Its licence application is expected to stay in the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland's in-tray until the new year, but UTV Media is busy getting its ducks in a row ahead of its planned launch of a television channel in the Republic.
Former IDA Ireland boss Padraic White has joined the board of UTV Ireland, the subsidiary that will run the channel, which will go on air in January 2015. He has had ties with UTV since the broadcaster purchased Q102, then known as Lite FM, for €14 million in 2002. He was a founder of the Dublin station, which is aimed at the over-35s, and continued to serve as its chairman after the UTV purchase.
The appointment highlights UTV’s plan to maximise the links between the new television channel and its existing radio operations in the Republic, where it owns six stations and sells advertising on behalf of two others.
UTV made a profit of €925,000 on its radio business in the Republic last year, the latest accounts show, but turnover was flat at €26.5 million.
White, who was managing director of the State's inward investment agency from 1980 to 1990, is described as "one of the architects of what is known worldwide as the Celtic Tiger economy" on the website of Fianna Fáil Senator Mary White, who is his wife.
