Commercial radio body seeks talks with Rabbitte over comments

THE INDEPENDENT Broadcasters of Ireland is to seek a meeting with Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte, after the group’s chairman, Scott Williams, said he was “disappointed” with remarks made by the Minister at its annual conference yesterday.

Mr Rabbitte told the group, which represents the independent commercial radio sector, that he had asked the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to look at the impact to public-service broadcasters – meaning RTÉ and TG4 – were the licence fee to be further distributed to other broadcasters.

However, the Minister drew a clear distinction between dual-funded public-service broadcasters and the commercial sector.

“It is worth keeping in mind at all times, though, that the commercial broadcast sector in Ireland is just that – commercial. Broadcasters sought and accepted licences on clear and explicit terms, and they accepted commercial risk on foot of this,” he said.

Mr Williams, who is chief executive of Dublin’s Q102 station, said the Minister had a “once-in-a- generation opportunity” to give the independent sector “parity of esteem”. The IBI was not “anti-RTÉ”, and overtures made by RTÉ director general Noel Curran to the sector were “very refreshing”. But he took issue with the Minister’s description of RTÉ as the State’s public-service broadcaster and said independent stations also provide a public service as a condition of their licence.

Mr Rabbitte said the further distribution of licence fee revenues – beyond the 7 per cent diverted to the BAI’s Sound and Vision fund – would not weaken RTÉ’s funding base, as the broadcasting charge may be more efficiently collected than the fee. “RTÉ is under pressure because of declines in commercial revenue and the general economic environment, but broadcasting continues to be viable.”

The conference included a session on the influence of the media on politics in Ireland. Asked by moderator Matt Cooper about the possibility Denis O’Brien might win control of Independent News Media, former Fianna Fáil minister Mary O’Rourke said she believed it would be “wrong” for the telecoms tycoon to control INM and the Communicorp group.