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The difficulties in accessing some programming on RTÉ as well as viewers north of the border not being able to enter programme competitions has been criticised by local MLA Justin McNulty during an appearance on the Claire Byrne show.
After appearing on the Show with Philip Boucher Hayes the Newry & Armagh Assembly Member commented, ‘Once again, RTÉ viewers in the North find themselves being blocked from accessing the full suite of content from our national broadcaster. On this occasion, the exclusion has taken the form of continued non access to RTÉ competitions, but we know that this is just the latest in a series of issues experienced. Just this summer, Northern viewers were blocked from watching the All-Ireland Championship on RTÉ, as well as their Summer Olympics coverage often involving local athletes.
‘I’ve been in contact with the RTÉ Director-General and am continuing to press her on this issue which blatantly discriminates against hundreds of thousands of Irish people living in the North. It’s a complete farce that someone in Crossmaglen is blocked from accessing content and programming that is available to their friends and family in Castleblayney. Rather than provide excuses or explanations as to why, I invite the Irish Government to work with RTÉ to remove this glaring discrimination that will allow us in the north to have the same access to programming, competitions, and content as our fellow citizens in the south.
RTÉ maintain that allowing NI viewers to enter their competitions could be in breach of NI Competition rules although this has been disputed.
