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On 27 February 2014 the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) signed a ten-year television content provision contract with UTV Ireland Limited. The contract creates a new general entertainment channel, to be known as UTV Ireland, which will be based in Dublin. The programme schedule will initially include news and current affairs, and a range of acquired documentary, drama and film content. The application for a licence under Section 71 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 was lodged by UTV Ireland in November 2013. Negotiations with the BAI began on 6 February and the contract is the result of that...

On 29 October 2013, the Copyright Review Committee published its final report entitled Modernising Copyright. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation had established the three-member Committee on 9 May 2011 to examine current Irish copyright legislation, identify potential barriers to innovation, and present reforms to remove these barriers while protecting rightsholders (see IRIS 2012-4/30). Highlighted recommendations of the 180-page report include: broadening the jurisdiction of the District Court, the lowest court in the Irish court system, to include intellectual property cases up...

On 7 January 2014 the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) announced its decision not to reopen the licensing process for a commercial Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) service. The decision was made following an analysis of current market conditions which was undertaken by Oliver and Ohlbaum Associates, on behalf of the BAI, together with the consideration of a number of potential business models for commercial DTT and a consultation process with broadcasters and other interested parties. The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) - the predecessor of the BAI - began a licensing process...

On 2 December 2013, the Irish High Court granted an injunction requiring five Internet service providers (UPC, Vodafone, Digiweb, Hutchinson 3G and Telefonica) to block access to Kickass Torrents (Kat), a popular file-sharing site used by Internet users to download music and movie files. This is the second time an injunction has been granted under the controversial copyright injunction law that was introduced in February 2012 (see IRIS 2012-4/31 and IRIS 2013-10/29). None of the Internet service providers (ISPs) objected to the blocking injunction being granted. A number of other ISPs including...

On 20 December 2013, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) released recent decisions on six broadcasting complaints. At its meeting held in November 2013, the Compliance Committee upheld (in part) one complaint and rejected four. A further complaint had been resolved by the Executive Complaint Forum at its October 2013 meeting. Under section 48 of the Broadcasting Act 2009, viewers and listeners can complain about broadcasting content that they believe is not in keeping with broadcasting codes and rules. All six of the complaints dealt either in whole or in part, with fairness, objectivity...