Ireland V Russia not being show on either Sky sports or Net2 on $ky But Setanta P.P.V

Mossy Monk

agreed, a brilliant letter

Lennoxschips

Basically, the average guy in the UK just gets a UK box and gets his UK channels. Should RTE and us be penalised just in case people out their manage to bend the rules.
It is now "awkward" for "Joe Soap "to get an Irish box in the UK .
Therefore RTE should be allowed broacast their full service.,If not, SKY should advertise RTE as being a restricted service when advertising.

Setanta target the pubs and not the average guy, and pubs will go to any length to get the matches on the cheap.

rovingrover

Actually the problem that most of us have is that we think RTE are already allowed to broadcast but choose not to.

Yes the pubs will go to great lengths but let Setanta and the UK authorities enforce the laws on piracy.

rovingrover

Another reply from Niall Cogley

Notes of interest

1) The russia game was shown by mistake

2) Looks like the GAA issue is resolved which will I know make many of you happy.


Thank you for your response and I am sorry that I seem to have raised more questions
than I answered but, as previously stated, this is a new area and it is throwing up
new policy issues every day. You will forgive me if I attempt to end the
correspondence at this point because I would prefer to be working on these issues
rather than reporting on the work, but I will try to answer the issues that you raise
in sequence in the hope that I can convince you that there is nothing for anyone to be
evasive about.

1) The bits we showed on Sky Digital were a mistake and an accidental breach of the
licence for which we have had to apologise. Certainly, it must have looked bizarre
that we announced that we would not be showing it on DSat and then proceeded to show
some of it on DSat.We are now having to brief corners and areas of RTE that we didn't
imagine would or could influence this chain of events!

2) We did not negotiate with Setanta on this matter or agree a deal with them up front
although we were aware that they were participating in the process. After the events
of the summer we might have privately wished that Setanta, rather than Sky, would win
out in the UK because the latter would have most likely excluded RTE
altogether.Remember the legislation is still not in place. The only joint bid we had
was with the BBC who's proposal was rejected.

3) It appears that Setanta did not seek DSat or PPV rights in Ireland. Perhaps the
agent felt that this would have affected his ability to sell to RTE because he would
have been offering non-exclusive rights in this territory. Perhaps Setanta felt that
they would not be able to sell it here because RTE would announce our plans better
than we did. Most likely, nobody thought of it. Either way, when RTE came to the
table, the DSat rights were simply not for sale in Ireland and we had to get on with
it although this does seem to underscore the fact that this is new territory for all
of us.

4) We cannot guarantee that it will not happen again short of deciding not to bid if
similar circumstances were to present again. This would simply open the market for
TV3 to compete unchallenged and this seems not to be the sensible option. We would
certainly consider offering Setanta the option to sell PPV rather than giving Sky
Digital subscribers no opportunity to view the events but this will be the subject of
a corporate policy review. It is still possible that this situation will not recur in
international soccer.

5) This is the part where you seem to be suggesting that a) RTE and Setanta have
combined resources to maximise the inconvenience to our collective audiences and b)
there is any relationship between our GAA contract and our soccer contracts. In fact
Setanta do not have rights to RTE live commentary in this territory and only have this
access under an agreement governing international GAA rights which they bought from
the GAA before RTE bought domestic rights for the same term.

Incidentally, we have finally reached agreement with the GAA regarding DSat
broadcasting and you will be happy to learn that all RTE matches will be available on
DSat forthwith. This follows extensive consultations between ourselves, the GAA,
Setanta the BBC and Sky who have now paired all Irish decoding boxes with Irish cards.
Piracy in the UK and beyond was the main reason for the delay but that has now been
resolved to everyone's satisfaction (technical hitches aside).

Celtic is another day's work, suffice to say that we do not have this contract at
present and your point about advertising is well made. We will take note.

Discussions with the department are ongoing but there would be some irony in
attempting to force international agents not to sell to PPV clients outside this
territory as well as those operating within under the existing listing legislation. I
believe that this would be difficult to sustain.

I hope that this answers some of your concerns and I'm sure you will forgive me if I
disengage from the debate at this point

Tony

Looks like he's waving the white flag Rover, guess he knows when he's lost the debate.

Tony

....

Mod edit: Whoa, its long enough without having to quote the whole think again unedited. There is the "post reply" button instead

DMC

Another detailed, decent, no-nonsense reply.
He may be backing out of the argument, but for that length of reply alone, he's explained the situation very well.

Tony

True Damo, apologies

Originally posted by Tony

Mod edit: Whoa, its long enough without having to quote the whole think again unedited. There is the "post reply" button instead

BrianD

Nothing like a good debate but it's amazing how issues get confused. All this talk about rights of licence payers being conned. Are they?


All RTE are obliged to do is to provide programming on a free to air basis. If they cock up on rights negotiation they deserve a good ear bashing. Sky Digital is a programme delivery platform which you have the option to subscribe to as you do with other delivery options. Your option. You don't have any rights as a licence payer to demand that the Sky Digital show certain programmes. Of course you have your power as a consumer to lobby Sky

If other companies purchase the rights for games they have every right to ensure that their intellectual property rights are protected which includes blue screens appearing on other channels if neccessary

Fair play to companies like Setanta who are out there taking advantage of the opportunities that digital TV offer. They offer the ability to watch the Gaa matches around the world (though the hefty door charge at some pubs can be a pain) and 10 sundays of GAA programming from the comfort of your home in the UK.

Nothing for free these days!

Tony

Well in this case Setanta did not make the game available in ROI so there was no opportunity to pay for it. We have no choice when it comes to paying RTE.

Tony

Originally posted by BrianD
Nothing like a good debate but it's amazing how issues get confused. All this talk about rights of licence payers being conned. Are they?

Fair play to companies like Setanta who are out there taking advantage of the opportunities that digital TV offer. They offer the ability to watch the Gaa matches around the world (though the hefty door charge at some pubs can be a pain) and 10 sundays of GAA programming from the comfort of your home in the UK.

Nothing for free these days!

BrianD

Why would they make the GAA coverage available when it is already available free to air (but not on your chosen delivery method which operates from outside of the state). Not forgetting that RTE have paid for the TV rights for the Republic.

Would you market a PPV service when it is also available free to air??? The primary market for the GAA service is those who would not ordinarily be able to receive it.

Lennoxschips

What if you lived out of range of terrestrial signals? Out near the Blasket Islands for example.

BrianD

C'mon that arguement is a bit weak!! There's plenty of what ifs! What if I didn't have a TV set is that a logical arguement. I'm sure there's plenty of folk who can't receive and sort of a signal - terrestial or other - but they are hardly a market!

I'm sure the folk on the Blaskets have higher priorities than TV reception and arn't RTE obliged to provide transmission coverage there in any case as part of their responsibilities. Though, I believe on other islands the locals were in the habit of chopping down the local TX mast.

In any case, I believe that the issues surrounding this thread are now resolved. Sky has "married" the subscriber cards and boxes meaning that certain programming events are no longer blocked out on RTE at least if you are bona fide RoI subscriber.