“Learning Waves”
Pat Rabbitte, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Friday 21 October 2011
Good morning everyone, and welcome.
Firstly I’d like to thank the conference organisers for the invitation to speak at this event. Learning Waves – as a Skillnet - is supported by Government to boost in-company training and the exchange of learning between companies within a sector. Such network based training tends to achieve higher quality of training and better value for money than other approaches.
Given the doom and gloom that tends to surround a lot of debate in the country at the moment, it’s worth noting, for a moment, just how significant the development of an independent commercial radio sector in Ireland has been. From a situation where there were no licensed operators in 1988, we now have 36 commercial radio broadcasters operating in the State. This has had some profound benefits for the people of Ireland, even before you consider the number of jobs supported by this industry.
For a start, competition in the radio sector is good for everyone – it means that the consumer has access to a broad range of programming. While this is important at a national level, it has proven to be critical at a local level. It means that local radio operators can address the precise needs of communities, with news stories aimed at the communities they affect and by dealing with issues to a level of detail and colour that would not be available to a national broadcaster. For some members of society, particularly the elderly, local radio provides a life line, a means of participating in community activities when, for a variety of reasons, it may not be possible for people to even leave the house.
The political process benefits too of course; local radio provides a means for candidates and elected politicians, from all parties, to address and debate on issues that closely relate to particular regions in the country.
When the full and diverse range of media available to people today is considered, national, European and global in origin, the ongoing vitality of the commercial radio sector in Ireland is a remarkable expression of the power of the local, of the ties that bind communities together, and the ongoing need for operators to reflect, celebrate and evaluate the views within these communities.
Plainly though, there are a number of factors in play at the moment that make operations difficult for commercial radio at the moment, nationally and locally. Some of these are structural and technological in origin, others are economic.
The economic problems are obvious to all of us – and the direct implications for the media have been ongoing with serious declines in advertising revenue, across the board, affecting all players. Over time, and as the economy adjusts and growth rates pick up, this issue will at least partly redress itself. The other issues are, however, both longer term and highly dynamic.
Our general policy framework for media is, as I’ve said, premised on preserving the constitutional rights of the citizen to receive and impart information and opinion, rather than on the protection of individual businesses, and this will remain at the core of policy.
But many of the certainties that underlined our traditional policy framework are dissolving.
The key challenges, at least as I see them, are as follows.
On a high level, the deeper structural reformation of traditional media players, moving away from a traditional vertically integrated model of media provision, towards a more disaggregated and internet focussed model continues. In turn, this has particularly severe implications for these, often Irish owned, players, some of which have disappeared already – having either gone out of business or merged with others.
Similarly, changes in the television market place has long since allowed outside broadcasters without any significant presence here to target advertising at Irish consumers.
International media actors, including those operating from our far larger next door neighbour, in both television and print, continue to compete for market share.
More recently, the rise of social media and the advent of highly flexible and tailored internet based advertising threaten the basic advertising income of all media, national and local, print and broadcast. These companies, which have both a global scale and highly evolved business models which allow them to tailor their advertising product in a very specific manner, are a particular threat to commercial revenues, and they are plainly not going to go away.
All of these issues challenge the media in Ireland, print and broadcast – and are likely to continue to develop and evolve. Recent improvements in broadband and thus access to web based services are entirely welcome and necessary, but they do function as a double edged sword in some ways, progressively opening up markets to new media, and facilitating greater access in existing markets. The rise of social media alone, with half of Irish people having a Facebook account, and 90% of 15-24 year olds being users, is of particular importance in this sector. This is a generation that grew up with Social Media and the internet. They are highly unlikely to forget about it as they get older. Rather they will continue to incorporate these technologies in their lives.
Advertisers and media therefore have to play on that pitch too – and many are already doing so with some success . To that end it’s heartening to see that presenters later today are dealing with exactly that issue. If there is to be a vibrant and successful future for commercial radio in Ireland – which we all want - then the sector has to continue to engage with new media in an aggressive and enthusiastic manner. It needs to take advantage of the opportunities presented to engage with listeners in new ways, and to grow and develop the business. This, in turn, points to the critical role played by ongoing training and development, and to the importance of the commitment already displayed by broadcasters, to adapt and engage with this new and very challenging reality.
It is important to note that, many of the key contextual drivers behind the success of the commercial radio sector remain the same. This State, despite significant outside influence, retains a very distinct identity, and has an interleaved set of regional identities that are very strongly held. We retain a national economy and a national and local political system that affect peoples lives on a daily basis and which drive a considerable volume of media. Similarly, we retain a population with a huge thirst for news, local and national, political, sporting…. The overall market for media in Ireland is still many times the size it was 25 years ago, after all. While media will always change, these changes, disruptive in nature though they may be, bring new opportunities as well as new challenges.
It’s important to point out also that the State has long since assisted in the development of the sector, and will continue to do so.
Already, the Sound and Vision Scheme, supported by the Broadcasting Fund has supported almost 900 different radio projects, a figure that is expected to increase to over 1000 by the end of this, the sixth, year. This represents an allocation of over €10m since 2006 - more recently, since the new scheme was introduced at the start of 2009 almost €3m has been allocated.
That is not to say that there haven’t been issues however - while the percentage going to independent local radio is increasing, there remains a challenge in developing quality proposals that fit the terms of the scheme. In the past, I gather the full allocation of funding available for radio has not been used due to a lack of applications judged to be of sufficiently high quality.
To that end, I know the Broadcasting Authority have recently run two workshops for broadcasters, aimed at developing skills in making documentaries, and around the process of making applications under the fund. It is obvious that the standard of production is increasing, but more remains to be done in that regard – as such I would encourage all broadcasters to apply for funding under the latest round – after all, there is €1.5m available to fund programming in the round closing at end October.
I also understand that the BAI is in the process of developing a new online applications facility to simplify the applications process and ease the operation of the fund for broadcasters.
Leaving aside the Broadcasting Fund for the moment, it’s also important to recognise the central role of the BAI’s Sectoral Development Programme in assisting with the development of the sector. Its easy to forget about the existence of this, given that it has been around, in various manifestations, since the days of the Independent Radio and Television Commission, but today the allocation for a single year stands at nearly half a million euro, and covers network funding, dedicated support for community broadcasters and support for Broadcasting related research. The changes in the way in which such support is delivered, over time, with a move from direct management and control by the regulatory body to a more industry-led approach, reflects the growing ability of the industry to identify and implement its own training and development requirements. However, its continued existence, its legislative basis in the 2009 Broadcasting Act, and the level of funding involved, reflects the ongoing commitment to this element of the BAI’s role.
The challenges that face the industry are, of course, immense right now. Some of these, particularly the economic difficulties, will pass in time. Others can be dealt with, not easily, it must be said, but with the support of the BAI, I am confident that commercial and independent radio in Ireland has a bright future.
As I have mentioned recently, these developments also have an impact on Government policy, around how we deal with the rise of new media and changes in the composition of existing media. The nature of the situation we find ourselves in, where the media ecosystem is increasingly diverse and dynamic, and subject to some very powerful commercial forces, is such that Government intervention is already required in some areas.
Pressing issues around the ownership and control of media have led the Government to pursue the development of revised media mergers legislation, the heads of which have already been brought to Government by my colleague, Minister Bruton. My Department is now working on the drafting of this Bill in conjunction with the Department of Jobs, Innovation and Enterprise, and we expect to publish a draft early next year.
This legislation owes its origins both to the Competition & Mergers Review Group of 2000 and the Report of the Advisory Group on Media Mergers, which was presented to Government in 2008.
At its most basic, the criteria which make up conventional micro-economic competition analysis are inappropriate for media mergers because the proper functioning of our democratic system depends ultimately on liberty of expression and all that that entails. It is clearly the case that an excessive concentration of media ownership and control involves risks that go beyond those involved in the case of ordinary goods and services, and so Government is moving to put legislative measures in place to ensure plurality of ownership and plurality of content.
This is why we are adopting the approach and the recommendations set out in these reports. We will accordingly legislate for new, media-specific and principles-based criteria to be applied when assessing any future proposed merger. These will include:
· the likely effect of the media merger on plurality (which includes both diversity of ownership and diversity of content),
· the undesirability of allowing any one individual or undertaking to hold significant interests within a sector or across different sections of media businesses,
· the consequences for the promotion of plurality in media business in the State of intervening to prevent a media merger or attaching conditions to the approval of a media merger,
· the adequacy of other mechanisms to protect the public interest in plurality in the media if the Minister decides not to intervene,
· the commitments that the undertakings are prepared to offer and which are capable of being effectively incorporated in any decision by the Minister,
· the extent to which the public interest can be secured by the imposition of any such conditions in a decision by the Minister to approve a merger.
This Bill, when published, will also include a definition of ‘media’ that explicitly includes material published on the internet.
The importance of media, of the long held role of mediating information between citizens, whether at the individual level or at the level of citizens organised into sectors, lobbies, interest groups – or even political parties – cannot be underestimated, and I am determined, in Government, that we ensure that the people of Ireland have continued access to the quality and diversity of media that they deserve.