Media of Ireland

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The media in Ireland include all the media and communications outlets of any other developed nation.

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 "Worldwide 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 National Newspapers of Ireland and Joint National Readership Survey 91% of Irish adults regularly read newspapers [1]. 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, Raidió Teilifís 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 Minister for Communications, Energy and 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

Main article: Television in Ireland

The Republic of Ireland has four national terrestrial channels: RTÉ One, RTÉ Two - both operated directly by 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.

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 Raidió na Gaeltachta are operated by RTÉ Radio, while Today FM is a commercial radio station operated by Denis Obrien group communicorp. 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, presumably to quell the rising amounts of religious stations on Irish pirate radio. A "multi-city" service, consisting of one ILR franchise operating a single service in Dublin, Galway, Cork, Limerick, and Waterford, has been awarded to 4FM which is expected to launch in early 2009.

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)[2] 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^{[disambiguation needed ]}, 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 (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.^[1] 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/.

Ireland has a number of web-only news sites, mainly concentrating on business news, such as Businessandleadership.com, Siliconrepublic.com, Businessworld.ie and Insideireland.ie. Irishhealth.com also has a dedicated news section.

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 operator UPC, wireless suppliers Digiweb(Broadband & Phone), Irish Broadband, and Clearwire and communications operator Magnet.

See also

• Media of Northern Ireland

References

1. ^ Commission for Communications Regulation

External links

• Broadcasting (Amendment) Act 2007 dealing with Digital Terrestrial TV and digital switchover and regulation. April 12, 2007. An Act establishing the BAI and update TV license legislation is expected in 2008.
• The commencement of the Act by the previous Minister for Communications, Ireland
• Info on ComReg's role
• [3] The Irish Government Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources website, section on broadcasting acts in the Republic of Ireland
• [4] Consultation on DTT Multiplexes, Commission for Communications Regulation (radiowave spectrum regulator).
• [5] Commission for Communications Regulation, "Response to Licensing Digital Terrestrial Television", Document 07/90
• [6] Commission for Communications Regulation, " License for Digital Terrestrial Television", Document 07/90a.
• [7] Commission for Communications Regulation, "Technical Conditions for Digital Terrestrial Television", Document 07/90b.
• [8] Commission for Communications Regulation, "ComReg published License framework for Digital Terrestrial Television", Document: PR09 1107.
• [9] Silicon Republic.com "DTT licences will cost operators €114k", by John Kennedy