SAFEGUARDS to protect major sporting events from being bought exclusively for subscription or pay per view television are proposed in a memorandum for Government giving details of major new broadcasting legislation.
The proposals are bound to cause controversy and RTE's new director general designate, Mr Bob Collins, will find himself opposing the plans of the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Higgins, even before he takes up his appointment officially next April.
The proposals, which have been seen by The Irish Times, would, if translated into legislation, create a major new broadcasting regulator, the Broadcasting Commission. It would change the status of the RTE Authority to that of a board charged with running a national broadcasting corporation, under the control of the commission.
The Independent Radio and Television Commission would be subsumed into the commission, which would also be the regulator for new technological means of transmitting radio and television. All broadcasting, including Teilifis na Gaeilge, would come under the commission.
The legislation would allow the Minister to issue an order designating an event, such as the GAA All Ireland finals, to be part of the national heritage, and prohibiting it being sold exclusively to any service that was not available generally and without charge.
The proposals also say that under new legislation Section 31 of the Broadcasting Authority Act would be repealed. No order banning named groups from appearing on radio and television has been in operation for nearly two years
The proposals involve the biggest shake up of Irish broadcasting since the Broadcasting Authority Act of 1960 and come in the wake of the Green Paper on Broadcasting, published in 1995.
Mr Higgins is seeking approval from his Cabinet colleagues to draft a Bill urgently so that it will become law before a general election is called some time this year.
RTE would remain the major public service provider and would retain the whole of the income accruing from the licence fee.
No licence fee finance would go to the commercial local radio sector to compensate for requirements such as that for 20 per cent news and current affairs, Such a policy would dilute RTE's effectiveness as a public service broadcaster.
In the memorandum Mr Higgins says the private sector has an important role to play in the future of Irish broadcasting, but he believes the best interests of this sector would be served by a clear regulatory structure under which all broadcasters would operate, rather than through public funding for certain types of programming.
The thrust of the proposals is for the protection of public service broadcasting and for a clear statement in legislation that public service broadcasting is an essential and central part of the mix of broadcasting services.
The broadcasting commission would be a regulatory and policymaking body. It would oversee the broadcasting sector, including the regulation of local and community service on cable television and MMDS, satellite broadcasting, and education television services. It would be involved in policy development, standards and monitoring.
The commission would have a chairman and five members. They would be paid and full time. It would also take over the role of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission.
Mr Higgins says in the memorandum it is important for RTE to be able to "robustly defend its own interest as a broadcaster within its statutory remit in the increasingly competitive broadcasting environment. It may be becoming impossible for one authority to balance the public interests in broadcasting in general, with the specific interests of RTE as a broadcaster in its own right."