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Irish Times
05-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Public funds for commercial broadcasters in limbo over EU state aid concerns
Some €6 million set aside in last year's budget for commercial broadcasters to fund news and current affairs broadcasting is yet to be disbursed due to issues with European Union rules governing state aid to private businesses. Coimisiún na Meán was to distribute the funds, which were to be split between Virgin Media Television , Ireland's only commercial television broadcaster, and the commercial radio stations operating in the State, this year. However, officials at the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport told Minister Patrick O'Donovan in March that there were 'some state aid issues arising' that the department is 'seeking to resolve'. The remarks are contained in the minutes of a meeting between the Fine Gael TD and representatives from Virgin Media Television on March 6th. The document was released to The Irish Times as part of a freedom of information request. READ MORE In a briefing note prepared for the minister in advance of the meeting, officials separately raised concerns about the application of state aid rules to disbursements from the Government's planned media fund. [ Virgin Media received 'nothing' after requesting €30m from State Opens in new window ] The fund, which will replace the existing Broadcasting Fund, is a component of the Broadcasting Amendment Bill, which is currently at the committee stage in the Dáil. Through various Coimisiún na Meán initiatives, the new scheme will provide funding to all media outlets regardless of platform, to support the production, distribution and archiving of public service media output. Officials told the minister that once the new fund is created, Coimisiún na Meán will still be required to get 'clearance or exemption' from EU state aid rules to distribute the money. This is 'challenging', the minister was told. In response to questions this week, a spokeswoman for the department said all Coimisiún na Meán schemes are designed to comply with the state aid exemption framework. Under the EU rules, funds can only be used to 'incentivise new activity' while the 'subsidisation of existing costs or activities' is prohibited, the spokeswoman said. This condition will also be attached to disbursements from the converted media fund to be established by the Broadcasting Bill and was criticised as being too restrictive by Virgin Media Television managing director Áine Ní Chaoindealbháin in an Oireachtas committee last month. Concerning the €6 million due to be distributed to commercial broadcasters this year, the spokeswoman for the department said the matter 'remains under consideration', and 'it is the intention that funds will be disbursed by Coimisiún na Meán before year end'. In a letter to Mr O'Donovan in late March, Tony Hanway, chief executive of Virgin Media Ireland, reiterated the company's request for €30 million to fund its public service broadcasting. The commercial broadcaster has argued it is entitled to the funds to ensure it can compete with RTÉ, given that the State broadcaster receives €200 million in annual Government funding, along with 'annual multimillion-euro taxpayer-funded top-ups', as Ms Ní Chaoindealbháin told the Oireachtas committee in June. The former Sky News and UTV Ireland executive said at the time that Virgin Media Television had received 'nothing' from the Government despite its requests against a backdrop of rising costs. Ms Ní Chaoindealbháin said that the broadcaster had been forced to make 'some difficult decisions' last year, including cutting the Tonight Show from four to two nights a week, due to 'the commercial situation that we were in'.
Irish Times
18-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Virgin Media received ‘nothing' after requesting €30m from State
Virgin Media Television received 'nothing' from the Government after requesting €30 million last year to fund its news and public service content, the broadcaster's managing director has told an Oireachtas committee. Áine Ní Chaoindealbháin, who has led the commercial television company since last year, also said on Wednesday that the criteria for media organisations to receive funding from the Coalition's proposed Media Fund are too restrictive, and the cost challenges associated with producing its existing news output will remain. Ms Ní Chaoindealbháin was giving evidence at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communication, Culture and Sport, which is conducting pre-legislative scrutiny of the Government's Broadcasting Amendment Bill. Among other things, the bill proposes to convert the State's existing Broadcasting Bill to a general media fund, which will help Irish media outlets to fund public service content across different platforms. READ MORE In her opening statement, Ms Ní Chaoindealbháin broadly welcomed the proposal but raised a concern that funding under the newly formed scheme will be granted only for the production of new categories of public service content. This principle of 'additionality' means the cost challenges associated with maintaining Virgin Media's existing public service content output will 'remain', she said. Ms Ní Chaoindealbháin said: 'Delivering our public service content remit on a purely commercial basis is not viable under current funding arrangements.' Referring to the decision to cut the Tonight Show's air time to two programmes a week from four, she said: 'Last year, we did have to make some difficult decisions [about] our existing content because of the commercial situation that we were in. 'So we don't want to reduce our public service broadcasting content. We're committed to our public service broadcasting content.' However, Ms Ní Chaoindealbháin said that 'to push that further, to add more bulletins, to add more current affairs content' so as to qualify for the media fund 'would be a real strain on the system that is already very tight'. Last year, Virgin Media, which is owned by US telecoms billionaire John Malone's Liberty Global group and is funded through commercial revenues and advertising, wrote to then-minister for media Catherine Martin, requesting €30 million to fund its news and public service output. In the letter, Ms Ní Chaoindealbháin raised questions about the sustainability of Virgin Media's competition with RTÉ, given that the State broadcaster receives €200 million in annual Government funding, along with 'annual multi-million-euro taxpayer-funded top-ups'. Asked on Wednesday by Fianna Fáil TD Peter 'Chap' Cleere what Virgin Media had received in response to the request, Ms Ní Chaoindealbháin said: 'Nothing.' Labour Party TD Alan Kelly , who chairs the committee, later said its members are 'not clear' what the principle of 'additionality' means in the context of the media fund proposal, despite having interrogated the bill in detail in recent sessions.
