RTÉ’s AERTEL digital cost €3m to run for 4 years

Broadcaster wants to drop the outdated service but it can’t due to complaints by rural TDs, sources allege

RTÉ is spending €700,000 a year on a digital version of the archaic teletext service, Aertel, the information platform that has largely been made redundant by the internet.

However, senior sources have told the Irish Mail on Sunday that plans to dump the service some years ago – and spend the money on better programming – were called off because ‘a number of rural TDs wrote in to complain’.

The BBC shut down its teletext service Ceefax in 2012, and senior RTÉ staff believe that since all the information an Aertel is also available on rte.ie anyway, it should go the same way.

.The original service was launched in 1987 and became popular as a place to get GAA results and Lotto numbers. It has offered up-to-the-minute sports scores, news headlines and the weather forecast for almost 30 years.

According to figures released to the Irish Mail on Sunday, through a Freedom of Information request, RTÉ has spent almost €3m maintaining the service since 2014.

That year, €740,073 was spent on it, rising to €771,437 in 2015, and then falling to €700,023 in 2016 and €690.638 last year.

According to the FoI, most of the costs – over 70% – are for transmission and distribution.

A survey carried out last year by Target Group Index put the usage at 27% of adults via TV or website, and said 11.3% of adults (432,000) use it on a weekly basis.

The RTÉ source who spoke to the MoS said: ‘The plan had been to get rid of Aertel a number of years ago. However, a number of rural TDs wrote in to complain about this and, as a result, Aertel stays. €700,000 is a huge amount of money to spend on a service that basically scavenges news from other RTÉ departments.

‘That money could be used on independent programming or news and sport or even just on rte.ie,’ they said.

A selection of RTÉ Aertel pages are broadcast on rotation overnight on RTÉ Two, under the title Nightscreen, after normal programming finishes.

According to the website: ‘Aertel is now an enhanced digital version of the RTÉ Aertel teletext service. It functions in the same way as the analogue service, offering current news, sport and weather updates but is now more agile and easier to use.

‘It is available on Saorview when you press the text button on the remote control.’

RTÉ was contacted for comment but did not respond by last night.

‘This money could be used on programming’