RTÉ: Irish broadcaster resumes bulletins in Northern Ireland

RTÉ has resumed airing news bulletins on TV in Northern Ireland on some platforms and said they would be available across all platforms from Friday.

The broadcaster said earlier on Thursday that it would not air any live news bulletins on TV which contain Olympic Games footage due to licensing rights.

On Wednesday, the station’s news television bulletins were geo-blocked in Northern Ireland on Freeview channel 54, Sky, RTÉ Player and the RTÉ News website.

A number of people took to social media to complain about the programmes being blocked, with one person calling it “censorship”.

The broadcaster had explained that it has the rights to broadcast the 2024 Olympics Games “in the Republic of Ireland only”.

This also means all of RTÉ’s Olympic programming is unavailable to view in Northern Ireland.

Athletes born in Northern Ireland can choose to compete for either Team Ireland or Team Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Paris 2024 will see the largest-ever Irish contingent compete in the Olympics, with a total of 133 athletes.

In a statement on Thursday, RTÉ said it would make an edited bulletin available on the online RTÉ player each night for viewers in Northern Ireland and internationally.

Then, in a later statement, RTÉ said it would “resume broadcast of its news bulletins in Northern Ireland, including news from the 2024 Olympics Games”.

However, viewers in Northern Ireland were unable to watch the Nine O’Clock News on RTÉ One on some platforms on Thursday evening.

The broadcaster subsequently told BBC News NI: “Access to RTÉ News bulletins across all TV platforms in Northern Ireland will be available from tomorrow.”

In its initial statement on Thursday, RTÉ said the “exclusive free-to-air broadcast rights for Northern Ireland for the 2024 Olympic Games are held by the BBC”.

It said the BBC “were licensed those rights in a UK Olympics rights deal agreed between the BBC and the pan-European rights holder, Discovery back in 2016”.

“Broadcast rights include use of any footage as part of news coverage and so RTÉ is unfortunately unable to broadcast or stream live any bulletins in Northern Ireland which contain Olympic footage,” RTÉ said.

Despite this, the entirety of the news programmes containing Olympic footage were geo-blocked in Northern Ireland, rather than the specific segments containing the Olympic coverage.

“While RTÉ has sought permission to make our broadcasts of the 2024 Olympic Games available in Northern Ireland, this has not been possible,” the broadcaster said.

The Broadcasting Act 2009 requires RTÉ to provide a public broadcasting service that “will be made available to the whole community on the island of Ireland”.

Dáire Hughes, Sinn Féin MP for Newry and Armagh, described Thursday’s move as “the right and sensible decision by RTÉ to reverse the geo-blocking of news broadcasts”.

“Despite this, the question must be asked – why were northern viewers blocked in the first instance?” he said.

Mr Hughes had earlier said that the geo-blocking was “unacceptable”.

“RTÉ News is viewed by a huge number of people in the north,” he said.

“Political, economic and social developments on this island affect all of us and it is essential that access to news is universal.”

He said he was writing to the Irish minister for media, Catherine Martin, and the RTÉ director general, Kevin Bakhurst, about the situation.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood also wrote to Mr Bakhurst regarding the geo-blocking.

“Olympic footage is an important part of coverage but it can’t come at the expense of northern audiences who rely on the broadcaster for news content. We are not expendable,” he wrote on the social media platform X.

Fianna Fáil TD for Cavan-Monaghan Brendan Smith also said it was “unacceptable” that “citizens in Northern Ireland” could not access RTÉ’s news programmes.

“As a public service broadcaster, RTÉ has a duty to provide comprehensive news coverage to all people across Ireland, regardless of geographical location,” he said.

Mr Smith called on RTÉ to “address this issue urgently and to communicate their plans for ensuring full accessibility across all 32 counties”.