BBC forced to pay

BBC Northern Ireland dipped into the coffers to provide an Irish audience with coverage of defending champions Ulster's opening game in the European Cup against Bourgoin in France at the weekend. The BBC was hoping for a little entente cordiale from French television station FR2 with regard to the provision of pictures for the match.

Unfortunately for the BBC, the French were already committed to showing a different match that day and so the English terrestrial station had to pay £25,000 to hire an outside broadcast unit for the day. Mind you it's mere buttons when one considers the £50 million that Auntie handed over for the television rights to the European Cup.