Sky to splash out €5m on Irish service - Report

Media giant Sky is to spend €5m on its Irish news service in the first year of operation, according to a report in the Irish Independent.

The paper says that television experts arrived at the amount by combining the cost of creating a dedicated Dublin city-centre studio, attracting correspondents and setting up a West of Ireland bureau.

Sky has refused to disclose how much it is investing in the Irish operation. But the company has also set aside €100m to fund the roll-out of its Sky Digital platform in Ireland alone.

Sky currently has about 7.2m subscribers to its services, of which 315,000 are in Ireland, according to figures for December 2003.