Call for 20% cap on radio sector ownership

NO INDIVIDUAL or company should be allowed to own more than 20 per cent of the independent radio sector, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has suggested.

The proposal would make it difficult for the two major players in the Irish market, UTV and Communicorp, to increase their holdings substantially above what they have already.

Communicorp, which is owned by billionaire Denis O’Brien, currently owns the two independent national radio stations, Newstalk and Today FM, which between them have an audience share of 16 per cent, according to the BAI.

Currently no owner is allowed to have more than 25 per cent of the independent radio sector.

Under the authority’s broadcasting service strategy, which will be published tomorrow, this would be reduced to 20 per cent.

BAI chief executive Michael O’Keeffe said the board’s recommendation was more a “recognition of where things stand” rather than any attempt to restrict further ownership of Irish media.

“When we put this before the board [of the authority] in July, there was a feeling that because it had never gone above 20 per cent, it had worked very well.

“There was a feeling there was sufficient diversity and there has been no demand to go above the 20 per cent.”

Currently nearly every local radio station that was set up when the first tranche of licences was issued in 1989 will have their licences up for renewal in 2013 because licences were granted for 14 years until 2003 and then on a 10-year basis.

The authority is putting its strategy out for consultation with the independent radio sector.

There will be a meeting with all the broadcasters in Croke Park on September 15th, with the consultation process continuing until September 23rd.

The consultation will inform its future licencing policies, but under the terms of the Broadcasting Act, the authority will ultimately decide licencing policy.

Mr O’Keeffe said new or existing licence holders may have to pay a fee in future for a new or renewed licence.

He stressed that this provision was already in the Broadcasting Act, but had not been implemented.

He acknowledged that such a move would not be popular with broadcasters that are already complaining about the cost of the authority.

“We haven’t made a decision on this at all. This provision was put in the act in better times and things have changed. We don’t see this as a revenue generator,” he said.

The authority is also proposing that some niche radio services be exempt from the 20 per cent provision. Those might include country or jazz stations and those aimed at immigrants.

*This article was amended on August 31st, 2011