In its initial statement on Thursday, RTÉ said the “exclusive free-to-air broadcast rights for Northern Ireland for the 2024 Olympic Games are held by the “.
It said the “were licensed those rights in a UK Olympics rights deal agreed between the and the pan-European rights holder, Discovery back in 2016”.
“Broadcast rights include use of any footage as part of news coverage and so RTÉ is unfortunately unable to broadcast or stream live any bulletins in Northern Ireland which contain Olympic footage,” RTÉ said.
Despite this, the entirety of the news programmes containing Olympic footage were geo-blocked in Northern Ireland, rather than the specific segments containing the Olympic coverage.
“While RTÉ has sought permission to make our broadcasts of the 2024 Olympic Games available in Northern Ireland, this has not been possible,” the broadcaster said.
The Broadcasting Act 2009 requires RTÉ to provide a public broadcasting service that “will be made available to the whole community on the island of Ireland”.