THE BROADCASTING Authority of Ireland is to retain the ceiling on the percentage of radio services one entity can own or control at 25 per cent of the market.
The authority said it would take into account the individual or company’s other media holdings if they applied for a market share in excess of 20 per cent.
The authority, which has published an updated ownership and control policy, had earlier proposed reducing the upper limit to 20 per cent. This would have brought the maximum down to a level just above the existing shares of the radio market held by the two largest independent players, Communicorp and UTV.
However, after a “not too favourable” response from the industry, which pointed to increases in the thresholds in other jurisdictions, the authority has decided to keep the upper limit at 25 per cent, the authority’s chief executive Michael O’Keeffe said.
The authority has introduced five new considerations that will come into play once a radio licence applicant’s holdings exceed 20 per cent of the market.
These are the number of services where an entity has control rather than substantial interest; the extent to which the relevant services are operating in the same franchise area; the audience shares of the services; the extent to which they have a common target audience; and the extent to which they represent a concentration of the supply of news and information. This last consideration takes into account all communications media held by the entity.
The definition of “communications media” under the Broadcasting Act 2009 includes print, broadcasting services and broadcasting multiplexes, but it does not include digital media. “That would need a change,” Mr O’Keeffe said.
The definition of “substantial interests” has been extended under the authority’s ownership and control rules so it specifies an ability to influence editorial policy as a factor that may be taken into account by the authority when assessing contract applications or changes to ownership and control of contract holders.
The authority had intended waiting for the arrival of the Consumer and Competition Bill before updating its rules. However, when the Government pushed back the publication of the Bill until later this year, it decided to proceed with an update to the rules so that they would be in effect for the next round of radio licensing.
Mr O’Keeffe expects the authority will update its ownership and control policy again once the Bill is enacted, particularly as the legislation is expected to specify “concrete indicators of diversity” that will apply to decisions on media mergers and acquisitions. The Bill may also widen the definition of “communications media” to include digital media.
Ireland’s media ownership and control policy has come under the spotlight as Denis O’Brien, who controls radio group Communicorp, built up a 22 per cent stake in Independent News and Media.
Although the authority can have regard to the communications media held beyond the broadcast sector if the person or company applies for a new licence, it cannot prevent a licensee from purchasing a newspaper.
In relation to RTÉ’s libelling of Fr Kevin Reynolds, Mr O’Keeffe said he expected the broadcaster would respond to the authority’s report in the coming days, soon after which the authority will publish its statement of findings.
“It will be in the next week or number of weeks that I would hope the process would come to a conclusion.”
