Samantha McCaughren

Lifting the lid on Irish business

JOHN Griffin, the English-Irish businessman who made £300m from selling his London cab company, was in town for the match this weekend and is not happy. His pet project, Irish TV — a station for the Irish diaspora — has run into a rather expensive problem. A key part of the station’s strategy is to get on the Saorview platform, which is Ireland’s free-to-air digital service run by RTE. However, being free to air is anything but free.

Griffin told me that Saorview is looking for a €3m bond in addition to a €1m-a-year transmission fee. This is the going rate for commercial broadcasters and ComReg, the communications regulator, oversees charges.

The station has already passed through the regulatory hoops to get on the platform — Communications Minister Denis Naughten has deemed it to be of public service character and so suitable for a slot on Saorview.

Griffin, who is the lead investor in a £1bn apartment development in London, Royal Mint Garden, said the bond was too much. “It denies us the level playing pitch and it denies us the competitive edge,” he said.

The bond is required to give Saorview assurances about the long-term commitment of stations to the platform. But Griffin thinks he has already proved that. “I have put £15m of my money into Irish TV, so I think it’s a fairly loud gesture as far as I’m concerned. I’m not looking for any favours,” he said.

He is suggesting a bond of €1m but the stand-off with Saorview and RTE continues,

Irish TV launched three years ago and, according to Griffin, its largest audiences are in Ireland and the UK. He said audiences are growing, although viewer numbers and revenue figures were not available.

Griffin, who met Irish TV founder Pierce O’Reilly in a pub, is an optimist and told me he has always been lucky. His mother was born in Mayo, so he will be cheering for the underdogs today and hoping a bit of his luck rubs off.