend with a huge tower covered in dishes and microwave antennae. This isn't going to go digital for quite some time. Fixing the network so that certain channels don't get nigh on obliterated by interference coming through leaking sheilding, bad amps, etc on the overhead network is more important, I'd have thought.

I've not seen Sky News in colour on a Chorus TV in this town in about 5 years.

byte

I'm not sure about the rest of the country, but Donegal Town would probably need nearly all the system changed. The analogue signal can be so woeful in areas. But, that is the way it was bought, back in CMI days, from a local person. Very little done with it since, except the signal source locations have changed.

When any Chorus subscriber has a problem, they usually have to wait until Wednesday, which seems to be the designated weekday that 'engineers' cover Donegal Town.

On a sidenote, I never even knew Buncrana had Chorus cable!

Anyway, that's going OT, with regards C4, it woiuld be most interesting if it does happen. I know it'd answer a lot of peoples prayers! We shall wait and hope.

Niall1234

rogue-entity wrote:

I am with Watty on this one, assuming that C4's contract is due up in 2008, then it is highly unlikly that they can go FTA in a few months. Although if Film Four goes FTA then it is a possibility. Rights are not the reason for the encryption, at least not anymore. Since the EU ruled that broadcasters are not liable for copyright violation for overspill into countrys that they are not operating in. ITV went free after this, and C4 will most likly follow suit when they can. I dont know about five though.

COuld RTE go FTA (except for GAA matches) sometime in the future ?

Mossy Monk

nothing is impossible. we will see in 2008

watty

RTE as FTV is unlikely but not impossible. RTE as FTA is nearly impossible

channelsurfer

I seem to remeber that one of the main players in rte(cant remeber offhand) said that they would seriously have to consider going fta if bbc itv c4 were all fta. This was at the time bbc went fta. He said at the time that they wouldnt go fta just when bbc were but if all uk channels were fta then rte would have to think about it if it meant loosing market share due to people not bothering to switch back to their aerials when they wanted to watch rte and instead were just viewing the uk channels on satellite.

Ulsterman 1690

Absolutely no reason why RTE couldnt switch off their encryption except for some US imports and newer films (possibly some Sports stuff too although BBC NI and UTV dont seem to have any problems)

Its pretty common practice in some European countries to only encrypt the satellite feeds on programming where there are rights issues. No reason why RTE couldnt do likewise (yes I know theyve a contract with $ky but xcontracts can be renegotiated)

In fact Ive said it before If RTE went 100% FTA tomorrow morning without being listed on the mainland UK EPG (but still available via "other channels") few people outside this Island (apart from some Irish expats) would even notice.

For most viewers if its not on the EPG it doesnt exist (or isint worth the hasstle)

JBoyle4eva

Well, I disagree with ulsterman.

I think that if RTÉ were to go FTA, it would have an effect on some british channels: For Example, Channel4/E4 show the programmes 'Lost' And 'Desperate Housewives'. RTÉ Two at the moment is showing series 2 of Lost, whereas C4 haven't started yet. And RTÉ 2 is two weeks ahead on Desperate hoousewives.

I think that C4 would probably lose ratings if RTE where to decide to go FTA. However, I think that if this where to happen, RTÉ would probably have to encrypt the broadcast of these big imports to UK subs.

kilasser

What is the arrangement with RTE being available in the north? Surly this is the UK broadcasters territory, and RTE are allowed to screen imported shows there ahead of them. Are people in the six counties classed as UK sky subscribers?

bk

kilasser wrote:

What is the arrangement with RTE being available in the north? Surly this is the UK broadcasters territory, and RTE are allowed to screen imported shows there ahead of them. Are people in the six counties classed as UK sky subscribers?

It is due to agreements between the Irish and UK governments to promote cross border institutions. It is specifically written into Irish and UK Communication legislation the right of Irish channels to be received in the North and vice versa.

Skyuser

JBoyle4eva wrote:

Well, I disagree with ulsterman.

I think that if RTÉ were to go FTA, it would have an effect on some british channels: For Example, Channel4/E4 show the programmes 'Lost' And 'Desperate Housewives'. RTÉ Two at the moment is showing series 2 of Lost, whereas C4 haven't started yet. And RTÉ 2 is two weeks ahead on Desperate hoousewives.

I think that C4 would probably lose ratings if RTE where to decide to go FTA. However, I think that if this where to happen, RTÉ would probably have to encrypt the broadcast of these big imports to UK subs.

If RTÉ was FTA then they are allowed to show all their programmes including those that are ahead of UK channels. Its a new EU law in. But only as long as their FTA and not on the EPG.

watty

It is nothing to do with the EU. But to do with RTE contracts with writers, actors, musicians and program providers. It would cost RTE a huge amount more for these "rights" even off the EPG.

We'll see a United Ireland and peace in the Middle East before RTE is FTA on Satellite. A FTV card scheme though is not impossible given Sky's late found enthusism for FTV (Keeps FTA boxes out and they *MIGHT* ring for a sub!).

bk

watty wrote:

We'll see a United Ireland and peace in the Middle East before RTE is FTA on Satellite. A FTV card scheme though is not impossible given Sky's late found enthusism for FTV (Keeps FTA boxes out and they *MIGHT* ring for a sub!).

Actually RTE itself has been musing about going FTA in documents about the future of digital TV in Ireland.

And No they don't need to get the UK rights to shows shown in Ireland. As they are a national terrestial broadcaster of Ireland, any overspill is covered by EU legislation. This has been clearly proven by ITV who don't have the rights to Formula 1 in Ireland (Setanta) or any number of other sporting events (which TV3 have), yet they have had no problems going FTA.

Macy

Obviously it would be a great bonus if Channel 4 went FTA, but not really confident given the way they've handled E4 and inparticular More4 on Dsat. If they do go FTA, it'd be interesting what Five does - I actually watch as much as that as Channel 4 (a channel that's a shadow of it's former self imo).

There's sod all programmes that would be rights issues on RTE1, and I think they'd have to seriously consider FTA if Ch4 made the move to. Ditto TV3.

BrianD

bk wrote:

Actually RTE itself has been musing about going FTA in documents about the future of digital TV in Ireland.

And No they don't need to get the UK rights to shows shown in Ireland. As they are a national terrestial broadcaster of Ireland, any overspill is covered by EU legislation. This has been clearly proven by ITV who don't have the rights to Formula 1 in Ireland (Setanta) or any number of other sporting events (which TV3 have), yet they have had no problems going FTA.

They would probably lose their "first to air" deal with programme producers where RTE get to air popular imported programmes earlier that their UK counterparts.

And you are incorrect about the UK rights. If they are on DSAT they will need the rights as overspill in the terrestrial sense does not apply.

Macy

BrianD wrote:

They would probably lose their "first to air" deal with programme producers where RTE get to air popular imported programmes earlier that their UK counterparts.

Which on RTE1 is 2 or 3 shows at most. No reason that RTE1 couldn't be FTA now with regard to rights issues if The West Wing (finishing soon), ER and the Wednesday night movie were moved to RTE2.

bk

BrianD wrote:

They would probably lose their "first to air" deal with programme producers where RTE get to air popular imported programmes earlier that their UK counterparts.

And you are incorrect about the UK rights. If they are on DSAT they will need the rights as overspill in the terrestrial sense does not apply.

Actually AFAIR from the last time I read the EU law, it also applied to satellite transmission. Of course IANAL so I could be wrong, but no one has shown me any proof and it does seem to be a grey area.

If you are right, I once again ask, how can ITV transmit Formula 1 over FTA satelitte when Setanta have the Irish rights to it. Ditto for other sporting events and TV3?

Even if you are right, if C4 go FTA, then RTE is going to lose the "first to air" rights anyway. C4 transmit a lot of the same US shows as RTE, ER, Lost Desperate Housewives. If C4 goes FTA and what you say is true, then C4will need to buy the Irish rights to all these shows anyway, so RTE would lose these rights anyway and therefore could go FTA anyway.

Actually if you take this line of thinking further, you realise that RTE might have to start to bid for the UK and Irish rights to shows also. If they do then they might actually start competing with the UK channels in the UK. In order to avoid this situation, the UK channels might come to a gentlemans agreement with RTE to show US shows at the same time and not directly compete with each other while still being available on FTA.

Mossy Monk

if all the terrestrials were to go FTA, i wonder what the possibility of simulcasting certain shows would be. they do this in the US and Canada i believe

BrianD

bk wrote:

Actually AFAIR from the last time I read the EU law, it also applied to satellite transmission. Of course IANAL so I could be wrong, but no one has shown me any proof and it does seem to be a grey area.

If you are right, I once again ask, how can ITV transmit Formula 1 over FTA satelitte when Setanta have the Irish rights to it. Ditto for other sporting events and TV3?

Even if you are right, if C4 go FTA, then RTE is going to lose the "first to air" rights anyway. C4 transmit a lot of the same US shows as RTE, ER, Lost Desperate Housewives. If C4 goes FTA and what you say is true, then C4will need to buy the Irish rights to all these shows anyway, so RTE would lose these rights anyway and therefore could go FTA anyway.

Actually if you take this line of thinking further, you realise that RTE might have to start to bid for the UK and Irish rights to shows also. If they do then they might actually start competing with the UK channels in the UK. In order to avoid this situation, the UK channels might come to a gentlemans agreement with RTE to show US shows at the same time and not directly compete with each other while still being available on FTA.

It applies to satellite transmission in that it is against the directive to prevent access to the overspill but the rights of programme producers are copper fastened in EU law. Therefore it would be illegal for the Irish government to jam a satellite signal (for arguements sake) under the without frontiers directive but it is not illegal for a rights holder to insist on encryption of a programme to prevent access in a country where there is overspill.

From what I hear, the F1 issue between ITV and Setanta is not a closed book.

The situation is that RTE may indeed may have to bid for rights in the UK market. The reality is that the UK population is 14 times that of Ireland so unless you fancy an extremely large hike in your TV licence I can't see it happening. In any case, RTE's remit as a public service broadcaster is to service the population of the country and not the UK licence payer.

channelsurfer

interesting point about formula 1 Brian are setanta taking the same stance as tv3? but on the other hand I am sure itv have a good case with it been overspill and not available to the irish audience as its not on the sky epg. You can correct Me on it if not.. I wonder do setanta intend to block sky next year from showing the champions league to ireland when setanta have the second choice rights after rte.

bk

BrianD wrote:

The situation is that RTE may indeed may have to bid for rights in the UK market. The reality is that the UK population is 14 times that of Ireland so unless you fancy an extremely large hike in your TV licence I can't see it happening. In any case, RTE's remit as a public service broadcaster is to service the population of the country and not the UK licence payer.

Oh I couldn't agree more. What I was trying to say is that if C4 goes FTA and therefore are required to buy up the Irish rights to US shows to make sure that they don't get sued (and it wouldn't cost them much extra), then weither RTE goes FTA or not, they will be caught in a situation were they can't get the rights to any US shows.

I can see RTE being left with the following options:

1) Drop all US shows and focus on Irish produced content (highly unlikely).

2) Buy the cheaper, lesser quality US shows (remember relatively small, niche channels like Living TV and Hallmark with far less money then RTE have gotten the rights to some good shows like CSI and Law and Order).

3) Compete with the UK channels for the Irish and UK rights to US shows. There isn't any reason why RTE 2 couldn't be turned into a channel that could compete in the UK market, I wouldn't underestimate RTE's abilities, however it is highly unlikely.

4) Come to some sort of agreement with C4 to show the shows in Ireland at the same time as C4 or maybe a few days later.

All of this is completely independent of RTE deciding to go FTA or not. I'm just speculating as to what would happen if C4 went FTA. I really think RTE would have no option but to also go FTA and come to some sort of arrangment on TV rights.

I think that option 4 would be highly likely (or alternatively option 2), I'd say that neither RTE nor C4 want to really compete with one another, it would only push up prices for them both, so a sharing agreement would make a lot of sense.

bk

channelsurfer wrote:

interesting point about formula 1 Brian are setanta taking the same stance as tv3? but on the other hand I am sure itv have a good case with it been overspill and not available to the irish audience as its not on the sky epg. You can correct Me on it if not.. I wonder do setanta intend to block sky next year from showing the champions league to ireland when setanta have the second choice rights after rte.

I can only think of two reasons why Setanta hasn't gone after ITV.

1) I'm right about the overspill thing and Setanta can't touch them.

or

2) Probably more likely Setanta is afraid of ITV. If Setanta make life difficult for ITV in Ireland, I could easily see how the next time Formula 1 (or Champions League, etc.) contract negotiations come up, after ITV has negoiated the contract for €€€€ million (or whatever it is) in the UK, they say, "By The Way will you throw in the Irish rights for cheap while your at it so we can get those pesky Setanta guys off our back". It wouldn't cost ITV much extra and it would sink Setanta.

L1011

UTV are not specifically targetting Ireland on satellite (its unavailable on our sold pay TV package without customer intervention), hence Setanta would have no case. TV3 are only able to go after ITV are its ITV's shows that ITV are beaming after selling to someone else. Presumably the reason they've pulled 3 and 4 from the Irish EPG is to show that they're not targetting Ireland with -any- of their channels. (note that this blurs the line between ITV Network and ITV PLC, but meh, its being done all the time by a certain other poster in this thread)

ITV do not "own" the F1. So Setanta can't go after them over it. They aren't going after RTL now, are they? And everyone on this island can, if they want to, get RTL and watch nice, FTA F1 since the mid 1990's. Considering how many Sky Analogue rigs are still up there, I'm sure theres large numbers of people who do.

bk

MYOB I actually tend to agree with you, I believe that FTA is Sat is covered by the EU overspill legislation, but a lot of people seem to disagree, so I was giving another possible explanation.

Going by what MYOB says above, then there would be nothing to stop RTE going FTA (including TV show rights) as long as they didn't actively promote the channel in the UK.

I'd love if someone could give me conclusive proof either way. So far I've seen nothing but hersay, guesses and peoples opinions. It seems to be a very gray area.

watty

UK broadcasters basically almost get Irish rights as they have been received here since 1950s

Over 70% of Irish getting UK TV BEFORE ANY SATELLITE.

UK market is nearly 20 times Irish market and almost noboby in Great Britian gets RTE.

Setanta and TV3 can do nothing about UK reception here. But Irish TV *DOES* get blacked out on cable in N.I. on occasion.

Deliberate marketing of UK television to Ireland would be a separate Issue. This is why BBC will NOT pay for Irish inclusion of ANY channel other than BBC World Service Radio. On Irish EPG BBC1 NI and BBC2 NI are paid for by Sky who also pays the BBC. The reverse of the UK EPG.

Setanta can only complain to the F1 people which will not do any good considering the 50 years ITV overspill and subsequent cable and MMDS and Deflector carriage, all before satellite.

The only folks really fussed by UK Televison FTA by satellite increasing might be UPC the new Chorus/NTL Ireland owner.

It would cost RTE a HUGE amount more in rights / royalties payments even on their own programs to be FTA in UK. And a lot more (x5 maybe) for imported stuff as UK is a 20 times bigger market with little overspill apart from NI.

This is NOT hearsay. FTA RTE on DSAT is not going to happen without a siesmic change in the global industry. FTV maybe, but only if Sky foots the bill (They might).

There is nothing grey about it. The Eu directives have nothing to do with it. It is simple money to performers, writers, composers, publishers, rights holders etc and NOT just for imported shows.

L1011

bk wrote:

MYOB I actually tend to agree with you, I believe that FTA is Sat is covered by the EU overspill legislation, but a lot of people seem to disagree, so I was giving another possible explanation.

Going by what MYOB says above, then there would be nothing to stop RTE going FTA (including TV show rights) as long as they didn't actively promote the channel in the UK.

I'd love if someone could give me conclusive proof either way. So far I've seen nothing but hersay, guesses and peoples opinions. It seems to be a very gray area.

RTE have bought lots, and lots, and lots of programme rights on the basis that they're encrypted and only available on the island of Ireland, or in Ireland (for some sports, etc). Thats a big problem. Most other broadcasters never buy rights on that kind of basis, and its not a clause that can be smacked on afterwards. A lot of their "early showing" stuff is completely tied up like this

However, if the Luxembourg channels can do FTA, and most of the other small countries in Europe can do FTV schemes....

RTÉ would have no legal issues decrypting for everything they have unlimited rights to - which would be their own shows, and some imported stuff (ex-BBC content I would guess, and some others), and turning back on the FTV cards for the stuff they can't put out FTA - just like RAI do in Italy and TVP3 in Poland.

watty

They would still have to pay more in royalties/ performing rights etc on their own stuff, not as severe, but enought to make the bean counters object. There are no legal obsticles at all, just financial. I think most people (not some of us) would be happy if a cancelled Sky sub still got Irish TV, this much is very, very possible now, but wasn't likely when RTE first went on Sky system.

BrianD

bk wrote:

I can only think of two reasons why Setanta hasn't gone after ITV.

1) I'm right about the overspill thing and Setanta can't touch them.

or

2) Probably more likely Setanta is afraid of ITV. If Setanta make life difficult for ITV in Ireland, I could easily see how the next time Formula 1 (or Champions League, etc.) contract negotiations come up, after ITV has negoiated the contract for €€€€ million (or whatever it is) in the UK, they say, "By The Way will you throw in the Irish rights for cheap while your at it so we can get those pesky Setanta guys off our back". It wouldn't cost ITV much extra and it would sink Setanta.

I would say wrong and wrong.

L1011

watty wrote:

They would still have to pay more in royalties/ performing rights etc on their own stuff, not as severe, but enought to make the bean counters object. There are no legal obsticles at all, just financial. I think most people (not some of us) would be happy if a cancelled Sky sub still got Irish TV, this much is very, very possible now, but wasn't likely when RTE first went on Sky system.

Well, we all know how wonderful RTÉ is at arranging for cheap performers :rolleyes:

How much is Finucane on again? for a few hours a week...

Capt'n Midnight

MYOB wrote:

Well, we all know how wonderful RTÉ is at arranging for cheap performers :rolleyes:

How much is Finucane on again? for a few hours a week...

Hey at least she actually bothers showing up work, most of the time unlike Gerry "Sicknote" Ryan*.

* or Oxygen Thief if you prefer

[broken record]RAI and other Italian channels encrypt/blank the stuff they don't have rights to broadcast, the rest is in the clear, it's not like many people sit and watch one channel all evening anymore, and fewer in the ABC1' s etc.

What rights fo RTE have for stuff they commision but don't do themselves ?

Anyone see the bit in the paper about FAI selling out to SKY ??
Could that be related in a bid to hold on to Irish subscribers or is rumour or just SKY doing what they do best , getting sports fans by thier eh .. attention.