Media in Ireland

The media in Ireland include all the media and communications outlets of any other developed nation. The Irish media landscape is more similar to that of the United Kingdom than media in the rest of Europe; examples of this include the pre-eminence of national daily newspapers over local newspapers.

Press freedom

Ireland has freedom of the press enshrined in its constitution. The NGO group "Reporters sans frontières" named Ireland in joint first position in their "World-wide press freedom index". However, some Irish journalists still campaign for the libel laws to be loosened.

The Troubles in Northern Ireland led to some restrictions on press freedom, though these were primarily in the Republic. The 1960 Broadcasting Authority Act allowed the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs to direct Radio Telefís Éireann "not to broadcast any matter, or any matter of any particular class". This was used between 1971 and 1994 to prevent broadcasts of supporters of violence on RTÉ. From 1977 to 1994, it also applied to Sinn Féin members. Since 1994, the situation in Northern Ireland has had little impact on freedom to report from that area. In fact, the most famous attack on an Irish journalist was not political, but against Sunday Independent crime correspondent Veronica Guerin.

Press

Newspapers

:"See also: List of newspapers in Ireland"

Newspapers are extremely popular in Ireland. According to the [http://www.nni.ie/home.htm National Newspapers of Ireland] and [http://www.jnrs.ie/survey.htm Joint National Readership Survey] 91% of Irish adults regularly read newspapers [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2006/0308/3689073432HM3READERS.html] . The market penetration for daily newspapers runs at 190% and 350% for Sunday titles. For comparison, US newspaper market penetration is only 51%.

There are several daily newspapers in the Republic of Ireland, including the "Irish Independent", "The Irish Examiner", "The Irish Times", "Irish Daily Star", and the "Evening Herald". The best selling of these is the "Irish Independent", which is published in both tabloid and broadsheet formats.

In Northern Ireland, the main newspapers are "The Irish News", seen as pro-Social Democratic and Labour Party, and the Unionist-leaning "Belfast Newsletter". The "Belfast Telegraph" is the main evening newspaper in Northern Ireland. In January 2005 "Daily Ireland", which was somewhat supportive of Provisional Sinn Féin was launched. It contended (in line with its politics) to be an all-Ireland newspaper, however its sales were far stronger in Northern Ireland and Dublin than the rest of the island, and it closed in September 2006.

The leading Sunday newspaper in terms of circulation is the Sunday Independent which has over a million readers each week, a very large number considering that Ireland has only 1.25 million households. Other popular papers include "The Sunday Tribune", "The Sunday Business Post", "Ireland on Sunday" and the "Sunday World" (the latter published in separate editions for the Republic and Northern Ireland).

One noted trend in Irish newspapers is the presence of Republic of Ireland editions of UK newspapers, these include "The Irish Sun", "Irish Mirror", "Irish News of the World", and the Irish edition of "The Sunday Times", the only one of the Irish editions that is of a broadsheet newspaper. The "Irish Daily Star" also is sometimes placed in this category, though it has a far greater Irish content than the other UK editions, and is also 50% owned by Independent News and Media. Following the success of "Ireland on Sunday" (an Irish version of the Mail on Sunday), the Irish Daily Mail was launched in February 2006, with "Ireland on Sunday" itself being rebranded "The Irish Mail on Sunday" in September 2006.

There are quite a large number of local weekly newspapers, with most counties and large towns having two or more newspapers. In Munster the Evening Echo, published in separate editions for Cork and Limerick, is a daily local newspaper. Curiously Dublin remains one of the few places in Ireland without a major local paper; "The Dublin Evening Mail" having closed down in the 1960s. The Evening Herald markets itself from time to time as a Dublin local newspaper, however it is distributed nationally. In 2003 the "Dublin Daily" was launched, but failed to attract enough readers to make it viable, and closed after 90 issues and a full rebrand as the "Dublin Evening". In 2008, a number of local papers have been launched by the Gazette Group.

In Autumn 2005 Daily Mail and General Trust revealed a plan to launch a free newspaper in the Dublin market, entitled "Metro". Independent News and Media decided to respond with a free version of the "Evening Herald", to be called "Herald Metro". DGMT took legal action against INM to prevent them using the word "Metro" in the title of a freesheet newspaper. On 7 October 2005 an injunction was granted to DGMT to this effect. It was also revealed that the "Irish Times" would be taking a 33% stake in Metro and would be printing the title. On 10 October Metro launched, however INM simply altered the title of its rival freesheet to Herald AM, and launched it on the same date.

There are also a number of newspapers printed in Irish. These include "Foinse", a weekly newspaper and "Lá Nua", a daily newspaper. "Foinse" mainly focuses on Irish language related matters and Gaeltacht affairs, but also contains many other areas including current affairs, national and international events and other features, including 'Foinse sa Rang' a segment aimed at helping Leaving Certificate students with their Irish exam. "Lá Nua" is printed in Belfast and focuses on current events and politics.

The Independent News & Media group has a large presence in the Irish media market, especially in newspapers. It owns the Evening Herald, Irish Independent, and Sunday Independent, controls the Sunday World and The Star, and exercises a large degree of influence on the Sunday Tribune. Until 2004 it also held a large stake in the cable company Chorus Communications.

The main Irish publications are often strongly identified with a political agenda. The "Irish Times" is probably Ireland's most liberal newspaper on social issues, whereas the Irish Independent is seen as more conservative. None of the main Republic of Ireland newspapers are now defined as allied with a particular political party, although the "Irish Press" when published was staunchly pro-Fianna Fáil, and the "Irish Times" was seen prior to the 1960s as being pro-Unionist. Opinion on Northern Ireland is as diverse as that in the general public, ranging from the strongly anti-Republican line of the "Sunday Independent" to the more sympathetic "Sunday Business Post".

Magazines

The Irish magazine market is one of the world's most competitive with hundreds of international magazines available in Ireland ranging from "Time" and "The Economist" to "Hello!" and "Reader's Digest". This means that domestic titles can find it very hard to retain readership. Among the best selling Irish magazines are the "RTÉ Guide", "Women's Way", "VIP", "U", "Image Magazine", "Irish Tatler", "Hot Press", "Phoenix, "Business and Finance", "Garden Heaven", and "Ireland's Own".

The Irish market also contains a large number of business to business titles including " Checkout", "Irish Marketing Journal and "Hospitality Ireland".

In addition, there are many professional and scientific journals, with frequencies ranging from annual to monthly.

Broadcasting

Broadcasting in the Republic of Ireland is divided into public service broadcasting, governed by the "Broadcasting Authority Acts 1960-2002", which establish the public sector broadcaster, Radio Telefís Éireann, and the commercial sector, governed by the "Radio and Television Act 1988" and regulated by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. RTÉ is financed by a mixture of licence fees paid by owners of television receivers, and advertising revenues. It is governed by a statutory authority appointed by the Irish Minister for Communications, Marine & Natural Resources. Under the "Broadcasting Act 2001" a second statutory corporation, Telefís na Gaeilge, was set up in 2007 to run the Irish language channel TG4, which was previously operated by RTÉ.

The commercial sector consists of programme contractors appointed by the BCI, and granted broadcasting licences by the Commission for Communications Regulation. The contractors have specific public service obligations, most notably, a requirement for 20% news and current affairs.

Broadcasting in Northern Ireland is governed under United Kingdom law. The British Broadcasting Corporation operates a "national region" in Northern Ireland, known as BBC Northern Ireland, and one member of the BBC Trust is designated "Trustee for Northern Ireland". The Office of Communications regulates the commercial broadcasting sector in Northern Ireland.

Television

BBC Northern Ireland began broadcasting television programmes in 1953, Ulster Television (now known as UTV) began in 1959 and RTÉ Television opened in 1961. Telefís na Gaeilge (TnaG), now called TG4, started its Irish language service in 1996 and commercial television arrived when TV3 began broadcasting in 1998.

The Republic of Ireland has four national terrestrial channels: "RTÉ One, RTÉ Two" - both operated directly RTÉ, "TG4", operated by Telifís na Gaeilge, and "TV3 Ireland", operated by TV3 Television Network Limited under a programme contract from the BCI. Northern Ireland has three national terrestrial channels: "BBC One Northern Ireland, BBC Two Northern Ireland" - both operated by BBC Northern Ireland - and "UTV", the latter being the Office of Communications Channel 3 licensee for Northern Ireland, and thus part of the UK ITV network. In addition to the local variants, the other UK national channels "Channel 4" and "Five" are also broadcast in Northern Ireland. Also in Northern Ireland, Ofcom licences some local terrestrial channels, known as Restricted Service Licences or RSLs, such as Channel 9 in Derry and NvTv in Belfast.

In the Republic of Ireland, the BCI has issued content contracts for four new television channels - Setanta Sports, a dedicated sports channel, which went on air in August 2004, as well as City Channel, a Dublin local channel which launched in September 2005, as well Channel 6, a general entertainment channel which debuted on March 30, 2006 and Chorus TV, an entertainment and sports channel from Chorus Communications which will replace its Chorus Sports service. The last of these has not been launched as of June 2007, and after the closure of Chorus Sports and the future rebranding of Chorus to UPC is not likely to launch under the name or format intended. All four of these channels will require subscription to a multichannel television package.

While many people in Ireland still receive their television via the off-air networks (run by RTÉ Network Limited in the Republic of Ireland, and Crown Castle and Arqiva in Northern Ireland), more than half subscribe to multichannel television networks. The biggest single multichannel TV network in Ireland is British Sky Broadcasting, which broadcasts digital satellite television services to the UK and Ireland. Viewers in Northern Ireland can receive RTÉ and TG4 via this service, and viewers in the Republic of Ireland can receive the BBC and Channel 4 via this service.

A larger number subscribe to cable television or MMDS services. Virgin Media owns the cable television licence for Northern Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland, UPC Ireland, which trades under the brand name Chorus NTL, is by far the largest cable and MMDS operator, owning all of the state's MMDS licences and almost all of the state's cable TV operators. UPC Ireland was formed in 2005 after the takeover by its parent, Liberty Global, of the Irish operations of Virgin Media (at the time called NTL), Liberty Global having previously taken control of Chorus Communications, the state's other leading cable TV operator. UPC offers analogue and digital cable television services in cities and towns throughout the country (with the exception of Cork, where the network is digital-only). It offers MMDS services in rural areas. In areas previously served by NTL, the network is digital-only, while Chorus areas still have both analgoue and digital services. Other than UPC, the only other operator providing analogue and digital cable is Casey Cablevision, which operates in Dungarvan, County Waterford. There also exists a small number of analogue-only cable networks such as the Longford service Crossan Cable.

In Northern Ireland, the Freeview digital terrestrial television service is available can also be picked up in Louth and other border areas. The Republic of Ireland has only a limited DTT service in Dublin and the North East, which is officially a trial and not publicly marketed. However the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland is currently in the process of selecting a contractor to operate its three DTT multiplexes, which will be announced on July 21st 2008. [http://www.bci.ie/news_information/press172.html] . RTÉ has also been awarded a licence to operate a single multiplex, on which the existing public service channels will be distributed. The Broadcasting Bill 2008 makes proposals for a Houses of the Oireachtas Channel and an Irish Film Channel.

From 2009 UK analogue terrestrial will be switched of in Wales with blank pictures where these channels were. It is unclear whether these channels will be charged for on Irish DTT as they are on cable or will be free as in freesat from Sky or Freesat UK (BBC,ITV). Current proposals indicate a charge. Northern Ireland will also switch off its analogue terrestrial signal in 2012 impacting border areas similarly.

Cable TV services in the Republic of Ireland offer the Northern Ireland television services, while NTL in Northern Ireland offers RTÉ One and RTÉ Two. The major exception is Five, which is not widely available. Most satellite television stations broadcast in the United Kingdom are available via at least one of the mulitchannel providers in Ireland.

Radio

The first known radio transmission in Ireland was a call to arms made from the General Post Office in O'Connell Street during the Easter Rising. The first official radio station on the island was 2BE Belfast, which began broadcasting in 1924. This was followed in 1926 by 2RN Dublin and 6CK Cork in 1927. 2BE Belfast later became BBC Radio Ulster and 2RN Dublin became RTÉ.

The Republic of Ireland has five national radio stations: "RTÉ Radio 1, "RTÉ 2fm", RTÉ Lyric FM," and "RTÉ Radio na Gaeltachta" are operated by RTÉ, while Today FM is a commercial radio station operated by Scottish Radio Holdings under a contract from the BCI. Newstalk 106, a Dublin local station, has been issued a "quasi-national" FM licence, and a similarly limited AM licence has been advertised for a religious service, persumabely to quell the rising amounts of religious stations on Irish pirate radio.

The BCI's main commercial radio service is the Independent Local Radio network. This consists of 18 commercial stations licensed for different franchise areas. Except in Dublin and Cork, they operate as monopolies. (6, soon to be 7 stations are now licensed in Dublin and 2 in Cork). They operate a common news service, Independent Network News, and a common sales house, Independent Radio Sales. The first of these stations, FM104, came on air in 1989. One independent regional radio station, Beat 102-103, currently also exists, with further franchises having been advertised. The BCI also issues contracts for non-commercial community of interest and local community stations.

Northern Ireland has two national radio stations: "BBC Radio Ulster", operated by the BBC, and the Ofcom-licensed "Downtown Radio". The BBC also operates a local radio station in Derry, BBC Radio Foyle A number of local commercial radio stations (licensed by Ofcom) are also broadcast, including Q101.2 FM West in Omagh, Q102 in Derry and Cool FM- based in Newtownards and Belfast CityBeat 96.7 and 102.5 FM (Part of the CN Group) in Belfast. The five UK wide BBC Radio radio stations, as well as the three UK-wide Ofcom radio services (Classic FM, TalkSport, and Virgin Radio) are also available in Northern Ireland.

"See also: Irish Radio Stations"

Film

The Irish Film industry has grown rapidly in recent years thanks largely to the promotion of the sector by " Bord Scannán na hÉireann" (The Irish Film Board) [http://www.filmboard.ie/index600_800.php] and the introduction of heavy tax breaks. Some of the most successful Irish films included the Palme d'Or winning "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" (2006), "Intermission" (2001), "Man About Dog" (2004), "Michael Collins" (1996), "Angela's Ashes" (1999) and "The Commitments" (1991). "Michael Collins" is the highest grossing Irish film ever in Ireland, making £4,000,000.

Ireland has also proved a popular location for shooting films with "The Quiet Man" (1952), "Braveheart" (1995), the Omaha Beach landing scene from "Saving Private Ryan" (1998), "Reign of Fire" (2002) and "King Arthur" (2004) all being shot in Ireland. The first film ever shot in Ireland was "The Lad from Old Ireland" (1910), which was advertised as "The first ever film recorded on two continents". The film was a short silent story about a young Irishman who went to the USA to find riches, before returning home to save his family home from the bailiffs.

Ireland has a high rate of cinema admissions (The highest in Europe). The biggest multiplex chain in the country is Ward Anderson (owners of the Cineplex, Omniplex, and Savoy brands), with other cinemas being owned by Entertainment Enterprises Limited (operated by Odeon Cinemas as UCI, their former owners), Cineworld (formerly UGC Cinemas), and Vue (formerly Ster Century). In autumn 2005, a new multiplex cinema chain, Movies@, entered the market, opening its first cinema in Dundrum, with Galway and Swords sites to come.

There is also a large video rental market, dominated by Xtravision, a subsidiary of Blockbuster Video.

New Media Technology College [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMTC] is the leading media training provider in Ireland. NMTC is in award-winning College accredited by the European Broadcasting Union.

Internet

Despite the large number of technology companies located in Ireland and its image as a high-tech country, internet penetration in Ireland lags behind many Western countries. Broadband access remains a particular problem: in September 2006 it was estimated that only 8% of Irish homes had broadband access, placing it 9th worst in the European Union. [ [http://www.comreg.ie/ Commission for Communications Regulation] ] Ireland's dispersed settlement pattern is partly to blame and some rural areas have no broadband providers other than expensive satellite services.

A government backed website enables prospective broadband users to check which providers are available in their area: http://www.broadband.gov.ie/.

Eircom is the main Internet service provider, providing dial-up as well as broadband services. BT Ireland's Internet subsidiary, Ireland On-Line, is the other major player in broadband Internet provision, and also has a large number of dial-up subscribers. Other broadband providers include cable operators NTL Ireland and Chorus, wireless suppliers Digiweb(Broadband & Phone), Irish Broadband, and Clearwire and communications operator Magnet.

References

External links

* [http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/acts/2007/a1507.pdf Broadcasting (Amendment) Act 2007] dealing with Digital Terrestrial TV and digital switchover and regulation. April 12th 2007. An Act establishing the BAI and update TV license legislation is expected in 2008.
* [http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Press+Releases/Dempsey+Signs+Commencement+Order+for+Broadcasting+(Amendment)+Act+2007.htm The commencement of the Act by the previous Minister for Communications, Ireland]
* [http://www.comreg.ie/publications/information_notice_-_correngendum_to_fwala_guidelines_document_06_17r.542.102761.p.html Info on ComReg's role]
* [http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Broadcasting/Broadcasting+Legislation/] The Irish Government Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources website, section on broadcasting acts in the Republic of Ireland
* [http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0765.pdf] Consultation on DTT Multiplexes, Commission for Communications Regulation (radiowave spectrum regulator).
* [http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0790.pdf] Commission for Communications Regulation, "Response to Licensing Digital Terrestrial Television", Document 07/90
* [http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0790a.pdf] Commission for Communications Regulation, " License for Digital Terrestrial Television", Document 07/90a.
* [http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0790b.pdf] Commission for Communications Regulation, "Technical Conditions for Digital Terrestrial Television", Document 07/90b.
* [http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/PR091107.pdf] Commission for Communications Regulation, "ComReg published License framework for Digital Terrestrial Television", Document: PR09 1107.
* [http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single9607] Silicon Republic.com "DTT licences will cost operators €114k", by John Kennedy