Funferal

BCI policy review briefing

The BCI held a policy review meeting last Monday and has now issued the notes from that meeting. There are some interesting points for anyone watching the future of broadcasting in Ireland. Among the major points:

• The BCI will undertake a consultation shortly on allowing exemptions from the 20% news/C.A. requirement.
• BCI will undertake the promised review on its policy on ownership and control, with the public section anticipated for June/July.
• Expressions of interests will be sought for five additional community radio services. There are also several groups currently going through the licensing process:
  

  Contracts with five new services have been signed, contract negotiations are taking place with a further two services and reports on oral hearings for two services will be presented to the Board of the BCI in the coming months. The final phase in this round of licensing will be the invitation to applications for the areas of Athlone, Carlow and Dundalk.

  This could result in there being more community stations than there are (currently) commercial stations! The expressions of interest (the first, semi-formal, stage in the licensing process) will be sought for five areas where groups have already been working with BCI on the process.

• BCI believes there is space for additional radio services – both in terms of spectrum and in terms of commercial feasibility – and will start processes for licensing more stations. They stress that these stations might cover different areas to those covered by current stations, but outline their belief that a station needs to cover a population of 75,000 in order to be viable.