Gordon Colleary stood on the steps of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and wept. It was April 1995 and the “absolutely delighted” chairman of Magill Publications had just won a 10-year legal battle against RTE. Exactly a decade earlier, Magill TV Guide had tried to publish seven-day listings of television and radio programmes in Ireland, but RTE injuncted the fledgling magazine. The station would allow only newspapers to publish daily listings and weekly highlights.
After much legal jousting, the European Court ruled that RTE was abusing a dominant position. From then on, Montrose had to sell full weekly listings to the print media for a “reasonable” royalty.
Ever since, RTE’s rivals have attempted to repeat Magill’s victory by challenging the broadcaster in Europe, in the courts and with regulators. To no effect — the result has never been repeated. But still they try, Newstalk being the latest. The station, which is part of Denis O’Brien’s Communicorp group, has lodged a complaint with the European Commission that RTE being in receipt of TV licence fees is not compatible with EU rules on state aid. Newstalk is particularly unhappy about RTE refusing to broadcast its “move the dial” advertisements earlier this year.
Much like RTE Television’s summer schedule, we’ve seen all this before. In 1999, TV3 lodged a similar complaint with the European Commission. Nine years later it ruled that the licence fee was compatible with EU state aid rules. However, TV3’s long battle may not have been entirely in vain, since it helped stimulate the Broadcasting Act of 2008, which forced RTE to be more transparent and accountable about how it spends licence-fee revenue.
The independent station has been no more successful when it has taken its battle against RTE to other forums. In 2004, the Competition Authority rejected TV3’s claims that Montrose was abusing its dominant position in the market, for example by suppressing advertising rates. That same year consultants hired by the Irish government also concluded RTE was behaving itself, rejecting a claim that it was paying over the odds for popular programmes in order to keep them from rivals.
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Nor have RTE’s rivals got much sympathy from the Department of Communications. Pat Rabbitte, the last minister, was an unabashed supporter of public-service broadcasting, and indeed Montrose mandarins were lucky he was in charge when the Fr Kevin Reynolds libel debacle unfolded. Alex White, the new communications minister, is a former RTE Radio producer, and his instincts will be similar to Rabbitte’s.
What Newstalk and TV3 want, of course, is a slice of the revenue from the household broadcasting charge, which is due to replace the TV licence. Its introduction is no longer expected in January 2015. Our guess is it will be delayed until after the next general election.