Colm McCarthy on Broadcasting

Recommendation 41: The Review Group recommends that the portion of the license fee allocated to the Broadcasting Fund, currently just 7%, should be increased substantially, in order to better equalise conditions of competition between RTÉ and the private broadcasters.

Recommendation 42: In the interests of transparency, the Review Group recommends that RTÉ’s provision of Irish language content to TG4 under the provisions of the Broadcasting Acts is transacted on a commercial basis, and funded by TG4 from within its revenues. The respective Exchequer support of each broadcaster should be adjusted accordingly to take account of the transaction.

Recommendation 43: The Review Group recommends that RTÉNL be disposed of as a regulated entity with appropriate safeguards in place to ensure its availability to the state and fitness for purpose in the event of a national emergency

Recommendation 44: In line with the position taken by the Review Group generally on allocation of radio frequency spectrum (see Section 19 on Intangible Assets), the Group recommends that rights to use spectrum for broadcasting purposes are allocated using a market-based approach that promotes the most efficient management and use of the spectrum resource.

19.3 Spectrum used for Broadcasting

Television: Although the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI, formerly the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland) issues broadcasting licences to commercial operators, historically no charge has been levied on radio and TV broadcasters for the use of spectrum. In line with its policy of charging as the best way to promote efficient use of spectrum, ComReg is taking the opportunity presented by the switch to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) to begin charging for spectrum used for digital broadcasting. The BAI will hold one spectrum licence covering all commercial DTT broadcasters (there are, however, none at the present time because of the failure of the tender process to undertake the commercial element of the new DTT service). RTÉ holds its own licence for spectrum for DTT directly from ComReg: this runs for 12 years from 2007 at an annual charge of €144,000, discounted by 50% for the first three years. Analogue television broadcasting retains free use of spectrum until analogue transmission is turned off at end-2012.

Radio: Comreg has issued a licence to RTÉ for digital radio broadcasting. The licence is for 10 years with an annual fee of €20,000 discounted by 50% for the first three years. Under ComReg’s licensing regime, BAI would hold a similar licence on behalf of commercial operators but these operators have expressed no interest in moving to digital broadcasting. It appears that analogue broadcasting will continue in the FM band for the foreseeable future. There is no digital dividend to be gained in the FM band because radio broadcasting uses relatively little spectrum and there are no significant alternative technologies competing for its use. ComReg has no plans to charge for the spectrum used for analogue radio broadcasting