Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill – Minister Catherine Martin proposes additional measures to assist community broadcasters, public service media and the radio sector

The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, T.D., today (18 May 2021) secured Government approval for the integration of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill into the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill.

The Minister also enhanced some measures that had been in the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill, particularly for community broadcasters.

The Minister noted,

“Previously it had been proposed to reduce the industry levy for community broadcasters. I recognise the huge value that community broadcasters have in delivering high quality, local content to Irish audiences. For this reason I’ve decided to completely exempt them from the broadcasting levy.”

In addition, the Minister introduced a provision that will give prominence to public service content and provide greater flexibility in advertising time for the commercial radio sector.

The Minister confirmed there will be a bursary scheme for community and local radio stations and that the legislation will enable the new regulator, the Media Commission, to be part-funded by licence fee or exchequer money, and thereby support a reduction in the industry levy for all broadcasters.

The Minister advised,

“These measures will provide further support the broadcasting sector, which has played such an important part throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in providing reliable news and high quality entertainment to Irish audiences.”

Integration of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill

The Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill had reached Committee stage when the Dáil was dissolved in January 2020. However, a number of provisions in the Bill have been overtaken by events, including the development of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill to transpose the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive.

Minister Martin added that,

“Both the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill and the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill propose amendments to the Broadcasting Act, 2009 and deal with levy issues. As such, integration of these pieces of legislation is important to avoid the potential for unnecessary confusion and duplication.”

Minister Martin continued,

“The Programme for Government commits to enacting the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill. Through integration, and as a result of the urgency attached to enacting the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill, I expect the provisions of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill to be enacted earlier than if it remained as a standalone piece of legislation.”

Levy Exemptions for Community Radio and Television Stations

Following integration, the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill will exempt community radio and television stations from paying an industry levy. In contrast to the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill, it is not intended to provide any monetary qualifying income threshold for such an exemption, rather an exemption will simply apply to all community stations.

Funding of the Media Commission

Following integration, the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill will also allow the broadcasting functions of the Media Commission to be part-funded, up to a maximum of 50%, from television licence receipts. In addition, the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill will ensure that the Media Commission takes account of any direct Exchequer funding, including from television license receipts, when calculating the levy which is to apply to regulated entities. Again, this is with the intention of reducing the financial burden of the industry levy on services in the broadcasting and media industries.

Bursary Scheme for Journalists

The Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill will also require the Media Commission to create a new funding scheme that would permit the granting of bursaries to journalists in community and local radio stations, which are the starting point for many journalists’ careers. In line with the intention of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill, it is expected that approximately €500,000 will be made available by the Media Commission to support 20 annual bursaries of €25,000 each.

Additional Heads

The Government approved the addition of three further Heads to the General Scheme of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill. The first of these will remove the statutory requirement for RTÉ to establish and maintain a teletext service, i.e. Aertel. In recent years, teletext services have been superseded by more modern communications technology and as such, the amendment to the Broadcasting Act, 2009, will allow RTÉ to apply to the Minister for consent to close the service as part of its ongoing series of reforms.

The second of the additional Heads will remove the hourly limits in respect of advertising minutage on commercial radio stations but retain the overall daily limit of 15% total daily broadcasting time. This will give some additional flexibility and level up commercial radio with the additional flexibility around television advertising that is already provided for in the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill.

Finally, the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill will include a Head which allows the Media Commission to create an apply obligations in respect of the prominence of public service content. Under such obligations, supply services such as Sky or Virgin Media, will be required to guarantee prominence to Irish public service channels and content.

Minister Martin emphasised the importance of this development, stating,

“In line with public expectation, we want to ensure that public service content and channels are easily findable and discoverable for Irish audiences. We hope that this will encourage greater viewing, help to ensure that as many people as possible can easily access this content, and assist in sustaining the future financial viability of our public service channels”.

ENDS

Notes to the editor

General Scheme of the proposed Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill is available here.

Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill (as initiated) is available here.