BROADCASTING:RTÉ'S TRANSMISSION system should be sold and more of the annual TV licence fee allocated to private operators, the review group on State assets has concluded.
The group also recommended that TG4 should pay commercial rates for the one hour of daily Irish language programming it receives from RTÉ for free.
This programming amounted to a subvention to TG4 of about €10.6 million in 2009. The group recommended that TG4 should pay for this programming from “within its own revenues”.
“The respective exchequer support of each broadcaster should be adjusted accordingly to take account of the transaction,” the review group said.
The group said RTÉ’s transmission network, RTÉNL, should be sold as a regulated entity with “appropriate safeguards . . . to ensure its availability to the State, and fitness for purpose in the event of a national emergency”.
The group said the sale of RTÉNL would bring Ireland into line with most EU countries where the transmission network is independent of the broadcaster.
RTÉNL is investing €70 million on infrastructure to introduce digital terrestrial television (DTT) by the end of 2012. DTT will replace the analogue signal and the group said this switch would free up “valuable, high-quality spectrum” that could be reassigned for other purposes, like mobile broadband.
On the licence fee, the group said the portion allocated to the Broadcasting Fund – 7 per cent – should be “increased substantially”. The group said this would “equalise” competition between RTÉ and the private sector.
At a press conference, Mr McCarthy declined to put a figure on this and would not be drawn on whether the licence fee of €160 a year should be increased.
The report called the fee “regressive” and said its sustainability in an era of new technology could be “problematic”. It also highlights how some RTÉ services generate little or no revenues.
Radio stations Lyric and RnaG, the performing groups and the TG4 programming cost RTÉ €51.3 million a year, but generate income of just €3.4 million.