Originally published for the 2005 Crawley Irish Festival, updated for 2006

Since Tara Television ceased broadcasting in 2002, RTÉ programming has been unavailable to the large Irish community in Britain. During 2005, the Irish Post and Irish World newspapers were running articles and campaigns to get RTÉ services available to the UK, following on from a “Task Force on Emigration” proposal. But should we be so optimistic?

The RTÉ owned Tara Television previously broadcast, subscription only, on Sky Digital but folded due to lack of revenue. The new plan is that the new channel will be made available free-to-air with no additional payment. Irish groups in the UK have been excited by the prospect and active in their support. But will it happen?

The campaign for RTÉ to be made available in Britain has grown since the Government Chief Whip, TD Emmet Stagg, claimed that programming could be made available to the UK for as little as €5 million on the “Freeview” service. He further advised that funding methods could be an increase of the Irish licence fee by €5 a year or a direct payment by the Irish government. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern stated that he hoped the idea could be pursued.

Freeview is the new digital television (DTT) service operated by the BBC and its partners that will replace analogue television transmissions when broadcasts become 100% digital by 2012. Freeview has become very popular reaching a third of households providing around 30 channels through an existing television aerial.*

Freeview’s popularity has rocketed since Stagg’s statement: Channel Four and ITV have each bid over £5 million per year for what is considered the “last available channel slots” until analogue transmissions end. Similarly, a further channel became available during December 2005 that sparked a bidding war between Channel 4 and, RTL media group backed, Five. Channel 4 won the slot for an estimated £10 Million. This was around three times the value originally suggested by Irish politicians.

Should more commercial channel space become available, it is likely to cost over £10 million a year as companies scramble for limited transmission bandwidth. However, there is a remote possibility that the BBC could facilitate such a move.

Whilst we can all remain hopeful that RTÉ rejoins the UK’s emigrant populations, it remains doubtful. To increase the likelihood, advise friends in Ireland to write to their TD. In the meantime, BBC Ulster, RTÉ Radio One, Europe, 2FM, Lyric and RnaG are available on Sky Digital and on many cable television networks. In addition, RTÉ is available available on LW Radio 252.