Ireland

[IE] Broadcasting Authority Launches Community Broadcasting Support Scheme

IRIS 2013-6:1/25

Damien McCallig

School of Law, National University of Ireland, Galway

On 10 April 2013 the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) launched its Community Broadcasting Support Scheme 2013. The Scheme is open to licensed community television and community radio stations, and awards funding grants enabling stations to evaluate and review the operation and effectiveness of their services.

Evaluations funded by the Scheme can either concentrate on external issues; for example, aiding community stations to take a closer look at the communities that they are licensed to serve, or address internal issues, such as supporting stations with organisational, development and governance issues. Applicants for funding must also identify how the proposed evaluations reflect one or more strategic policy themes of the BAI Sectoral Learning and Development Policy, which was launched in 2012.

The total fund allocation for the operation and funding of the Scheme in 2013, will be EUR 30,000. This represents the third year in a row that the fund allocation has been reduced from the previous year. Fund allocations in previous years amounted to: EUR 65,000 in 2010, EUR 40,000 in 2011 and EUR 36,000 in 2012.

Funding of this nature has been made available, through similar schemes, to licensed community radio stations since 1998, and was extended in 2009 to include applications from licensed community television stations. The BAI currently licenses 25 community and community of interest radio stations, and three community television stations.


References

  • Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), BAI Launches 2013 Community Broadcasting Scheme, (10 April 2013)
  • http://www.bai.ie/?p=3222



This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.