TV3 has written to the Minister for Communications, Mr Dempsey, expressing serious reservations about a report which found that RTE was not abusing its dominant position.
The company said yesterday that the report was fundamentally flawed, and confirmed it was still pressing ahead with a state-aid complaint to the EU Commission. That complaint centres on licence fee revenue which it claims is an unfair subsidy to the national broadcaster.
The report to Mr Demspey was written by Dublin-based consultants, Curtin Dorgan Associates, PricewaterhouseCooper and Europe Economics. It found that while RTE was dominant in the television market, this was not necessarily an abuse of its position. The report also cleared RTE of selling its advertising airtime at below market rates.
However, yesterday Mr David McMunn, TV3's government, legal and regulatory affairs director, said "we have made the Minister aware of our concerns."
He took issue with the assertion by the report's consultants that all of RTE's broadcasting was public service in nature. "This is one of the many flaws in the report," he said. Mr McMunn said the station was continuing with its other complaint at EU level, but was unable to say when a ruling might be made.
Last year, the Competition Authority investigated the issue of RTE using the licence to keep down advertising rates and rejected TV3's complaint.
Mr McMunn said the station would show a small profit when its 2004 results are published and would be EBITDA positive. The station is owned by Canwest and Granada plc (45 per cent each) and a small group of Irish investors, including Mr Paul McGuinness and Mr James Morris.
TV3's last results for 2003 saw it post net losses of €1.4 million and operating profits of €1 million. TV3's programming director, Mr Matthew Salway, said despite claims to the contrary, TV3 was paying a premium for programming it buys from Granada.
