[Rdd]

That’s correct. The BBC retained rights in ROI. The problem is that no Irish broadcaster will air it. They have no interest in sci-fi. They won’t even air it as late night filler any more, let alone prime time. That kids show with the singer on a spaceship is about as near as they get to the genre. Maybe the odd film.

[Brekkie]

The Sunday Times have reported last weekend that the Government won't give funding to RTÉ unless significant reforms were made at the broadcaster. Separately; VMTV have written a 4 page letter which was seen by Independent.ie about the type of reforms that RTÉ should be doing to retain it's licence fee funding. It been outlined in the letter that VMTV should take over BBC Studios programmes in The Republic of Ireland along with American shows & films. They also want to RTÉ to go ad free which could signal the government via legislative means to establish a new national broadcasting charge to fund RTÉ services. Is that charge palatable in today's climate among the public?

Knew we'd see some grandstanding as a result of this.   So basically the solution is to not give RTE any government funding and not allow them to air advertising too - so basically have no funding at all.    This should be seen as a governance and largely accounting issue, not about how RTE is funded.

[JAS84]

That’s correct. The BBC retained rights in ROI. The problem is that no Irish broadcaster will air it.  They have no interest in sci-fi. They won’t even air it as late night filler any more, let alone prime time. That kids show with the singer on a spaceship is about as near as they get to the genre. Maybe the odd film.

Nova Jones.

[JMT1985]

With regards to Doctor Who - it is strange how the Disney+ rights do not extend to the Republic of Ireland - yes, BBC One is widely available in the Irish republic on Sky TV Ireland, Freesat, Virgin Media, Eir and Vodafone TV services - but streaming of the show is not available.

BBC iPlayer is not legally available in the Republic of Ireland, and no other streaming service will offer the Doctor Who content, which means the Republic of Ireland will be the only country without a Doctor Who streaming option.

[Rdd]

It may be made available to Sky viewers who have the “Whatever you do, Don’t Call it iPlayer” BBC catch up service. Not that that’s a help to people who don’t subscribe to Sky, mind.

It would be far from the only BBC programme this applies to by the way, but it’s very conspicuous by how high profile it is. It was on Netflix for years but pulled at the same time it was in the U.K. and hasn’t been made available on any ROI streaming service since. I don’t want to overemphasise this point - there’s a huge amount of U.K. TV still available here and easy enough access to ITV stuff through VMTV - but the BBC has taken a largely linear or nothing attitude to ROI and as a result their non-news and sport programmes are dropping off the viewers eyes - out of sight out of mind - as the streaming revolution gathers pace and it’s US programmes, not U.K., that are at the forefront in this market.

[bkman1990]

Virgin Media Television have been renewed with a new National 10 year broadcasting licence from Comissiun Na Mean (Ireland's new media commissioner) today. The new licence allows VMTV to create more public service broadcasting content which also includes more Irish language content for it's audience in The Republic of Ireland.

www.msn.com 

MSN

  Source: www.msn.com

The statement from Frank Farrell, the commercial director of VMTV, implies that there will be more public debate as to how VMTV's content is going to be funded with Irish TV licence fee funding in the near future.

[AJB39]

Has Virgin Media TV and TV3 before it, ever produced Irish language content before? I can’t remember any programme.

[Gary Baldy]

Has Virgin Media TV and TV3 before it, ever produced Irish language content before? I can’t remember any programme.

RTE have, but not sure on TV3

[chinamug]

Has Virgin Media TV and TV3 before it, ever produced Irish language content before? I can’t remember any programme.

In the early years there was an entertainment slot which lasted one minute usually between programmes and voiced over by one of the people they had head hunted from TnaG/TG4. It was basically a token gesture. In fact over the last 20 years SKY One probably had more Drama/Comedy in Irish than TV3/Virgin Media. (An episode of Moone Boy had a few lines in Irish when they went on Holiday)

There could be a good few programmes in Irish possibly (there's not!) but I don't watch Virgin Media. In fact most people around me don't watch it either. If they are watching ITV programmes they're watching them directly on Satellite from ITV.  (I'm obviously not living in a Cable area) 

I doubt there will be any regular Irish language programmes on the station going forward.

[Brekkie]

Looks like it might be an attempt to get a slice of the licence fee for themselves - get it initially for some Irish language content then push to get the English language PSB elements funded afterwards.

Guessing any attempt to sell the channels has stalled.