Michael O’Keeffe on Irish broadcasting research and policy

Thanks very much, John, and thank you everybody. As Minister, as I promised not to put my hand on that thing as he keeps moving it, and then you'll all be expecting coffee to come very quickly. Well, I will be quick. I don't have a PowerPoint either. Firstly, let me say I'm very pleased to be that the BAI is a sponsor and part of this event, delighted to be here today. I want to talk a little bit about what we're doing in our strategy and work plan, talk a little bit about the ministerial guidelines that the Minister introduced, and then some other work we're doing on the research side during the current year, and then some policy development we hope to be doing later in the year. So that's just four or five key points I want to touch on. I was just starting with the statement of strategy, our three-year strategy statement 2014 to 2016. One of the key strategic goals is about delivering plurality in Irish broadcasting, and we have a number of key components of that. The first one is that we try in our policies to ensure that the viewer and listener has access to a multiplicity of providers offering voices and viewpoints. We also look to protect and resist the provision of a universal provision of well-resourced news and current affairs, which we regard as being essential safeguards of a democratic society.

It's fair to say that there are a range of different approaches to how you achieve plurality: there are licensing policies, there are ownership and control and media concentration policies, there's also a delivery of a mix of service types. As you know, in Ireland in broadcasting terms, we have both public, private, and community broadcasting, and then we try to deliver a range of sources of viewpoint in news. Marie McGonagle, in one of her later slides which she barely got to talk about, looked at the notion of content and providing support content, which we would do for example on the BAI Sound and Vision Scheme. Within the three-year work plan, the BAI prioritizes a number of key activities under the plurality heading, and I'll come back to these a little bit later. I think it's clear from all the presentations here, and indeed from the reports and the work the DCU has done, that plurality is complex and getting more complex in an evolving media environment, and the level of change is quite staggering. The research done demonstrates this. Take, for example, the mobile phone, the smartphone, and the impact that that has had on how people source music. If you want to get a news story this evening, you don't need to be at your radio or television; you get your smartphone and you turn it on. You'll have seen over the last number of years the almost disappearance of free sheets at a train station, for example, because everybody's got their mobile phone, everybody's sourcing their news on their phone. So that's just one example. Research is showing that, and that's not going to change; it's going to continue. I think the value of research isn't that we've just come around to the value of research now in the BAI; we've always valued research. But I think the value is that it will map trends over time, and within our research policy that's something we're looking to do. We're looking forward to seeing how trends evolve and develop. We look forward to continuing the partnership we have with DCU in this regard, and also that we, as you probably know, signed a three-year arrangement with Reuters, and we look forward to continuing that over the next number of years.

Mary touched on developments at an international level, and clearly they are important, but I think, and I wrote down what she said, it is very much a national issue. It is identified at a European level that the key, the central and primary role of national governments and regulators is to deal with plurality. It is very much something that should remain a focus. And I suppose it is welcome that the 2014 Act has given the Competition and Consumer Protection Act a prominence to plurality. It was done. I was also part of that advisory committee in 2008, and indeed we wondered why it took so long to get it through, but at the same time that's not for us to say. I welcome the fact that the Minister has brought it in, and we look forward to implementing it at this time. Just briefly under ministerial guidelines, there's been some criticism of a lack of specificity within the guidelines, and we wouldn't agree with that. There is a need for flexibility as well to ensure that an overall objective is achieved. The guidelines set out broad principles with some specifics, and I think that's what is desired. Then it is a matter for the Broadcasting Authority, if requested to do so, or indeed the advisory panel that would be established by the Minister, to follow those broad principles in coming to a determination. We also welcome the new role that we've been given by the Act by the Minister in terms of providing advice and research. You're probably aware, some of you, that today's publication is the first of two pieces of research that we'll be publishing this year. The second is a specific requirement within the 2014 Act where we must deliver a piece of research within the first year of the enactment of that Act, and we are all systems go on that. I have Tim Souter and Rob Kenny of Communications Chambers here today who are undertaking that work for the BAI, and we will have that completed by September, and a report submitted to the Minister within the timeframe required under the Act. Research, as I emphasized, is very important. It provides that concrete base to determine the most appropriate approach to deliver on the overall objective of plurality. It's about establishing evidence, establishing data, giving context, establishing trends. We're committed to working and developing that over the next number of years to ensure that baseline evidence exists. We talked in our strategy as well about evidence-informed or evidence-based decision-making, and I think sometimes when these topics are discussed we tend to lose sight of that. The evidence-informed and evidence-based decision-making is very important. A number of other pieces of work that we will do: when the new framework is in place, we will commence a process to review the ownership and control policy that currently exists, and we will recast it within the terms of the overall plurality framework set out in the strategy. We look forward to that, probably something we will look to begin a process maybe in the final quarter of this year, once these other pieces of work have been completed. Obviously we will be engaging with all interested parties, and there are many, when we commence that process at that stage. My final thing is that the Minister mentioned the phase three examination, and we're getting ready for that. Who knows, there may be one in the near future, maybe there will be, maybe not, but we'll be ready when you ask the question, Minister.