RTE talks falter throwing Eircom’s pay-TV plans into disarray

Eircom’s ambitions in the Republic’s pay-TV market appear to be in chaos after the announcement that critical negotiations between its One Vision consortium and Irish broadcaster RTE’s networks division have collapsed. In a bid to secure a pivotal role in the domestic next generation pay-TV sector, One Vision has been in talks with RTE for nearly a year, in an effort to secure a transmission contract for the commercial aspect of a new TV platform based on DTT technology. In desperation, Eircom had turned to an independent arbitrator – former ComReg chair Isolde Goggin – but she reported back last Wednesday that the two sides are too far apart to warrant further consultation. One Vision and RTE are understood to have disagreed on everything from the price of network carriage to the marketing support for DTT to the type of security One Vision would need to offer RTE for networks investment to be made, the Irish Independent reports.