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The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) announced on 8 September that, subject to the satisfactory conclusion of negotiations, it will enter into contracts with a Scottish company, Setanta, for the provision of a television service in accordance with sections 36 (satellite content contracts) and 41 (cable/MMD content contracts ­ MMD is the multipoint microwave distribution system used in less populated areas of the country) of the Broadcasting Act 2001. The service will be a 24 hours a day sports' service covering Scottish and Irish soccer, rugby, Gaelic sports, and minority sports. Distribution...

The Broadcasting (Funding) Act 2003 (see IRIS 2004-2: 13) provided that five per cent of the net income from television licence fees would be set aside to be used for funding certain television and radio programmes. The Act required the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) to prepare a scheme(s) for such funding. The draft scheme was launched by the BCI on 23 August 2004. In accordance with the Act (s.2), the scheme will apply to new programmes on Irish culture, heritage and experience and new programmes to improve adult literacy. It will support such programmes in the Irish language as well...

Directive 2002/21/EC on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services (see IRIS 2002-3: 4) was transposed into Irish law by Statutory Instrument (S.I.) No. 307 of 2003. On 27 April 2004, ComReg (The Commission for Communications Regulation) made its first SMP (significant market power) designation in accordance with Regulation 27(4) of the Framework Regulations. It designated RTÉ Transmission Network Ltd (RTNL), the transmission operating arm of RTÉ, the national public service broadcaster, as having significant market power (SMP) in two wholesale markets. The...

The BCI, which is the regulatory authority for the commercial broadcasting sector, has acted in recent months to prevent certain advertisements and news items being broadcast. With regard to advertisements, the BCI in June 2004 banned advertisements for an anti-war concert. It did so on the basis that they contravened the Radio and Television Act 1988, which prohibits political and religious advertising and advertising in relation to a trade dispute (see IRIS 2001-7: 9, IRIS 2003-2: 11, IRIS 2004-3: 10). The concert was planned to take place in advance of the visit to Ireland of President Bush....

The Competition Authority has cleared, subject to certain conditions, a proposed acquisition by Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) of a Dublin local radio station, FM 104. SRH already own Today FM, the sole national commercial radio station. The acquisition had already been cleared by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, the regulator of the commercial broadcasting sector. However, media mergers are now subject also to specific requirements included in section 22 of the Competition Act 2002. Under that section the Competition Authority makes a determination on the proposed merger based on competition...