Press Releases 2006
BCI ANNOUNCES RECENT RADIO LICENSING DECISIONS
28th March 06
The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has today (March 28th) announced that the following decisions with regard to the licensing of radio services were reached at its board meeting yesterday:
National broad format sound broadcasting service
The Commission has awarded a ten year licence in principle to Radio Ireland Limited (trading as 100-102 Today FM) for a national broad format sound broadcasting service. Today FM has operated this service since their inception in 1997. The BCI board expressed their satisfaction with the exceptional quality of the application coupled with the track record of the applicant. On this basis the Board considered that it was appropriate that the licence should be awarded in principle at this time. The award is subject to the successful outcome of contract negotiations and further details will be announced in due course.
Quasi-national news/speech sound broadcasting service
The Commission has invited the sole applicant for this service, News 106 Limited (trading as Newstalk 106), to present to the Commission at a public oral hearing to be held on Monday 24th April. The Commission was satisfied that the application was of sufficient standard to qualify for this second phase in the licensing process. In light of the nature and type of service being applied for, the Commission felt that an oral hearing was appropriate to further test concepts and propositions within the application.
The oral hearings provide an opportunity for applicant groups to further present their case for a licence in a public forum in addition to providing the Board of the BCI with the opportunity to clarify aspects of the licence. Details regarding the time and venue for the oral hearing will be announced in the coming weeks.
Limerick City and County Broad Format Sound Broadcasting Service
One expression of interest was received by the Commission for the Limerick City and County licence, by Treaty Radio Limited (trading as Limerick ’s Live 95FM) and a related report was considered by the Board. The Commission has decided that it will seek the authorisation of ComReg to advertise a broad based service for the franchise area and will subsequently seek applications for its provision.
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For further information please contact:
David Martin or Aoife Clabby
Fleishman Hillard BCI
01 6188462 or 086 8114785 01 6441200