Distribute licence fee revenue throughout broadcasting sector

THE bosses at RTÉ must be very happy with Interim Report of the Forum on Broadcasting which has just been published.

Only in one respect is the report radical: by departing from its own terms of reference. Whereas it was instructed by the Government not to examine "the adequacy or otherwise of the current RTÉ licence fee", the forum has done the exact opposite. It gives a ringing endorsement to the case for a license fee increase, and implies that the fee should be index-linked to prevent its value being eroded over time.

There is better news for RTÉ. The forum accepts the status quo of dual funding, under which the State broadcaster gets both TV licence and advertising revenue. And it dismisses the suggestion that the independent sector should receive a portion of the licence fee in exchange for public service broadcasting.