Broadcasting regulator likely to review O'Brien licences

THE NATIONAL and local radio licences held by Denis O’Brien’s Communicorp group are likely to be reviewed by broacasting regulators following his rapprochement with Sir Anthony O’Reilly and the appointment of three of his associates to the board of Independent News Media.

In addition to Mr O’Brien’s 26 per cent stake in Independent, Communicorp owns the only two national commercial stations, Today FM and NewsTalk, Dublin pop station 98 FM, Dublin youth station Spin 103 and regional station Spin SouthWest.

“The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has been notified but not formally. Whenever they receive formal notification, they will review the situation,” a spokeswoman for the regulator said.

The BCI reviewed Mr O’Brien’s shareholding in Independent when his stake crossed the 25 per cent threshold last year but concluded his position did not raise any cross-media ownership issues.

Now that Mr O’Brien has three directors on Independent’s board – Communicorp chairwoman Lucy Gaffney among them – the BCI is likely to renew its examination of the licences.

Although the BCI has power to revoke licences, request their divestiture or stop media mergers, sources close to Mr O’Brien believe the structure of his arrangements at Independent pose no substantive threat to his radio licences.

His prime argument in any challenge to his licences is likely to rest on the fact that he has a minority shareholding in Independent and that his representatives control a minority of votes on its board.

The BCI is legally obliged to promote the plurality of media ownership and must guard against any single person or group having control of, or substantial interests in, an undue amount of communications media.

Although Tánaiste Mary Coughlan is reviewing an expert report which examines whether existing competition law sufficiently covers the need to maintain diversity of opinion, there has been no change in the regulatory system. The report said the Government may have to set out statutory definitions of media ownership if it introduces guidelines to place limits on cross-media ownership.