The Government is expected to announce a major shake-up in broadcasting regulation, in tandem with a significant increase in the TV licence fee, following a Cabinet meeting yesterday.
The measures, which will require a better performance from An Post if it wants to hold on to the licence-fee collection contract, could be announced as early as today by the Minister for Communications, Mr Ahern.
Under the plan, RTE will be given most, if not all, of the €43 annual increase in the licence fee it demanded, along with measures that will partly index it to inflation in future years.
However, it could yet be forced to share part of the fee with privately owned broadcasters, to help cover some of their public service broadcasting obligations, sources hinted last night.
Furthermore, contrary to recent speculation, the semi-State broadcaster will not be forced to sell off part of the valuable land it owns around its Montrose headquarters which had been valued by some experts at more than €15 million.
In addition, the Government is ready to abolish the RTE Authority by transferring powers to a single broadcasting regulator, as recommended by the Forum on Broadcasting report last summer.
The package of measures expected from the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources was surrounded in considerable secrecy last night.. "A few issues remain to be resolved," a Government spokesman said.
"It simply isn't enough to give RTE enough to maintain its solvency. Something has to be done to allow it to increase its output of Irish material," one well-informed source told The Irish Times.
"The case that RTE has been making, that it is about the quantity and the quality of the programming, has been accepted. It isn't just about bare financial viability any more," the source went on.
In future, the public will be able to spread the cost of the licence fee, approximately €150 annually, by paying for it on a quarterly or six-monthly basis, other sources said.
In September 2000 the Minister for Arts, Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Ms de Valera, increased the cost of the colour licence from €88 to €107, while the black-and-white licence rose to €84 from €64.
Under the Government's plan, RTE management will be required to accept radically different structures, including a new range of reporting mechanisms to be introduced during the course of 2003.
Last night senior RTÉ figures insisted that it had not been told of the Government's final decision. Management there has worked for months with consultants KPMG preparing its bid for extra cash.
Senior RTÉ management figures have had regular meetings with Department of Communications officials since July, and relations are said to have improved following Mr Ahern's arrival in office in late May.
RTÉ has predicted that it will go €20 million over budget this year, and the RTE Authority has already warned that it faces the prospect of borrowing to fund day-to-day operations from early next year.
NTL cable customers in Dublin, Galway and Waterford will face a 9 per cent price rise for basic television services from January 1st.
The move comes just weeks after a 15 per cent price rise announced by its rival, Chorus. Both raised the price of their basic television package by up to 30 per cent in late 2000.
Mr Dermot Jewell, chief executive of the Consumers' Association of Ireland, said the increase would cause difficulties for consumers coming on the heels of other price increases.
He criticised the scale of the increase which, he said, should have been at 5 per cent to follow inflation.
NTL's users face 9 per cent rise: page 16