The announcement of the increase in the TV licence fee contains a dangerous sting in its tail, writes Muiris MacConghail
The Government siege of public service broadcasting continues unabated. The very notion of the existence of a public service broadcasting (PSB) organisation seems, in the face of the evidence of governmental thinking, to be unacceptable and alien to their plans about the future of broadcasting in the State.
The debate about public service broadcasting is not about genres of programming. It is rather about the kind of broadcasting structures that can facilitate and serve the audiences and the citizen. PSB does not exploit the viewers and listeners and deliver them to the commercial and advertising markets. In summary, PSB is entrusted with service rather than exploitation.
This, in my view, is the essential difference between PSB and the commercial broadcasting sector. It is why, since 1926 and up to now, the licence fee mechanism has been used exclusively to augment the financing of RTÉ.
It is also why, up to now, commercial broadcasting has been excluded from access to the licence fee income. Both commercial broadcasting and PSB are essential to pluralism in Irish broadcasting.
The Minister with responsibility for broadcasting, Mr Ahern , delivered a Trojan horse to RTÉ in the guise of a licence fee increase of €43 on December 11th, 2002.
The increase was accompanied by notification of what the Minister termed a "framework for far-reaching changes in broadcasting" which represented "a real commitment by the Government to public sector broadcasting". (I note the subtle move away from the term "public service" broadcasting to "public sector" broadcasting. The latter implies a governmental control, which is not consonant with public service broadcasting, nor is it meant to be).
But the saddle of the ministerial Trojan horse is what concerns me here and lies at the very heart of the future of broadcasting in Ireland. Mr Ahern in his statement of December 11th on the increase in the licence fee went on to announce a new broadcasting fund to be financed out of the income from the licence fee:
"Five per cent of the net proceeds from the new fee (€7 approximately) is to be ring-fenced as a special broadcasting fund for new, additional, innovative content, from which all free-to-air broadcasters (independent broadcasters licensed by the BCI and RTÉ, with special emphasis given to locally based community broadcasters), can draw. This fund is expected to amount to approximately €8 million annually."
This initiative might seem, on the face of it, to be a good idea. On closer scrutiny, it is an admission by the Minister that the commercial broadcasting sector and market forces have failed to provide quality programming and that the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has been unable to secure compliance from the programme contractors, including TV3 and Today FM, with the terms of their franchise contracts.
This failure of the market to sustain quality programming is quite evident. The vigour with which UTV, Scottish Media Holdings and indeed Granada have intervened by acquisition in the Irish broadcasting market is clear evidence of their perception of a highly unregulated and non-compliant Irish commercial broadcasting sector. The growth in this sector will be enlarged greatly by the development of digital television franchises.
On an even closer scrutiny, the ministerial "ring-fenced" initiative brings another and even more disturbing scenario into focus. It is the first time that a Minister with responsibility for broadcasting has intercepted by direction the proceeds of the licence fee income and reduced thereby the income intended for RTÉ.
True, the purpose of the purloinment seems, on the face of it, to have been a good idea, save that it is in fact a market-correction mechanism.
What is all the more remarkable about the Minister's initiative is that the Report of the Forum on Broadcasting (August 2002) expressly reported against such a proposition.
The report reads: "The Forum rejects the contention that commercial broadcasters should benefit also from public funding in proportion to their contribution to current affairs and cultural matters. Arguments were put forward in favour of a pool or central fund to which all broadcasters would have access and which would be administered by an independent agency. This however would simply fragment the public service element of broadcasting and would not achieve the desired result. The most likely outcome would be that funds would be widely disbursed to fund cheap programmes".
The forum's arguments are clear. The Minister chose to ignore them because he was driven by another imperative - one of control. The Minister is attempting to place himself in a position where he can by direction intervene in the very process by which public service broadcasting is to be funded by taking on to himself the power of sequestration of the licence fee. The principle of interception by a minister of the proceeds of the licence fee, once assumed, undermines one of the basic principles of public service broadcasting, the integrity and security of its funding.
The Minister has used the purpose of his interception of the licence fee as a cover to establish his future direction of the proceeds of the fee and the future direction of broadcasting policy in the State.
This ministerial action coupled with other proposals marks a new and grave departure with far greater consequences for the future of broadcasting than anything Ray Burke did in his dealings with RTÉ in the 1980s.
Muiris MacConghail is a member of the Broadcasting Policy Review Unit at the Dublin Institute of Technology where he also teaches in the School of Media. He was formerly Controller of Programmes, Television, at RTÉ.