Multimillionaire Irish TV backer silent on reports his support for the station is wavering
John Griffin, who sold his firm for £300m, previously said he would spend ‘what it takes’ on the fledgling Westport TV station.
ENGLISH MULTIMILLIONAIRE JOHN Griffin has stayed silent on reports that his support for fledgling television station Irish TV is wavering.
Griffin, who sold his taxi hire company Addison Lee to US private equity giant Carlyle Group in 2013 for £300 million, has been the largest funder of the Westport-based television station.
To date he has committed about €15 million to the company, which produces programming for the Irish diaspora as well as a large amount of regional shows.
It was widely reported over the weekend that Griffin has indicated that he will not remain as the sole financier of the business, which is loss-making.
Both the Sunday Times and the Sunday Business Post reported that the company has engaged with accountancy firm KPMG to look at its options.
Griffin, who is also the chairman of Irish TV, refused to be drawn on the issue when contacted by Fora.
“I have no comment to make at this time,” he said.
However, Fora understands that Irish TV has recently been contacting possible investors in the hope of raising additional funding.
Irish TV backer and chairman John Griffin
Irish TV did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Company founder and CEO Pierce O’Reilly also did not reply when contacted about the reports.
Backing
Based in Westport, Irish TV employs about 150 people between its offices in Ireland, the UK and the US.
The firm has a presence in every county in the country to produce its flagship County Matters series, which comprises of weekly half hour shows of news from each of the 32 regions.
Irish TV was launched in 2014 by husband and wife team Pierce O’Reilly and Mairéad Ni Mhaoilchiaráin.
Irish TV founders Pierce O’Reilly and Mairéad Ni Mhaoilchiaráin.
Griffin, who lived in Mayo for some of his childhood before moving back to his native London at nine years old, first wrote O’Reilly a cheque for £50,000 after a chance meeting in a London pub.
The millionaire continued to plough money into the Westport-based station, committing €15 million as it continued to expand.
He recently told Fora that he would spend whatever is needed to ensure Irish TV is successful.
“I’ll put in what it takes, I’m in now and that’s it. What it takes is what it takes,” he said.
Griffin was known to be unhappy that Irish TV did not receive a cut of the television licence fee, saying that the company has a competitor “that has the advantage to discriminate against us” in reference to RTÉ’s government backing.
Losses
The most recent accounts for Teilifís Mhaigh Eo Teo, the main company behind Irish TV, show that it lost €1.9 million in 2014, bringing accumulated losses to €2.2 million.
Irish TV recently signed a deal with Indian conglomerate Tata that will make it available to viewers worldwide on smart TVs and across devices running Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android system.
It also signed a deal with Soarview that would see it added to the free-to-air national digital television service.
At the moment the channel, which is targeted at the Irish diaspora, is available in Ireland on the Sky, Eir and free satellite platforms, and is also available in the US.
