Tara Television - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Tara Television was an Irish

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

cable

Cable television

Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...

and satellite

Satellite television

Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...

channel aimed primarily at the Irish Diaspora

Irish diaspora

thumb|Night Train with Reaper by London Irish artist [[Brian Whelan]] from the book Myth of Return, 2007The Irish diaspora consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa,...

living in Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, it was set up in 1996 and began broadcasting a year later before being finally wound up in April 2002 by the High Court.

The station was launched by a consortium that included Ireland's

Republic of Ireland

state broadcaster, RTÉ

RTE

RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...

, 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

Sky Digital (UK & Ireland)

Sky is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite television and radio service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28.2° east and Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 satellite at 28.5°E. The service was originally launched as Sky Digital, distinguishing it from the original...

on 1 October 1998. The channel's original owners were RTÉ, United Pan-Europe Communications (owned by at the time by Dutch company United International Holdings, now part of Liberty Global) 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 bulletins and current affairs

Current affairs (news format)

Current Affairs is a genre of broadcast journalism where the emphasis is on detailed analysis and discussion of news stories that have recently occurred or are ongoing at the time of broadcast....

programming, as well as extensive coverage of Irish sport

Sport in Ireland

In Ireland many sports, such as boxing, hockey, rowing, cricket, rugby union, Gaelic football and hurling, are organised in an all-island basis, with a single team representing the whole of Ireland in international competitions...

, in particular, GAA

Gaelic Athletic Association

The Gaelic Athletic Association is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting organisation focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders...

. 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

Royalties

Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...

RTÉ to air these programmes, and it was also envisaged that this could eventually be extended to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. 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

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....

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

Setanta Sports is an international sports broadcaster based in Dublin, Ireland. Setanta Sports was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events...

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 Republic of Ireland 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

Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

and London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

In recent years, RTÉ have approached the issue of overseas broadcasting through the use of its website to stream current affairs and news programmes, and through RTÉ International

RTÉ International

RTÉ International is the working title of an international television service, to be created by the national broadcaster of Ireland, Raidió Teilifís Éireann , when economic conditions improve....

, the working title of a service which will operate in a similar manner to Tara Television. RTÉ have now gone back on a commitment to transmit the replacement service. They originally promised to have the station on the air in 2009 at an unspecified date. Since then, RTÉ have introduced an online TV catchup service, the RTÉ Player

RTÉ player

RTÉ player is an on demand video service provided by RTÉ for programmes broadcast on RTÉ Television. RTÉ player is available in two formats; one for the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and another format for international audiences...

, which enables international viewers to watch a limited number of programmes recently broadcast in the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

See also