Several new radio licences are set to be issued by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) despite concerns the market may be saturated.
The organisation said it would produce a revised "licensing policy statement" by late April, spelling out in detail its proposals for new services. Mr Michael O'Keeffe, chief executive, said it was impossible to say how many licences might be issued, but he said it was likely one of them would be a "quasi-national" service.
He said a "100 per cent national service" might not be possible for technical reasons, but it should be possible for one operator to reach most of the State once it was prepared to spend some money on extra transmitters. He refused to comment on a possible application for a national licence by Dublin's Newstalk 106.
He said radio operators would eventually be asked to submit expressions of interest, setting out what kind of services they might provide. He said there could be several kinds of model proposed, including stations based in the main cities or ones based around certain transmission areas.
Mr O'Keeffe said the BCI's engineering division, in conjunction with ComReg, had identified additional radio spectrum which would allow new services on the AM and FM bands.
Mr O'Keeffe said it was not for the BCI to say if the market was saturated. Asked whether the market was saturated, he said: "I honestly don't know. It is really up to the applicants to make a case." He said the BCI did not wish to be specific about what services might be licensed, saying "diversity" would be a key consideration.
The BCI also announced yesterday that the requirement on radio stations to devote 20 per cent of their programming to news and current affairs may be relaxed, following a review.
Currently all stations must observe the 20 per cent requirement. However, a derogation is available to stations on request from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. each day.
Mr O'Keeffe said there was no reason why the derogation could not be extended to the whole week if stations made a case. However, he said a full review of the policy needed to be undertaken first. The BCI currently regulates 28 stations.
Last night, the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland (IBA), which represents these stations, said it was concerned current trends were leading to overregulation in the sector. It said it favoured a "lighter touch" regulatory approach to the licensing of radio. However, IBA welcomed the Commission's decision to undertake a public consultation on the statutory 20 per cent news and current affairs requirement.
