Diaspora TV On Hold As RTÉ Cuts Spending

The new RTÉ channel for Irish citizens living in the UK is to be shelved following an announcement of a €50 million budget cut by the television company.
RTÉ is to make the cuts, which will amount to 10% of its total operation costs, next year and by cutting the Diaspora TV project it is hoped will bring savings of almost €2 million.
The Diaspora channel was intended to extend RTÉ's viewing throughout the UK on the Freesat service, and would be a hybrid of RTÉ One and RTÉ 2 with additional programming from TG4.
The channel was expected to begin on St Patrick's day next year, and would serve the 850,000 Irish born people living in the UK, along with the huge number of those of direct Irish descent.
RTÉ had lost considerable income from TV advertising, mostly in the last four months of this year as the economic downturn curtailed the marketing budgets of commercial companies.
(DW)