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Media Landscape - Ireland

INTRODUCTION

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From the mid 1990s onwards Ireland has witnessed an unparalleled economic boom with an accompanying increase in wealth and economic activity. Ireland’s economic growth in 2006 is expected to be 5-6 per cent compared to 2 per cent across the countries of the EU. Ireland’s population has increased to approximately 4.2 million due to immigration, the Irish labour force has increased in order to meet the demand of an increased number of jobs, and the unemployment rate has fallen to 4.2 per cent of the labour force.

As is outlined below, the economic developments in Ireland have led to an increase in the number of media outlets in Ireland, an increasing interest by foreign companies in the Irish media, an increasing consolidation in the media industry, an increase in spending in the media and some other developments affecting Ireland’s media industry.


1. WRITTEN PRESS

The press in Ireland consists of four national dailies, around fifty regional and twelve local newspapers as well as approximately thirty-two, mainly urban-based free (advertising-financed) newspapers. Newspapers other than the dailies tend to be published on a weekly basis. Roughly 600,000 national newspapers and 650,000 regional newspapers are sold in the Republic each day and week respectively.

Irish-language newspapers consist of two weekly newspapers (Foinse and La with a circulation of 7,859 and 4,142 respectively. Ireland’s booming economy has had a positive effect on its newspaper industry in that there has been a modest increase of around 2.3 per cent in Irish newspaper sales in 2005/2006.

The only Irish tabloid newspapers are Ireland on Sunday, Sunday World and The Star, an Irish edition of the British Daily Star. This is probably due to the wide availability of British newspapers (especially the tabloid ones who tend to publish Irish editions), which can be bought all over Ireland.

Independent News and Media is the dominant actor in the Irish newspaper industry in that around 80 per cent of Irish newspapers sold in Ireland in 2006 were sold by companies which are fully or partially Independent. There has been considerable consolidation in the regional and local newspaper market in the last few years. The booming Irish economy and the healthy state of the Irish newspaper industry, the increasing profitability due to a higher advertising spend in Ireland has changed the traditional lack of interest in the Irish newspaper market by foreign (British) investors. In the magazine sector, Irish titles continue to sell well despite the strong competition from the United Kingdom.


2. AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA


Television


Broadcasting in Ireland has been dominated since the 1920s by Ireland’s public service broadcaster Radio Telifis Eireann (RTE). RTE operates two national television services: RTE 1, and Network 2. Ireland has a third public service broadcasting channel, the Irish-language Telefis na Gailge (TG4). Apart from the public service broadcaster TG4, indigenous competition to RTE television is the private commercial general television channel TV3.

The year 2006 saw the start up of 3 additional commercial television channels: a sports channel, Channel 6, a general entertainment channel, and the Dublin City Channel, a cable television channel. In terms of channel share of viewing in 2005 the 2 RTE channels weree the most popular with over 30% market share. The other main channels were TV3 (11.5%), BBC1 (8.6%), UTV (7.2%), Channel 4 (5.1%), BBC2 (4.3%), TG4 (2.7%), Sky1 2.5%).


Radio


RTE operates four national radio channels Radio 1 with traditional public service radio programming, 2 FM a 24-hour music radio station, Raidio na Gaeltachta with public service radio programming in the Irish language, and Lyric FM, a 24-hour classical music and arts channel. Figures for radio show that Radio 1 has lost its position as being the most popular Irish radio station in all parts of the country except Dublin.

In early 2006 there were 54 licensed independent ‘sound broadcasting services’ (radio stations) in Ireland.


3. DIGITAL MEDIA

There is no digital audio broadcasting available in Ireland in 2006, but the regulator the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland announced in early 2006 that it was studying the feasibility of the provision of digital radio for Ireland.


4. WEB-BASED MEDIA / NEW MEDIA

According to the Irish telecommunications regulator, ComReg, Internet penetration has grown over the last five years and at the end of June 2005 approximately 50% of Ireland's population had home Internet access. The broadband market continues to grow strongly, to the extent that more than one third of Internet users were using some form of broadband by the end of March 2006.

Streaming audio over the Internet is provided by some of the legal radio stations as well as by some private individuals. Web radio offers a way of broadcasting which is untouched by regulation and a few disgruntled license applicants are now ‘broadcasting over the net’.

The legislative basis for any future developments in convergence is more or less in place in that the technical regulations for all communication services are the responsibility of the telecommunications regulator ComReg and the content regulations are in the hands of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI). The Broadcasting Act 2001 gives the BCI a range of functions that are usually held by separate state authorities such as the setting of broadcasting standards, the commissioning of research, responsibility for digital broadcasting, the setting of standards with respect to the transmission of information by any electronic means (other than by means of broadcasting) including by means of the Internet, etc.


5. NEWS AGENCIES

As there are no Irish news agencies Irish media rely on the international news agencies and their own journalists for news gathering. The public service broadcaster has its own extensive news department. The news on local radio is provided by INN (Independent Network News), a company established in 1997 by 17 of the local radio stations.


6. MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS

The two main employer organisations for the press are the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) and the Provincial Newspaper Association of Ireland (PNAI). The main trade unions are the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) for print and broadcast journalists, SIPTU (Services Industrial Professional Technical Union) for technical staff in print and broadcasting.

Other professional organisations of note are the Professional Photographers Association of Ireland (PTAI), the Joint National Readership Research (JNRR), the Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) and Audit Bureau of Circulation. The main Advertising association is the Institute of Advertising Practitioner in Ireland (IAPI).


7. NATIONAL MEDIA POLICIES

Over the last few decades Ireland has not had any overall media policy that encompasses all mass media. Cultural and media policies were subsumed under industrial policy in general with its two pillars of attracting foreign investment in Irish industry and the encouragement of Irish exports. Broadcasting policy restricted itself to ensuring that Irish broadcasting services were the preferred option for Irish viewers and listeners.

The new Freedom of Information Act came into force in April 1998. This has enabled journalists to acquire previously 'secret' government information. Generally the Act's existence seems to have led to a greater openness on the part of state organisations and the civil service. However, that old remnant of Ireland past as a British colony, namely the Official Secrets Act which designates as a secret any official information has not been repealed.


8. ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEMS

Even though Irish broadcasting is far more regulated than Irish newspaper publishing, the system of broadcast accountability is not as highly developed as in other countries.

Both RTE and the BCI, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, have internal guidelines approved by the relevant government minister. The press council would appoint a press ombudsman to investigate complaints from those affected by breaches of standards. Remedial action where complaints are upheld will include the publication of the ombudsman's decisions, the publication of corrections of inaccurate facts, retractions or any such action as deemed appropriate.

All media in Ireland are subject to numerous statutes such as Contempt of Court, Censorship, Copyright, Official Secrets Act, Public Order, etc.


9. RECENT MEDIA DEVELOPMENTS AND FUTURE TRENDS

The implementation of the Broadcasting Act 2001 major changes have occurred in the Irish broadcasting sector. The Act is a major piece of legislation and sets out the legal framework for broadcasting in Ireland - a framework that includes the operation of digital terrestrial television (DTT). It also makes changes to the existing broadcasting legislation outlined below. What follows below are the planned changes and the extent to which they have been implemented by July 2006.

Changes the name of the IRTC to the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI). The BCI is a new super broadcasting authority that will award the new digital content contracts and that will ultimately determine the content of the digital television channels not yet allocated to anybody.

The BCI will draw up and monitor a code of broadcasting standards, when instructed to do so by the Minister, The BCI will draw up codes or standards with respect to the transmission of information by any electronic means (other than by means of broadcasting) including by means of the Internet.

The Act establishes a new and separate broadcasting authority Teilifis na Gaeilge. The Act specifies that this new authority shall establish and maintain a national television broadcasting service (TG4 is not mentioned in the Act) which shall have the character of a public service.

Teilifis na Gaeilge has the same public service remit as that of RTE (see above) - the main difference being that it provides programmes primarily in the Irish language. The Act states that the new authority shall commission the making of programme material, originate programme material and acquire programme material - a situation akin to Channel 4 in the UK. In autumn 2006 the Government flagged its intention to introduce a further change in Irish broadcasting law, namely the enactment of a wide-ranging Broadcasting Act with a number of key features. It will establish a single content regulator for all commercial, community and public service broadcasters in Ireland, to be known as the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. The public service broadcasters RTE and TG4 will be established as limited companies etc.

However with a general election pending in 2007 it is unclear at the time of writing as to whether these radical changes will ever see the light of day.


10. PRIME SOURCES FOR DETAILED INFORMATION

A useful source of information on Irish media is the Annual Yearbook of the Institute for Public Administration (IPA). Details of RTE activities can be found in the RTE Annual Reports, details of the private broadcasters in the IRTC/BCI Annual Reports. The Irish Times provides fairly detailed coverage of Irish media events. The relevant trade unions also publish material on media matters from time to time, as do RTE and the Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC/Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI), the regulatory body for non-RTE broadcasting services. News on Irish films can be found in Irish Film, a regular monthly publication, news on Ireland’s Broadcasting and Production Industry is detailed in the journal Inproduction. Irish Communications Review, published by the Dublin Institute of Technology is a more academic publication on media matters. Extensive information on Ireland's media can be found on the following Irish websites:


11. AUTHOR

Wolfgang Truetzschler is a Senior Lecturer in Communications at the Dublin Institute of Technology.


12. MEDIA RESOURCES

Newspapers

Audio/Visual Media

Television

Radio

Media Institutions

Blogs/Civil Media

Excerpt from EUROPEAN MEDIA GOVERNANCE: THE NATIONAL AND REGIONAL DIMENSIONS, published by Intellect (http://www.intellectbooks.com).

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