Media&Marketing As RTÉ aims to drive its annual profits to a record €9 million for the year, the level of competition it faces looks set to grow with new arrival Channel 6 advertising for senior staff this week.

The channel is headed up by former Eircom and TV3 executive Michael Murphy and former chief executive of advertising agency All-Ireland Media, Pat Donnelly.

Both men have spent the last few months attempting to raise €10 million for the venture. The start date is the fourth quarter of this year and the decision to recruit a senior management team suggests the project is a serious one.

Channel 6, which does not have an Irish broadcasting licence, is seeking the following staff: sales director, commissioning editor, deputy director of programming, director of finance, head of scheduling.

Instead of applying for a licence from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI), Channel 6 has opted instead to get a licence from British regulator Ofcom.

It denies this is an attempt to circumvent regulations in the Republic on alcohol and children's advertising. Either way, the station could end up broadcasting from Belfast or Newry, although the location of its studios has not been disclosed, nor have its shareholders.

The new station is targeting a younger affluent audience and while this may worry RTÉ 2, the main loser could be TV3. While TV3 has moved gradually into the middle of the market, it has a much younger demographic than RTÉ, so it will be keen to fight its corner against any new arrivals.

Of course it holds the rights to Coronation Street, one of the most popular programmes in the Republic.

No matter how much money it raises, Channel 6 will find it hard to win rights to programmes with that kind of audience profile, but maybe it can find other ways to grow its market share.

Digital impact

While the arrival into the Irish television market of Channel 6 may or may not prove significant, a statement this week on digital television from the EU Commission is likely to have more impact on the market.

This week, the Commission said it would like to see governments throughout the EU switching off their analogue TV signals by 2010 and changing over to digital. Why?

The EU Commission cites the benefits to consumers. "The benefits of digital broadcasting include improved picture quality, better sound, better portable and mobile reception, more TV and radio channels and enhanced information services".

Predictably Ireland is significantly behind on the whole digital issue. Not only have we not announced a date for switching off analogue, we have not yet published a national plan on making the switch. But such lack of planning may have to come to end.

In its draft communication this week, the Commission said it wanted to see EU states at least producing a plan showing how they intend to make the switch by the end of this year. So the officials in Noel Dempsey's Department of Communications have been warned.

Advertising change

The latest advertising campaign for Ben Dunne's Westpoint health and fitness club has taken the unusual step of specifically mentioning other players in the health and fitness market.

This form of comparative advertising, where a company directly compares itself with another during an advertisement, used to be outlawed.

But now this form of advertising is increasingly used by those who want to gain competitive advantage.

In the case of Ben Dunne, he claims his prices are lower than his rival provider Jackie Skelly.

The Dublin law firm Matheson Ormsby Prentice, which has advised several firms about the limits of comparative advertising, said this week that firms traditionally avoid this kind of approach but that Dunne's decision suggests change is on the way.

"Surprisingly, advertisers are only now taking advantage of legal changes that took place nearly ten years ago.

Prior to 1996, trade mark law in effect prevented comparative advertising.

"To refer to a competitor's trade mark in the course of advertising your own goods or services would likely have resulted in an infringement action being taken against you.

"The Trade Marks Act 1996 amended the law to permit comparative advertising, provided certain conditions are met," explains Michael Tyrell, a solictor with Matheson Ormsby Prentice.

In other words, it is perfectly legal to mention a competitor once it is done honestly and does not take unfair advantage of a competitor's "distinctive character or reputation."

The EU has also taken the view that comparative advertising is good for competition and beneficial to consumers and in 1997 adopted a directive to permit comparative advertising on a European-wide basis.

The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) code stresses that clear evidence must exist to support a claim that a certain product is superior to a competitors.