Plans to launch the DTT platform in Ireland are in disarray after the final bidder for the multi-million Euro contract bowed out. Easy TV, the joint venture between RTE and Liberty Global, was offered the contract for commercial DTT two weeks ago when negotiations with an Eircom-led consortium collapsed.

An RTE spokesman confirmed that Easy TV had told the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) it was “declining their offer to pursue negotiations” on the DTT contract. He added that Liberty and RTE had “carefully considered” the contract but had agreed not to proceed “due to the significant lapse in time and the altered circumstances since Easy TV’s original application in 2008”.

The development leaves the BAI in a major quandary, since all three groups who battled it out in the 2008 DTT beauty parade have now withdrawn from the process.

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