Tara Television (or Tara TV) was an
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
and
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
channel aimed primarily at
Irish people
The Irish ( ga, Muintir na hÉireann or ''Na hÉireannaigh'') are an ethnic group and nation native to the island of Ireland, who share a common history and culture. There have been humans in Ireland for about 33,000 years, and it has been c ...
living in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
, it was set up in 1996 and began broadcasting a year later before being finally wound up during the early hours of 1 July 2002 by the
Irish High Court.
The station was launched by a consortium that included
Ireland's state broadcaster,
RTÉ
(RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...
, and aired a compilation of shows that had previously been aired by RTÉ in Ireland. It was initially carried by a number of cable providers, before being added to
Sky Digital on 1 October 1998. The channel's original owners were RTÉ,
United Pan-Europe Communications
United may refer to:
Places
* United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Arts and entertainment Films
* United (2003 film), ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film
* United (2011 film) ...
(owned by at the time by Dutch company United International Holdings, now part of
Liberty Global
Liberty Global plc is a British-Dutch-American multinational telecommunications company with headquarters in London, Amsterdam and Denver. Its respective legal names are Liberty Global Plc, Liberty Global B.V. and Liberty Global, Inc., with ...
) and Riordan Communications (involved in telecommunications companies active in rural Ireland).
Tara Television had an exclusive option to purchase the majority of RTÉ's programming, and this accounted for about 80% of the total programmes broadcast by the station, with the remainder being filled by programmes purchased from other networks. It mainly broadcast
news bulletin
Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a news, current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in ...
s and
current affairs programming, as well as extensive coverage of
Irish sport, in particular,
GAA. RTÉ made sure that from 16 July 2001, Tara Television was blocked to Irish Sky subscribers as they feared loss of advertising revenue.
It was anticipated that Tara would pay
royalties
A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...
RTÉ to air these programmes, and it was also envisaged that this could eventually be extended to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. However, Tara was wound up in March 2002 in proceedings brought about by RTÉ, who claimed non-payment of royalty fees from Tara. Tara was placed into
examinership
Examinership is a process in Irish law whereby the protection of the Court is obtained to assist the survival of a company. It allows a company to restructure with the approval of the High Court.
To obtain the appointment of an examiner it ...
following the proceedings. An examiner, Ray Jackson of KPMG, was appointed and set out trying to place Tara back on a sound financial footing.
Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...
offered to take a majority shareholding in Tara and the restructured Tara offered to pay RTÉ all the outstanding money owed. In his report, Jackson stated that RTÉ were not prepared to consider this offer and were pushing for the total liquidation of Tara and therefore the station was taken off the air, three weeks before a deal between RTÉ and
BSkyB for transmission of the RTÉ TV channels on Sky Digital to Irish subscribers.
At the time Tara was taken off the air, RTÉ's stake stood at 20% and 80% was owned by UPC, but Tara had acquired debts that exceeding its assets by €22.8m (including loans of €18m from United Pan-Europe (UPC) and €2.7m from RTÉ). At the time of its closure it employed twenty people at its offices in
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...
and
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
BBC News: 'Court turns off Tara TV', 20 March 2002
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In later years, RTÉ approached the issue of overseas broadcasting through the use of its website to stream current affairs and news programmes. This included RTÉ's online TV catchup service, the RTÉ Player
RTÉ Player is an on demand video service provided by Irish public media broadcaster RTÉ.
The service provides live and recorded RTÉ television programmes, and content exclusive to the player as well as content from other international broad ...
, which enables international viewers to watch a limited number of programmes broadcast in Ireland.
See also
* Media of the Republic of Ireland
The mass media in the Republic of Ireland includes all the media and communications outlets of the Republic.
Print media
Ireland has a traditionally a competitive print media, which is divided into daily national newspapers and weekly region ...
* Television in Ireland
Television in the Republic of Ireland is available through a variety of platforms. The digital terrestrial television service is known as Saorview and is the primary source of broadcast television since analogue transmissions ended on 24 Octob ...
* List of defunct Irish television channels
* List of defunct British television channels
References
* Farrel Corcoran, 'RTÉ and the Globalisation of Irish Television' (Bristol: Intellect Books, 2004)
{{Irish_Television_Channels
RTÉ television channels
Defunct British television channels
Television channels and stations established in 1997
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2002
1997 establishments in Ireland
2002 disestablishments in Ireland