Media
Though legacy media have faced persistent financial challenges since 2008 which has led to the closure of some outlets, the Irish media landscape is in a relatively stable state by international standards. It is primarily constituted by:
- 3 public service television channels;
- 4 commercial channels;
- 4 public service radio stations; 34 commercial radio stations (plus a further 20 community or community-of-interest stations);
- eight national daily and eight national Sunday newspapers and approximately 70 local or regional print title;
- a growing number of digital native news outlets augmenting the online presence of the digital arms of legacy media outlets.
This picture of the Irish media ecology is complicated by the fact that much of the content consumed is not specifically produced with an Irish market in mind. Although there are seven “Ireland-facing” television channels, a further 46 overseas-based channels sell advertising space into the Irish market. Irish-facing channels account for less than half (48%) of the total television audience. Similarly, in print even those titles with “Irish” on their masthead include a significant element of sports, entertainment and international news content primarily written for a UK-based audience. Radio remains resolutely local in its content and audience orientation, even if it is increasingly owned by overseas groups.
> Read more in the Findings on Internationalisation of media ownership and content in Ireland
Establishing global ultimate ownership of media is relatively straightforward due to regulatory support for publicly accessible ownership databases. However, there is less transparency regarding concentration due to the inconsistent availability of financial data and audience shares across different media.
The state-owned public service media RTÉ is the leading media outlet with the single largest market share in television (26.75%) and radio (27.8%) as of 2022. However, since the introduction of legal competition, RTÉ’s quasi-monopoly status in broadcasting has been challenged by commercial channels which are increasingly owned by overseas media groups like the US-based Liberty Global since 2015 and the German Bauer Media Audio since 2021. This augments the long-established presence of UK-owned print titles in the Irish markets. The leading Irish national print media group has been owned by the Belgian group Mediahuis since 2019 whilst the UK-based Mediaforce is the largest player in the local/regional print market. Four of the five largest print groups are now domiciled overseas. As of 2023, the only Irish-owned media groups of scale are effectively limited to the state-owned Public Service Medias and the Irish Times Group.
In the MOM sample:
- 16 print titles and 2 Print publication Groups
- 6 TV stations
- 12 online publications
- 11 radio stations
