BROADCASTER RTÉ say they will not air any live news bulletins which contain Olympic footage to viewers in the North due to licensing rights.

Viewers in the North were left bewildered after being unable to tune into RTÉ news bulletins on Wednesday.

Some viewers took to social media to express their anger after being unable to watch the broadcasters flagship RTÉ News: Six One and RTÉ News: Nine O'Clock programmes.

One viewer, Michael Fisher said he was unable to access coverage of news bulletins on digital channels including Freeview, RTÉ Player and RTÉ News live.

"Has anyone else in the north experienced the same difficulty with RTÉ geoblocking the Nuacht, and the main 6:01 television news bulletin," he said.

"The blocking even extended to the People's Angelus at 6pm.

"In the meantime television viewers in the six counties of Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone (unless they are receiving their pictures directly from an RTÉ transmitter in the Republic) will be blocked from receiving news about Ireland's Olympic team which includes northerners such as Rhys McClenaghan and Ciara Ciara Mageean.

"Furthermore viewers in Belfast and elsewhere will not be able to see any news reports about the preparations being made in Armagh for Sunday's All-Ireland final, news reports about the final itself and crucially about the homecoming, should Armagh win.

2Gallery

"This geoblocking is discrimination against viewers in Northern Ireland after an agreement had been announced by the British government in 2012 about the availability of RTÉ and TG4 on Freeview digital channels.

"I urge the director general to sort out this matter immediately as this widespread blocking has never happened before with news bulletins in my experience."

In a statement, RTÉ said: "RTÉ 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 RTÉ is unfortunately unable to broadcast live or stream any bulletins in Northern Ireland which contain Olympic footage. An edited RTÉ News bulletin will be made available for viewers in Northern Ireland and internationally each night on the RTE Player.  

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

Sinn Féin MP for Newry & Armagh, Dáire Hughes, said geo-blocking by RTÉ was "unacceptable."

“It is completely unacceptable that northern viewers have once again been subject to geo-blocking, preventing them from viewing certain programmes on RTÉ. Citizens from every part of the island deserve full access to southern broadcasters.

“Geo-blocking of northern viewers has become increasingly prevalent over recent years but blocking RTÉ News output from northern citizens takes this malevolent practice up another notch.

“RTÉ News is viewed by a huge number of people in the North. Political, economic and social developments on this island affect all of us and it is essential that access to news is universal.

“With only three days left until the biggest game in the Gaelic football calendar, the people of Armagh, and indeed across the six counties, will now miss out on important news coverage, reports and match build-up. Also, news and reaction to Ireland’s Olympic team, which boasts many northerners, will be blocked too and lock out many citizens from the North from keeping up to date with their progress.

“RTÉ is treating northern citizens with contempt. 

“I am calling on the broadcaster to immediately reverse this decision. This is a publicly funded body and I will be writing to the Minster for Media and to the RTÉ Director General to bring this contemptible practice to an end.”