Pay TV “doubles or trebles” pub-going customers
Allowing Pay TV channels exclusive rights to broadcast sports events has doubled or even trebled the numbers of those going to the pub to view such matches, an Oireachtas Committee on Communications & Research heard recently.
University College Dublin’s Dr Paul Rose told the hearing that a “significant proportion of parents who go to licensed premises to watch pay TV sports events also bring their children with them”.
The hearing follows the Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan’s announcement that he wishes to have ‘free-to-air’ status for key rugby matches so that everyone can watch them.
However the Irish Rugby Football Union argues that it could lose €10 million to €12 million per annum if this happened, a figure former RTÉ Chairman Dr Farrel Corcoran of Dublin City University suspected was “exaggerated”.
