The introduction of payments from pay-TV platforms to free-to-air broadcasters has contributed significantly to the overall health of the broadcasting industry and prompted a new “golden age of television”. Unfortunately, however, this is what has happened in the United States, not here.
In both Ireland and the UK, free-to-air broadcasters aren’t paid for delivering content to competing platforms owned by corporate heavyweights such as BSkyB and UPC-owner Liberty Global. And they aren’t happy about it.
In August, Channel 4 chief executive David Abrahams called for a “a fair deal” on the relationship between the platforms and the broadcasters. The pay-TV end of the television ecosystem benefits from the public service broadcasters’ investment in content and though it pays fees for other channels, the core channels get nothing. Indeed, they used to have to pay for carriage. “Bizarre, isn’t it?” Abrahams wondered in a high-profile speech.
Soon after, ITV echoed this theme, citing research by Nera Economic Consulting that found the introduction of the “retransmission consent scheme” in the US in 1992 meant the television companies there had billions more to invest in programming – in 2013, US free-to-air broadcasters received about $3.3 billion in retransmission payments.
ITV chief executive Adam Crozier called for an end to “what is effectively a multimillion-pound subsidy”, in its case to Sky and Liberty Global’s Virgin.
Yesterday, RTÉ director general Noel Curran gave a speech in which he noted that it had been considering the issue in an Irish context for some time. A UK consultancy firm called Mediatique was hired earlier this year to conduct research that will help the broadcaster – and the Government – “understand much more clearly who creates value for whom in the relationship between Irish terrestrial broadcasters and the major pay-TV platforms operating in Ireland”.
Like his counterparts at Channel 4 and ITV, Curran is adamant it is in the interest of broadcasters, the wider television production sector and “most importantly” audiences that the Government and the regulator rethink the legislation that underpins “the current imbalance”. In essence, this is about seeking payment not just for content but for the most popular, most watched content.
