TV3 blames licence fee for 13 redundancies

Thirteen full-time jobs at TV3 are to be cut with the company blaming the commercial advantage offered by the licence fee to its rival RTÉ.

Staff at the station were informed of the move yesterday and the redundancies are effective immediately. The operations side of the business will be worst hit and the company will also close its Northern Ireland office.

According to TV3, a combination of the "unrestricted" use of the licence fee and a slowdown in the advertising sector was behind the decision.

In a statement the firm said: "the unrestricted use of the [licence fee] funding has caused market distortions that have negatively affected potential advertising revenues that underwrite programme production, and programme cost and availability to TV3."

This, TV3 claimed, has "exacerbated an overall slowdown in the advertising sector" with the indirect knock-on effect of job loses. The company employed more than 160 people prior to the job cuts. The non-filling of a number of vacant posts will be included in the staff cuts.

RTÉ denied the TV3's claim saying that the allegation had been put forward a number of times but the commercial station had never been able to substantiate it.