The CEO of the independent production firm behind 'Dancing with the Stars' and 'Home of the Year' has stated that Ireland is the 'Wild West' in terms of content piracy.
In an interview, CEO of Shinawil, Larry Bass has stated that "Ireland is the wild west in terms of piracy. No other country in the world lets people consume content for free by using 'dodgy boxes' wholesale and there is zero implementation of the laws of the land".
Mr Bass said that Ireland "is a banana republic when it comes to protecting our culture and protecting our ability to become a leader in what we do."
Mr Bass’s comments come in the wake of SKY sending out around 200 letters to suspected users of so-called dodgy boxes around the country warning them they could face legal action unless they give and respect a written commitment to never stream content illegally again.
Mr Bass said that a move to put in place a Netflix or Streamer levy would help the fund new productions here and it would be zero cost to the taxpayer and zero cost to the consumer.
He said that in Denmark where there is a 7% Netflix levy, people pay less for their Netflix than they do here. We cannot be "a le carte" EU members.
Mr Bass said: "We are one of the best in the world at writing, creating and producing with some of the best actors in the world but the integrated supports that will provide the industry with the oxygen it needs to deliver on its full potential are sadly lacking yet easily achieved’
Mr Bass said that the independent Irish TV and film industry is becoming increasingly challenged as the funding model in Ireland has got well out of line with other international Government supported funding models which Irish producers can no longer compete with and are losing projects to those countries.
He said: "Shinawil is an example of many, growing our business out of Ireland just to survive".
He said that one of the reasons why Shinawil made a small loss in 2024 "was that we have been re-investing substantially so we would be less reliant on what is a small domestic market and make the business much more international".
Mr Bass said that Shinawil is trying to pivot the business from being a solely non-scripted entertainment TV production company into a full service production company by adding in feature film and TV drama development and production and opening a studio, Fonthill Studio which is the only studio in Dublin City in partnership with another company Reverist with their own funds.
Mr Bass said that Shinawil has been hugely supported in all its endeavours by Enterprise Ireland.
Mr Bass said that last year, Shinawil received funding from Screen Ireland for the first season of series, Borderline, a crime drama set on the border which was the highest rated acquisition for ITV last year. He said that the support from Screen Ireland may not materialise for future seasons. He said: "It is as if we are being penalised for success when in actual fact in every other country they would double down on a successful production and allow it to grow and not force us into doing that production out of Ireland because we can’t get that same level of support."
Mr Bass said that over the investment made, he is hoping to see the business multiply this year, 2027 and 2028 onwards.
He said: "We have been trying to pivot into nearly a different sector and keep the home fires burning - that is like performing open heart surgery on a marathon runner while they are running a marathon".
He said: "I wish for all of the industry's sake that we had an integrated, industry led approach to supporting the industry. We have proven over and over that there is a huge cultural dividend for Ireland in properly funding the industry."
Mr Bass said that a new broadcasting levy, rather than licence fees which is more appropriate now given the way in which consumers consume visual broadcast and streamed entertainment, would go a long way to ensuring that Ireland can continue to foster a sustainable creative production sector.
Story by Gordon Deegan
