RTÉ has outlined plans to charge overseas users for accessing its content.
The Irish broadcaster’s director general, Noel Curran, has revealed that overseas users will have to pay to access some RTÉ content before the end of the year.
Speaking to an audience of journalism students in Limerick, he confessed that the company faces a “pressing question” about how it will continue to fund itself.
“RTÉ will move into the premium online space internationally in the next number of months,” he said.
“We will start charging for some of our content internationally. Not news, not a lot of that general content, but we will introduce premium content over the next six to eight months because we have to.”
It is still unknown whether these premium content packages will give the Irish in Britain the option of paying to watch GAA live online.
But an RTÉ spokesperson told The Irish Post that it will never charge users accessing its news services “in any market” and that none of the plans being considered includes the idea of charging for popular RTÉ programmes currently available for free outside Ireland, such as The Late Late Show and The Saturday Night Show.
The introduction of charges, which the broadcaster promised would “enable the Diaspora to maintain a connection with home”, follows a series of cost-cutting moves made by RTÉ in the past year, including the closure of its London office in September.
It also follows reports that The Irish Times and The Irish Independent are working on plans to introduce charges for some of their online services.
“Noel Curran confirmed that RTÉ is looking at premium content options online internationally,” an RTÉ spokesperson said.
“This is motivated by our desire to add to the offering currently available to international audiences and to enable the Diaspora to maintain a connection with home as well as showcase the best of Ireland internationally.
“We are constantly assessing new products and services to serve these audiences but there are additional costs involved in making that additional content available."
See More: Irish In Britain, RTE
