{"id":666833,"date":"2026-10-27T13:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T13:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/666833\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T13:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T13:24:10","slug":"governments-urged-to-address-rte-and-tg4-blocking-in-northern-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/666833\/","title":{"rendered":"Governments urged to address RT\u00c9 and TG4 blocking in Northern Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>THE British and Irish Governments have been urged to address the blocking of Irish state broadcasters in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>Northern Ireland\u2019s Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald has petitioned both governments to \u201cfind a solution\u201d to Irish television content being blocked for residents in the North.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe geo-blocking of RTE content in the north is completely unacceptable and must be brought to an end,\u201d Minister Archbald said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have written again to the British and Irish governments to seek their engagement and cooperation on resolving this issue once and for all,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>The Minister has taken her case to the British and Irish governments after asking Ofcom to carry out an analysis on the issue and assess potential solutions.<\/p>\n<p>Ofcom\u2019s report found that there is an increased risk of geo-blocking in Northern Ireland as television viewing continues to migrate from terrestrial broadcasting towards online and streaming.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a first step, I have asked the governments to review the objectives of the 2010 Memorandum of Understanding on digital television services and for their further engagement on the issue,\u201d Minister Archibald explained.<\/p>\n<p>The Minister also met with the newly appointed Chair of the Ofcom Board, Sir Ian Cheshire in Belfast recently where she pressed for continued engagement on the matter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is unacceptable that there is a risk of increased geo-blocking for the north as viewing habits evolve.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a deeply unfair practice that detrimentally impacts audiences here.\u00a0 It is time to end geo-blocking for residents in the north.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sinn Fein MLA Emma Sheerin has backed the call for action, stating: \u201cThe Assembly has today backed calls to end the geo-blocking of RT\u00c9 and TG4.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNorth and south, Sinn F\u00e9in is pushing to bin this unfair practice once and for all.<\/p>\n<p>People across Ireland should be able to watch our national broadcasters, no matter where they live.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Everything from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/irishpost.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">irishpost.com<\/a>\u00a0and the print edition is available on the Irish Post App \u2014 plus more! Download it for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.irishpost.theirishpostapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Android\u00a0<\/a>or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/gb\/app\/the-irish-post\/id6753946980\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Apple IOS<\/a> devices today.<\/p>\n<p>                One moment please&#8230;<br \/>\n                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793107450_748_loading.gif\" alt=\"Loading...\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE British and Irish Governments have been urged to address the blocking of Irish state broadcasters in Northern&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-666833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}