VIRGIN MEDIA HAS said a new funding plan for RTÉ is a “reward for inefficiency and all-round bad practice”.

The Government today announced that the national broadcaster will receive €725 million in public funding over the next three years, with €225 million of this coming next year.

Áine Ní Chaoindealbháin, managing director of Virgin Media Television, said the funding  package for RTÉ “further distorts the market”.

“RTÉ will now be in a more dominant position than ever before where it will receive a guaranteed €725m from the taxpayer while continuing to benefit from the largest share of commercial revenue,” said Ní Chaoindealbháin.

Also announced today by the Government was a €4 million increase to the Broadcasting and Media Fund, which independent broadcasters can apply to.

This extra €4 million in available funding, which will come on stream next year, will see the available funding for the wider media sector reach €22.2 million.

Ní Chaoindealbháin cautioned that Virgin Media Television “has no alternative but to review all options including our position with regards to our existing Public Service Broadcasting commitments”.

She added that today’s announcement disregards Virgin Media’s “25-year record of delivering extensive Public Service content and the 93% of the population that we reach on an annual basis”.

Speaking to RTÉ News’ Six Ones, Martin said “no other Minister has given so much funding to public service media”.

“When the Future of Media Commission reported those recommendations in relation to other public service media providers, it talked about a figure of €30 million and we are now at €22.2 million,” said Martin.

However, the Future of Media Commission recommended in 2022 that €30 million should be allocated to this fund by 2023.

The funding provided is close to €8 million short of where the Commission recommended that it should be as of last year.  

Martin added: “In relation to Virgin Media’s concerns, I’m happy for the Department and myself to meet them and tease out those concerns with them, but it is on the trajectory of and that pathway towards what the Future of Media Commission recommended.”

Meanwhile, NewsBrands Ireland, the representative body for Ireland’s national news publishers, welcomed the funding for RTÉ that will “secure its future”.

However, NewsBrands noted that news publishers compete with RTÉ for audience and advertisers.

“It is important to highlight that RTÉ can leverage its privileged position as a publicly funded broadcaster to compete unfairly for online advertising, at the expense of independent news publishers,” said NewsBrands in a statement.

Its CEO, Ann Marie Lenihan, said “it is crucial to ensure that any public funding of RTÉ is not used to further distort the market”.

“If a news publisher launches a website, it has to generate sufficient revenues from the website – through subscriptions and advertising – to make the site viable,” said Lenihan.

“However, its ability to do so is severely prejudiced by the fact that the public service broadcaster does not have to turn a profit on its website.

“Indeed, it can avail of publicly-funded content and use it for commercial gain.

“News publishers on the other hand must invest millions in content generation in order to maximise commercial opportunity without any public funding from the taxpayer.”

Lenihan called for more to be done to “ensure that the huge investment of publishers in developing online services is not undermined by the digital activities of RTÉ”.