71. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport if he is aware of concerns about geoblocking for listeners (details supplied) in this State considering that a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the British Secretary of State and the Minister for Communications in February 2010 which provided for the widespread availability of services in this State. [67653/26]

I am aware of the decision by the BBC last year to limit access to the BBC Sounds app to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom.

While there is a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Ireland and the UK, signed in 2010, its primary purpose was to ensure a smooth transition to digital terrestrial television (DTT) on the Island. It did additionally refer more generally to cooperation on the availability of public service broadcasting, including facilitating widespread availability of BBC services in Ireland.

However, as the MOU deals with terrestrial television services, it does not address ancillary or streamed services of broadcasters in either jurisdiction, such as an audio app like BBC Sounds. Notwithstanding this, there was engagement between officials from my Department and their UK counterparts on this matter at the time of the announcement  by the BBC.

This is an operational matter for the BBC, and the BBC did subsequently announce that they had made a new service available on their website that allows for non UK listeners to access their radio content, including BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle. They have also advised that access to BBC podcasts is also being made available on third party apps internationally.