RTÉ Authority chairman Mr Patrick J Wright has told the Government that carriage terms agreed between RTÉ and the UK firm BSkyB were similar to its deals with cable operators, which currently carry RTÉ free of charge.

He also warned that Sky's strategy to expand in the Republic and Northern Ireland held serious implications for RTÉ, according to records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Last November RTÉ agreed a deal that will enable its television and radio channels to be broadcast on the Sky platform in the Republic and Northern Ireland from April 2002. The terms of the deal with BSkyB, the firm which operates the Sky digital television service, caused controversy following media speculation that RTÉ had paid millions of pounds to obtain the carriage rights.

This would have been in line with Sky's existing deals with UK broadcasters. It is believed that ITV recently paid up to £17 million sterling (€27 million) to Sky for carriage rights on its satellite platform.

However, a letter sent by Mr Wright to the Minister for the Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, on October 23rd last states that RTÉ had "agreed carriage terms similar to those currently in place with cable operators throughout the country."

Cable operators in the Republic must carry RTÉ's programmes free, signalling that RTÉ managed to sign a similarly favourable deal with Sky in contrast to UK content providers.

RTÉ will now only incur modest costs from the construction of a satellite dish at its Donnybrook headquarters and the installation of digital equipment.

Industry sources said yesterday Sky probably agreed the deal with RTÉ to gain a strong foothold in the market, before a planned rival digital terrestrial network could gain a foothold here.

A competition to award a licence to operate a national digital terrestrial service is under way. However, it would take at least a year to complete a national network and begin to offer services.

Government records which may have evaluated the implications of RTÉ's deal with Sky on this planned digital terrestrial network have been withheld by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands.

Mr Wright's letter suggests that RTÉ's business would have been undermined if it had not decided to join the Sky platform.

"The company's (Sky) intentions are to extend its penetration in this State as well as Northern Ireland and there are potentially serious implications for RTÉ which the authority could not ignore," writes Mr Wright.