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Levy to fund broadcast regulator
06 September 2009 By Samantha McCaughren
The broadcasting sector is facing a newlevy on net advertising revenues which will cost the industry about €10 million annually from next year.
The levy, which will fund the new broadcasting regulator, has not been approved yet, but media sources believe it will be between 1 and 3 per cent of advertising turnover. Commercial stations TV3, Today FM and Newstalk are among the broadcasters who will have to hand over hundreds of thousands of euro to fund the new broadcasting watchdog.
RTE, which is facing into a huge deficit this year, will have to pay several million euro annually. It is not clear whether or not the levy would apply to licence fee revenues. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) takes over from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) and the RTE Authority at the end of this month. The BCI is funded by the exchequer, but the new body will be self-funded.
The BAI is legislated to raise the levy, which means that its establishment is apriority. The BAI board is likely to be put in place partially at first. Five board members will be appointed by communications Eamon Ryan, and it is likely these will be approved by the end of the month. However, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications is to appoint the remaining four members and has decided to advertise those posts, which means it will be some time before they are appointed.
The BAI has a quorum of five, so technically can proceed with only the ministerial appointments, ensuring that central government does not have to continue to support the regulator. It is likely that it would take at least three months to introduce the new charge once the BAI is up and running.
It is understood that the levy will not be a ‘one-size fits all’ model, but will be based on the size of broadcaster and other factors. However, broadcasters have seen the advertising market dive over the past year, and the levy is coming at a very difficult time for the industry.
A 2 per cent levy would cost Today FM around €500,000 a year and a station like FM104 €160,000 a year.
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