[chinamug]

BBC will never allow the iPlayer to be fully accessed in the Republic of Ireland - yes, viewers can watch their channels on every Irish platform apart from Saorview, but that is all paid for by carriage deals (Freesat I feel is not a huge provider in Ireland)

BBC are under constant pressure, especially from the right wing media and this current conservative government, so they are holding onto their content on the iPlayer

However in this day and age, I wonder how many in Ireland use a VPN to gain access??

I don't have the figures to hand but about 60% of households pay for Cable/Sky/telecoms TV.... About 25% Have Satellite /Freeview Saorview  10% are Saorview only and there are a few percent in the Republic that have only UK TV (last time I saw a figure for that was 2020 and it was 4%). So it's approaching 30% that don't pay for UK TV in the Republic. Plus there are a lot of houses that have Sky in the main room or rooms and have Feeds from Freeview in other rooms (Several Households I've visited do this in Donegal ) I've stayed in a few places on Holiday in the republic and almost all of them had Freesat or Freeview. 

There's no question that Virgin Media are losing viewers in the 25% of houses that have Freesat/Freeview and Saorview. You can watch the Rugby in HD or in Vaseline vision on Virgin Media One

Most people (under the age of 50) I know in the Republic use the iplayer almost as much as the RTE player. ITVX is fairly popular as well.