Plug pulled on UTV transmission to Republic of Ireland

BSkyB have ended the transmissions of UTV programmes to the Republic of Ireland.
UTV, which BSkyB had been broadcasting as part of an ITV Digital network package of programmes, claimed to have been "inundated" with phone calls after the channel was blocked.
A spokesperson for UTV said that they were "disappointed" by the decision: "This decision was taken by ITV without our agreement. Obviously, we are very disappointed that this has happened. We, like Sky, very much want UTV to be available for satellite viewers in the Republic.
The spokesperson continued: "Despite this ITV network decision, we will continue to work with them to make UTV available on satellite as quickly as possible, so viewers throughout Ireland can enjoy the same choice of viewing on satellite that they currently enjoy via cable and terrestrial TV."
However, ITV Digital rejected this view and said that the viewers in the Republic should not have been watching UTV in the first instance, as the company did not hold a licence to broadcast there.
According to ITV Digital, channel frequencies for the UK's 16 broadcasters were published widely in the press and some subscribers had been manually tuning into the otherwise free-to-air channels, which ordinarily should not have been available to them.
ITV Digital said that the company had always intended to block viewers in the Republic who had been picking up the transmissions since ITV Digital's move onto the digital satellite service provided by BSkyB in November.
(GMcG)