RTE news bulletins blocked in Northern Ireland over Olympics footage

RTE will not broadcast or stream news bulletins in Northern Ireland if they contain footage from the Olympics.

Viewers in Northern Ireland who tuned into the Irish national broadcaster for its main news bulletins on Wednesday were shown a message that the content was blocked in their region.

One message said: “This programme cannot be streamed due to rights restrictions.”

Viewers in Northern Ireland are normally able to watch the full RTE news bulletins but occasionally sporting events which are also broadcast on UK channels are not made available.

On Thursday, RTE confirmed that the regional block was due to the bulletins containing footage from the Paris Olympics as the BBC hold the rights to broadcast that material in Northern Ireland.

While the official opening ceremony for the games is on Friday, Ireland competed in Rugby sevens matches on Wednesday and the sport section of the televised bulletins contained reports on the Olympics.

In a statement, the Irish broadcaster said: “RTE has rights to broadcast the 2024 Olympic Games in the Republic of Ireland only.

“The exclusive free-to-air broadcast rights for Northern Ireland for the 2024 Olympic Games are held by the BBC, who were licensed those rights in a UK Olympics rights deal agreed between the BBC and the pan-European rights holder, Discovery back in 2016.

“Broadcast rights include use of any footage as part of news coverage and so RTE is unfortunately unable to broadcast live or stream any bulletins in Northern Ireland which contain Olympic footage.

“An edited RTE News bulletin will be made available for viewers in Northern Ireland and internationally each night on the RTE Player.

“While RTE has sought permission to make our broadcasts of the 2024 Olympic Games available in Northern Ireland, this has not been possible.”