eConsultation: Broadcasting Bill

Elmo

http://econsultation.ie/ec/econswip.nsf/(webstartpage)/$first?opendocument

Since everyone on here seems to have an opinion on it



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[fixed link -- Watty]

byte

Hmm, interesting. Must take a look shortly.

Elmo

Thanks watty don't know what was happening with that link.

icdg

Some interesting things there.

RTÉ and TG4 are becoming Companies Limited by Guarentee, a never seen before structure for a nationalised company in Ireland (it is the structure the UK railway company Network Rail uses however) with the Minister for Communications being the sole member (CLGs don't have shareholders). They won't gain the "Limited" suffix however, just like An Post they get an opt-out. Like in the 2001 Act, TG4's corporate name will be Telifis na Gaelige. The directors of each company will have a five year term, there must be at least five members of each gender, and the CEOs of both get the title Director General - stange they aren't using the Irish "Ceanasai" for TG4...

Both companies will have to agree a Charter with the Minister every five years, and an Annual Statement of Committments will have to be published.

Strangely, the act refers to the present RTÉ as Radio Éireann (to distingish it from the "new" RTÉ, which will technically be a different organisation) - a name it hasn't used in forty years. RTE as we know it will be disolved when the new RTÉ and TG4 come into being.

The new BAI will be structured into two parts - the "Contracts Committee" which will replace the BCI and the "Compliance Committee" which will replace the Broadcasting Complaints Commission. The Authority will have 8-10 members and each committee 6-8 members. Presumably, this means some people will be on both.

Regarding contracts, the BAI will now have to publish the criteria on which it intends to base its decision to award a contract, and the weighting of each critiera. An assesment of listner demand must also be carried out. Something which might prove controversial if implemented fully (although I'm not sure it will be is) is that a cash bid may now be accepted for a contract. This would turn any contest into a "franchise auction" just like the UK 1990 ITV auction.

So some big changes afoot, though the general public will not notice most of them...

Elmo

I would assume that if you where to read the Bill in Irish both the DG's of RTE and TG4 would be known as Ceanasai.

I haven't done much reading on this but will be later on.