Funferal

Community television in Ireland – current status

I posted, just over a week ago, about David Harvey’s proposed commercial cable channels in Galway and Waterford, to go with his new City Channel. I mentioned at the time that I’d approached the BCI to see what information I could gather about how this might affect the non-commercial cable services previously proposed. I’ve now received a fairly comprehensive response from BCI Information Officer Aoife Clabby. Since she steps through the issues in quite a straightforward manner I include most of it, pretty much as I received it, below.

With regard to your query about City Channel, I wish to confirm that the BCI has signed a ten year content contract with City Channel for the provision of a service to Dublin City and County, further to Section 41(cable/mmd content) of the Broadcasting Act 2001.
The Commission is aware of newspaper coverage regarding the company’s negotiations with ntl for carriage in Waterford and Galway. However, to date no application for a content contract for these services has been received by the BCI.
With regard to community content contracts (as envisaged under section 39 of the Broadcasting Act 2001), the current status is as follows:
As a first step in beginning to award contracts for new television services under the 2001 Broadcasting Act, the Commission sought expressions of interest in the provision of these services. A notice was placed in the national press on October 31st 2002 and a total of 48 expressions of interest were received, 6 of which were for the provision of a community television service.
Following the expressions of interest received, the Commission held three workshops with the 6 groups who had expressed an interest. These workshops were held in September and November 2003 and February 2004. The workshops were designed to get a sense of what requirements these community groups had in addition to seeking their assistance in devising a policy for community television in advance of any licensing taking place and agreeing a framework within which community television might be developed.
The Commission launched its television licensing policy in July 2004 and sought applications for the provision of services (including community content) at that time. To date, two applications for community content contracts have been received; one from Province 5, based in Navan, Co. Meath and one from Dublin Community Television (DCTV). The next steps in the process are as follows:
We will advertise again in the areas where applications have already been received (at the moment this will be Navan and Dublin) to see if there is further interest from any other community groups. This advertisement will be placed in the relevant local press in September. Any content contracts awarded as part of this process will operate as part of a pilot project over a four year period. This project will also enable the Commission to pilot its policy on community television.
We remain open to receiving applications for community content contracts from anywhere around the country. Should any further applications be received that are of a sufficient quality, we follow the same process as outlined in the case of Navan and Dublin and advertise in the relevant local press with a view to a successful applicant becoming part of the pilot project in the development of community television services.
While the applications process is running we will be consulting with the relevant carriage provider as required by statute (reference section 37(10) Broadcasting Act 2001).
With regard to the Broadcasting Funding Scheme, the BCI is awaiting further feedback from European Commission (EC) as to clarifications and additional information which it sought at the start of July. The EC has until September 14th to provide feedback and hopefully, approval for the Scheme.