BCI to review O'Brien radio licences as press stake rises

THE BROADCASTING regulator plans to review the radio licences held by billionaire businessman Denis O'Brien, after he increased his stake in Sir Anthony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media (IN&M) to 25 per cent.

The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI), which has the power to block media mergers on the basis of cross-media ownership, will examine the appropriateness of Mr O'Brien's control of national and local radio licences while he builds his interest in IN&M.

He is widely believed to be planning to bid at some point for IN&M, which has branded him a "dissident" investor and accused him of trying to destabilise the company.

Mr O'Brien notified the stock market last evening that he now holds 25.04 per cent of IN&M, publisher of the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, Sunday World and numerous regional titles.

The development is significant because any stake in excess of 25 per cent empowers him to block any proposals from the IN&M board to change its internal rules or the number of shares in issue.

Mr O'Brien's radio firm, Communicorp, owns the only two national commercial stations, Today FM and NewsTalk, as well as Dublin pop station 98FM, Dublin youth station Spin 103 and regional station Spin SouthWest.

The BCI is legally obliged to promote the plurality of media ownership and must guard against any person having "control of, or substantial interests in, an undue amount of the communications media".

There was no comment from Mr O'Brien's spokesman on the BCI review.

Last year, the BCI prevented Mr O'Brien from buying Dublin station FM104 when he acquired its sister station Today FM.

IN&M objected to that deal on grounds of cross-media ownership, in submissions to the Competition Authority and to the Government.

Records released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act indicate that senior IN&M executives Gavin O'Reilly and Vincent Crowley met then minister for enterprise Micheál Martin in December when he was examining whether to approve the Today FM deal.

IN&M has sought changes to the Competition Act that would prevent any single person or firm controlling large parts of the print and broadcast media.

In April, Mr Martin established an inquiry into media ownership rules. The Government said this followed a call from the Competition Authority, which encountered difficulty when examining the Today FM deal because it did not have "the expertise" to decide plurality in the media.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times