Dublin's new performance centre will be operated by a media giant whose behaviour infuriates its critics. Jim Carroll reports

Ten days ago, when the Devey Group and Dublin Docklands Development Authority announced their plans for a €475 million scheme in the Grand Canal Docks, the 2,000-seat theatre at the heart of the proposal caught many people's imagination.

What was once mooted as the site for an opera house or a new home for the Abbey Theatre will now house a performance centre designed to host musicals and big-budget touring shows.

Many of the comments were about the striking centre, which has been designed by Daniel Libeskind, but what is just as noteworthy is the news that it will be operated by Clear Channel Entertainment, part of Clear Channel Communications.If the name is not familiar, it soon will be. The media and entertainment giant, which is based in Texas, owns radio and television stations, advertising agencies, concert promoters and venues around the world.

With its fingers in every possible entertainment pie, Clear Channel has come under fire from entertainment-business professionals, consumer groups and US politicians for its aggressive policy of consolidation and acquisition.

Until now Clear Channel has had a very low-key presence in Ireland. Its only stake in Irish entertainment came when it bought the Apollo Leisure Group, a significant shareholder in the Point theatre, in Dublin. Clear Channel now operates the venue.

Although Libeskind's proposed theatre may not be operational until 2007, Clear Channel plans to make changes at the Point in the meantime. The company says it will be refurbishing the venue to significantly increase its capacity. This means closing the Point "for a while" next year.

Terry Devey, of the Devey Group, says that no deal with Clear Channel has been signed, although negotiations are at an "advanced stage". Having talked to other potential promoters and venue operators in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe, Devey was clearly impressed by what teaming up with Clear Channel could do for his nascent theatre.

"They are the biggest entertainment company in the world, so it seemed very logical to me to get them involved," he says. "They were very keen when they saw what we were proposing. What we want for the theatre are a lot of musicals and shows, the kind of shows you get in London's West End, shows for more of a mature audience rather than any rock or pop shows.

"Besides operating venues, Clear Channel also produce and co-produce a lot of shows, such as The Producers, which is having a very successful run on Broadway at the moment, so we will have access to that kind of show."

Broadway is a long way from Texas A&M University, where L. Lowry Mays, Clear Channel's founder, studied petroleum engineering and began his entertainment empire in 1972. Within 30 years the San Antonio radio station that Mays had bought for $125,000 (€100,000) was just one of almost 1,400 stations owned or operated by the company, which reported revenues of $8.4 billion (€6.8 billion) in 2002.

Besides its radio interests, the company operates 700,000 advertising sites worldwide, and its purchase of SFX Entertainment for $4.4 billion (€3.6 billion) in 2002 gave it access to a suite of venues, including 130 in the US. Add its purchase of BBH, an interactive touring museum company, and various sporting events and it seems Clear Channel wants a piece of every imaginable entertainment ticket.

It hasn't confined its operations to the US. Now operating in 65 countries around the world, Clear Channel has grown swiftly in Europe. By acquiring a dozen or so promoters and agencies, and operating more than 70 venues, the company claims to reach 27 million people a year and provide a "high-quality live entertainment experience at every touch point, from purchasing tickets to attending shows".

Although Clear Channel gathered relatively little attention as a family-owned Texas radio chain, buying small numbers of stations around the US, its expansionist tendencies in the late 1990s were a different matter. It started to buy in bulk after ownership rules were relaxed under the 1996 US telecommunications act, but it was the purchase of SFX - which made it both the leading radio and live-entertainment player in the US - that led to concerns about so much clout being vested in one company.

A case being taken by a Denver promoter encapsulates what many industry observers regard as Clear Channel's monopolistic tendencies and the way its ownership of both venues and radio stations allows it to benefit from enormous economies of scale.

Jesse Morreale is arguing that Clear Channel is prohibiting other promoters from operating in Denver by overpaying acts, using its radio stations to unfairly promote its shows, subsidising loss-making tours and forcing acts to use Clear Channel or risk a radio boycott. The case goes to trial in August.

For Morreale and other promoters the arrival of Clear Channel has meant a huge increase in costs in order to compete or, even, merely exist. This in turn means higher ticket prices. In addition, when audiences arrive at venues owned or operated by Clear Channel they often find that parking, food and drinks are more expensive than before the company hit town.

Artists may be happy, as they are paid well to commit to Clear Channel tours, but the company shows little interest in developing new talent. Because it has to fill venues to recoup the fees it is paying artists, Clear Channel is only interested in promoting big shows and guaranteed money-makers.

Acts may also find it hard to say no when they are asked to play at jamborees promoted by Clear Channel radio stations: one station was fined $8,000 by the Federal Communications Commission for guaranteeing to pay Bryan Adams records if the singer gave free performances at a radio-station concert.

A US senate committee examining competition in the radio and concert industries questioned L. Lowry Mays in February last year. He maintained that both industries were healthy, but many senators disagreed.

Russ Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin, has proposed a bill slowing consolidation and preventing companies using cross-ownership anti-competitively. Howard Berman, a Democrat congressman, has urged the US justice department to investigate claims that Clear Channel "punished" acts that spurned its promotional services by no longer playing their records.

That such questions are not being raised by Republicans may have something to do with the close ties between Mays and President Bush. Mays and his company have been regular donors to Bush's campaign coffers.

Clear Channel radio stations also sponsored the Rally for America pro-war marches and helped to organise an airplay boycott of the Dixie Chicks for their anti-Bush comments.

But it seems Clear Channel's politics don't always prevent it from making a buck. When Bush Comes To Shove takes place at the Point on June 19th. Organised by the Irish Anti-War Movement, the concert features Christy Moore, Damien Rice, Kíla and others, in protest at George Bush's forthcoming visit and at the US military's use of Shannon Airport. It would be richly ironic if some of the fee for renting the Point for this anti-Bush show made its way, ultimately, in to a Re-elect the President bank account.