:: 17/04/2010

Ireland - Negotiations between RTE and One Vision reach an impasse

The negotiations between the pay-DTT license holder One Vision and the broadcast network operator RTE NL appear to have reached an impasse.

Because negotiations between the two companies over the past year have not produced any results, One Vision asked the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) to provide an independent assessment of the negotiations. According to the independent assessor, the position between RTE NL and One Vision was too wide to merit further conversation.

It is believed that One Vision and RTE have disagreed on issues such as the price of network carriage, marketing support for the DTT platform, and One Vision's financial guarantee for RTE's investment in the DTT network.

As a next step, One Vision will need to inform the BAI whether or not it can reach an agreement with RTE NL. If not, the regulator will likely take back One Vision's DTT license and allocate the license to Easy TV which had filed an application for the pay-DTT license.

Allocation of the license to Easy TV could be problematic for the regulator since it is a consortium held by RTE and UPC owner Liberty Global. The Swedish pay operator Boxer had initially been allocated the license but returned it following its difficult negotiations with RTE NL.

One Vision is a consortium held by the telecom operator Eircom (65%), Arqiva (25%), and Setanta (10%). The broadcaster TV3 holds a nominal share in the consortium.

Source: Irish Independent