Independent broadcasters want share of RTÉ’s €170m licence fee revenue

THE independent broadcasting sector wants to get its hands on some of the €170 million RTÉ’s annual licence fee revenue.

The Independent Broadcasters of Ireland (IBI) has called for a major overhaul of the licensing regime to allow independent television and radio stations gain funding from licence fee payments for their public service programming and to instill greater competition in the broadcasting industry here.

The organisation is looking for a single regulatory body to be established to oversee both the State- owned and commercial sectors, improve transparency and promote competition.

An IBI report Competition in Irish Broadcasting, published yesterday criticises RTÉ's dual funding arrangement, which sees it generating funds from the television licence fee and from advertising revenue. Independent radio and television stations including the likes of Today FM and TV3 are restricted to advertising revenue only.

The authors of the report also undertook a study of RTÉ peak-time programming and found that only around 30% of its output can be reasonably classified as public service broadcasting news, current affairs, documentaries, Irish language programmes as opposed to soaps, overseas drama and sport. The issue is given greater emphasis by the fact that RTÉ's share of all-day adult viewing has dropped from 53.1% in 1997 to 39.2% this year, while non-RTÉ channels have increased their aggregate share from 46.9% to 60.8%.

"In terms of funding, RTÉ is still being treated as a monopoly, which it simply isn't anymore," according to Colm McCarthy, managing director of DKM Economic Consultants, which researched and wrote the report for the IBI.

The report's authors also believe that RTÉ's external interests like TG4 and the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra should not come under the licence fee payments. The European Commission has queried the licence fee arrangement over whether or not it conflicts with EU State-aid rules.

Interestingly, the IBI report suggests that if the Irish newspaper industry were organised as the broadcasting sector, The Irish Independent and the Evening

Herald would be Government-owned; The Irish Times would be a licensed private commercial newspaper and The Irish Examiner wouldn't exist as it wouldn't have a licence.