With the agreement of the House, I propose to share my time with Senator Roche.
Adjournment Matters. - Cablelink Service.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I rise to raise the question of the Cablelink service and how it is reaching our homes. An application has been made by Cablelink in relation to getting some advertising time and while there may be merit in that case I suggest to the Minister that before any decision is made he must look at the whole operation of Cablelink.
Cablelink made a profit of about £2.5 million last year with a turnover of about £11 million and can look after themselves. I am concerned about the people who paid money in good faith expecting to get a service with so many channels provided. In recent months channels have been withdrawn, one by one, without any advance notice, leaving a much reduced selection. No money has been refunded by Cablelink and there is no indication of a refund, or perhaps money off next year's bill.
According to the Sunday Independent of 7 March 1993, MTV's director said that if he were a customer and he were losing six channels and paying the same fees he would be demanding his money back. He described it as a complete rip off. There is no doubt that Cablelink, which reaches 250,000 houses in Dublin, 11,000 in Galway and 11,000 houses in Waterford, has ripped people off.
The whole question of Cablelink's operation has to be looked at. If the Minister is thinking of granting an advertising licence to them — and there may be certain merit in that — he has got to look at the quality and cost of the service they are providing. Subscribers in England to Sky Sports pay £3.99 per month compared to £9.99 with Cablelink. There is much concern over the reduction in the number of stations available.
I would like a full investigation into the operation of Cablelink and RTE's relation to it. There is no doubt the customer is being ripped off and is not receiving the service which he paid for in good faith. Subscribers to Cablelink pay a fair amount of money, about £81 a year, in addition to their TV licence.
Before any decision is made the Minister should look into the operation of Cablelink. We want to stop the individual subscriber being ripped off.
I thank you for allowing me to take up Senator Cosgrave's generous offer to share time with me.
I, too, wish to raise this issue with the Minister. The current situation is appalling. Cablelink, which is a monopoly operator in the greater Dublin area, including areas like Bray, is operating in breach of its contract. It is not providing people with the service for which they have paid or the service that was advertised. In my view it is a matter for the Director of Consumer Affairs and for the Minister and his Department to put the hard word on this company.
The problems with Cablelink are not new. Cablelink operates in an extremely aggressive manner towards its customers and clients. It is not a client oriented company. It continuously resists any reasonable approach from public representatives, community groups or residents' associations to amend, improve or in any way vary its service. They take a very aggressive view, for example, with regard to disconnections. If there is any fault on the side of the customer they are quick to exact retribution but Cablelink, on this occasion, has said absolutely nothing to the clients about resuming sevices or compensating consumers for the loss of service. It should work both ways. For years I and others asked Cablelink if they could run TV 5, a French language channel, on one of the spare channels on the Cablelink system. They refused yet the operation of the channel has been free. They have refused to even enter into negotiations on the matter, again indicating a dismissive attitude not just towards public representatives but towards the public.
Finally, I should say that Cablelink is not the only company operating in a way that I regard as anti-client. I draw to the Minister's attention the operations of another cable operator in Greystones who is trying to renege on contracts which were completed when people bought out cable connections many years ago. The company is now refusing to honour them.
The area of cable operations has tremendous potential. It has been successful in this country; more Irish houses have cable television than any other country in Europe. However, bad relationships with clients will impair what has generally been a progressive move. If the Minister and his Department — and the Minister is always vigorous in all matters — were to have words in the collective management ear of Cablelink and of other cable operators, they would be more customer oriented and would retain their customers' support. Thus we would be much better served.
I can confirm to the House that Cablelink have submitted an application to our Department seeking approval to sell and distribute Irish originated advertising on the advertising breaks of satellite television channels carried on its network.
It is important to put the matter into historical perspective. The application was submitted some time ago by Cablelink in the belief that its approval would have allowed the company to retain certain satellite television services on its network. That did not, unfortunately, prove to be the case. Negotiations between Cablelink and the satellite service provider concerned subsequently progressed beyond what the company originally believed would settle the matter. The satellite provider demanded a subscription fee per month per subscriber which, if acceded to, would have resulted in the cable company having to pass on a substantial annual charge to subscribers. For a number of reasons Cablelink were not prepared to accede to the demands and, just before Christmas, the services in question were removed by Cablelink in advance of a deadline which the satellite provider had laid down.
Negotiations between Cablelink and the satellite provider recommenced over a month ago and are ongoing. I must stress that these are commercial negotiations and we have not been involved in them, nor do we intend to get involved. The information on the background to the removal of certain satellite channels from the Cablelink network is largely in the public domain and will be known to those who have followed this issue. I must stress, however, that we have not been advised that the negotiations have been finalised, nor are we aware of what the final shape of any settlement might be.
I think it is also important that neither I nor indeed the elected Members of Oireachtas Éireann should be drawn into saying anything that would prejudice those sensitive ongoing discussions. We must tread very carefully in both the company's and indeed the public's interests.
There is no doubt that the arrival of satellite channels particularly the hitherto free of charge channels, has changed viewers' perceptions of what they expect of cable systems in terms of the range of television choice. In the main cable customers nowadays expect more than the four UK terrestrial services traditionally associated with cable services in Ireland. I believe also, and I say this without prejudicing Cablelink's negotiating stance, that Cablelink themselves are anxious to retain a range of satellite television services on their network.
That brings me to the Cablelink application currently before our Department. We have examined the application from the point of view of cable developments generally and, of course, with the exception that such a course would lead to the retention of a range of satellite television services on the basic package on cable networks. As regards the latter, I repeat that as of now, we have no indication that approval of the Cablelink application would achieve that outcome. Looked at from the cable development side I can say that we are, in principle, in favour of the proposal.
On balance we believe that insertion of local advertising on cable systems is a natural development in the evolution of cable. It would be of benefit to the cable industry and, in the medium to long term, positively impact on subscriber charges and assist in maintaining a range of television channels on cable systems, without increased cost to the subscriber by way of higher general charges or special viewing charges. Given that local advertising would replace foreign originated advertising, we have reason to believe that it would also be of benefit to advertisers, the local advertising industry and the independent Irish television production sector.
Estimates of the amount of revenue which could be generated vary widely but it is certain that the proposal does have implications for current and future broadcasting and in that regard RTE has expressed its opposition to it. As responsibility for broadcasting policy now rests with our Government colleague, the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, we have decided that he should be consulted in the matter and that consultation is in progress at the moment.
In summary, therefore, the present position is that negotiations concerning the return of certain satellite television channels to the Cablelink network are ongoing between Cablelink and the satellite service provider concerned. These negotiations, it must be re-emphasised, are a commercial matter for the companies concerned. We have not been involved nor do we intend to become involved. We have an application from Cablelink on local insert advertising which we are considering in consultation with the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht.
Another Mullaghmore.
B'fhéidir. Whether this proposal receives approval would, of course, depend to a large extent on whether its approval would result in the return and retention of a range of satellite television channels on cable systems in the long term without increased charges to the subscriber, whose interest must always be considered and protected.
Senators mentioned the so-called "ripoff" of the subscriber. The fact is that Cablelink subscribers pay for a basic service which includes both RTE services and the four UK terrestrial services — BBC1, BBC2, UTV and Channel 4. The Sky 1 and Sky News services were delivered free of charge, as was MTV. Subscribers, therefore, have not lost services for which they have paid.
I trust that this puts this complex matter in perspective and I hope that the matter will come to a satisfactory conclusion as quickly as possible.