Channel 6, the Irish TV station scheduled to come on air later this year, is considering broadcasting to the Republic from Belfast with a British broadcasting licence, it has emerged.
The channel, which hopes to compete with TV3 and RTÉ 2 in particular, has a licence from Ofcom, the body which regulates British radio and television services.
Last week, during a conference in Dublin attended by leading advertising agencies, a spokesman for the channel said it was considering the option of broadcasting from Belfast or somewhere else in Northern Ireland.
A spokeswoman for the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI), which regulates broadcasters in the Republic, said yesterday while the BCI held discussions with the Channel 6 consortium, it had not granted a licence to the channel.
She said under the EU's Televsion Without Frontiers directive that stations could only be regulated in one jurisdiction and it would not be possible for Channel 6 to hold an Ofcom and BCI licence. However, she said it was perfectly legal for Channel 6 to broadcast into the Republic using an Ofcom licence.
Pat Donnelly, one of the shareholders in the Channel 6 project and the former managing director of the advertising agency Carat Ireland, denied the station was planning to get around regulations on children's and alcohol advertising by taking out an Ofcom licence.
He said with the Ofcom licence the station at least had certainty about whether it would be able to broadcast. He said the BCI licence might impose serious obligations on the service which had yet to be fully assessed.
But he emphasised the station would abide by whatever regulations applied to the Republic. He said, for example, that spirits advertising was restricted on Irish television and the channel would respect this.
He said the final location for the station had not been decided at this point, but the Ofcom licence gave the channel "an option".
The station is due to come on stream either towards the end of the year or early next year at the latest.
The promoters of the station are currently on a fundraising drive and are hoping to raise €10 million. "It is more or less in place," said Mr Donnelly.
Dave Harland, chairman of Initiative, one of Dublin's largest media buying/planning agencies said taking the Ofcom licence was a clever move.
"This is a very clever strategic move as Channel 6's context is [ the] island of Ireland and the one television market. The licence offer from Ofcom means that the station's path to market is unencumbered and gives them the requisite certainty," he said.
The issue of where broadcasters are regulated has become a controversial one in the last two years. TV3 have often complained about the level of regulation in the Irish market.
At one point the station's chief executive, Rick Hetherington, even threatened to broadcast its signal from Wales.
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