The Annual General Meeting of Ireland’s independent radio stations has unanimously expressed its deep concerns about accessibility to fair support for the sector’s Public Service Content and has called for urgent action on a level playing–field in the media sector.
The Independent Broadcasters of Ireland is composed of all the 34 independent radio stations, who together make up 70% of radio listenership in Ireland and have over 2.5 million daily listeners.
The nation’s independent radio stations met yesterday for their Annual General Meeting. They reiterated and strongly amplified their call for the Government to take urgent action, and said that the proposed support Schemes are “unfit for purpose”. There is currently zero state support for the core news and current affairs services in the sector.
The Independent Broadcasters of Ireland statement made by Members at the meeting said: “After intensive engagement with Coimisiún na Meán and the Department of Media to share concerns and to make constructive proposals, without success, all of the independent stations individually examined the proposed Schemes.”
“Reluctantly and with deep disappointment, we have each separately had to conclude that we cannot make the Schemes work economically for our stations and do not intend to apply for the Schemes. In our view, the design of the proposed Schemes means they are unfit-for-purpose and they would not provide accessible, workable and meaningful support for our stations. We have all intensively and individually considered the Schemes on their merits to see if they would help to support the sustainable provision of public service content on radio, including news and current affairs content. But we were unable to make them work.”
The independent stations called at their AGM for the review of measures to support a level-playing field in the media sector as a matter of urgency, and for a whole-of-Government approach which supports constructive and urgent actions by the Department of Media and Coimisiún na Meán. The expressed their frustration and concern at the serious market-distortion currently being created by broadcasting policy.
“Our stations are competing on an uneven playing-field. We compete for attention and advertising revenue against global technology and social media platforms, as well as domestic players including RTÉ and news publishers, who have both benefited from major Government interventions in recent years. The independent radio sector has not benefited from equivalent public policy interventions to level the playing field, or which would support the public service programming we provide.”
They added: “In particular, it is important to work towards a practical solution on the future of the proposed Schemes, to ensure they support the provision of public service content by a plural range of media companies in Ireland, taking into account their specific needs and to consider interim support in the meantime. We want to engage with the Government and Coimisiún na Meán on simple, pragmatic and constructive ways forward. That needs to happen urgently. As a priority, this includes focusing on making the Schemes workable and economically viable for our stations to work with, and engaging on interim supports for our sector while this is worked through.”
The statement was made as the proposed Schemes shortly come to a close for applications, without being feasible or workable for the independent radio sector to apply.
The Chief Executive of the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland, Michael Kelly commented: “Because there are no workable or accessible support currently for the vital news and current affairs services our stations provide to listeners, we need all TDs and Senators to intervene urgently to ensure fair and proportionate support for our sector and its listeners, and a level playing-field. It is vital that the sectors needs are taken fully into account. Our Members have all signed a letter to the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and the Leader of the Green Party calling for immediate action.”