Yesterday’s engrossing podcast discussion between economists Stephen Kinsella and Gerard Brady explored new layers in Ireland’s well-documented two-tier economy: on the one hand, the volatile and entirely unpredictable nature of the State’s tax revenue, which has become dependent on decisions made by multinationals thousands of miles away; on the other hand, the slow but certain expansion and ageing of the Irish population that, thanks to the widespread experience of other European countries, can be confidently linked to inexorable rising public service costs for decades to come.

Another sector covered in detail by The Currency in the past week has for the past two decades illustrated this disconnect between Ireland as a foreign investment destination and the domestic economy, and that’s the media industry.

Behind gleaming façades in Dublin’s Silicon Docks, Google first gobbled up the advertising revenue previously collected by newspapers, in Europe and beyond, on what people were reading; then repeated the exercise through its acquisition and development of YouTube, applying it to what people were watching on television. Across Grand Canal Dock, Facebook had the genius idea of expanding this data-based advertising model to what people were saying to each other.

All the while, the Irish public continued to buy newspapers (less than in the past, but more than in other developed countries) and remained glued to RTÉ television and radio. Old Irish families and new Irish tycoons owned Irish media groups and tried to outbid RTÉ for household-name presenters with varying degrees of success. Self-owned publications like The Irish Times and the Farmers Journal diversified without causing any major restructuring of the market. British publishers News Corp, DMG and Reach did the same.

There were early signs of overseas interest when Schibsted took control of DoneDeal in 2011 and combined forces with the Fallon brothers’ Distilled Media (Daft.ie and Adverts.ie) four years later, but the Scandinavian group’s shopping spree remained focused on the classifieds space. In other words, very little changed in Ireland’s national media landscape.

Things began to move with the acquisition of TV3 by Liberty Global under the Virgin brand in 2015. Then, in the past four years, everything accelerated. Denis O’Brien an others sold Independent News and Media to the Dutch-Belgian group Mediahuis in 2019, and then he sold his Communicorp network of radio stations to Germany’s Bauer Media in 2021.

Swedish-based Bonnier News had first looked into INM a decade ago but quickly gave up on the company in the face of infighting between its Irish board members. Bengt Braun sat on that board and, in an interview with Tom on Friday, he remembered the toxic atmosphere at the time.

Last year, Bonnier acquired a minority stake in the Business Post Group. Braun has retired from his past positions as CEO and chair of the Swedish group but he knows well how it operates. Bonnier hardly ever buys a minority shareholding in an overseas media company without a plan to go deeper. “We start to talk to the other shareholders. We talk to management. And we try to analyse if it is something we can contribute to,” he said.

Braun paints the picture of a professional media business able to make decisive investment decisions and to listen to local managers in an effort to make the most of its expansion into new countries. This is reminiscent of Mediahuis and Bauer Media. There could be more similar groups from continental Europe used to operating across borders and interested in entering a new market.

Meanwhile, the payments crisis at RTÉ has precipitated a much-needed examination of the state broadcaster’s business model. As Fintan Drury recalled in his column on Thursday, a cabinet minister told him in the late 1990s that no politician would dare to tackle that issue, knowing that reforming RTÉ would take years and overspill into their re-election campaign. 

This has resulted in the state broadcaster being asked to do too much with too little funding for decades, with the corners cut in paying Tubridy, entertaining advertising clients or allowing stars to monetise their RTÉ-based image with car or porridge brands a symptom of a wider culture where working outside the façade of an unsustainable business model has become the norm. 

Both Fintan and Sean, in an in-depth analysis of the facts and figures emerging from RTÉ and comparable players in the global audiovisual industry, explain that deciding what RTÉ should do is a prerequisite to deciding how it should be funded.

Sean argues convincingly that the state broadcaster has an important role to play as Ireland’s national storyteller, through producing the news, entertainment shows or sports broadcasts that Irish audiences want. But he also warns that, in a digital world dominated by Netflix and YouTube, it is an illusion to believe that RTÉ will reach this audience on its own, by relying on the likes of the RTÉ Player.

He adds that, in the process, RTÉ is also missing out on the wider international audience that could enjoy its productions thanks to the reach of global streaming giants. One figure, in particular, struck me in Sean’s piece: The paltry €8.2 million generated by RTÉ in revenue from selling its own productions to other broadcasters. You only have to look up the road in Belfast to find Stellify, a relatively small producer of TV game shows with 50 per cent more sales.

Sean’s analysis reminded me of France 24, the Paris-based news channel where I started my career as a freelance journalist. As a public-service broadcaster, it puts its live 24/7 coverage on YouTube. In fact, even the video streams accessible on its own website are hosted by YouTube. 

During the week, I heard the results of an Ofcom survey showing that younger UK audiences both got their news primarily from social media apps led by TikTok, and trusted the BBC as their leading provider of news. That’s because the BBC publishes its news on TikTok. Ofcom happened to be, until recently, the employer of RTÉ’s new director general Kevin Bakhurst. He will certainly read the findings of his former colleagues with interest.

This is the new world order. European private media is consolidating into efficient, professional groups reaching across borders and languages. Public-service broadcasters need the technical and analytics capacity built up by digital multinationals to reach their audience.

There may be uncomfortable aspects to this reality. Ignoring it, however, is a recipe for failure.

*****

Elsewhere last week, Francesca reported on the curious case of a €5.8 million debt AIB has been pursuing against Galway farmer and horse breeder Justin Burke, only to find itself embroiled in a family dispute and claims of pressure and mental incapacity.

Also before the courts, a new case is emerging between Donal O'Mahony, one of the so-called Davy 16 involved in the controversial bond deal that precipitated the sale of Davy Stockbrokers, and LeBruin Private, the advisor to the bonds’ seller at the time. We have not yet seen the end of the ripples created by that scandal.

Rosanna reported on two transport sectors where companies are pitted against regulators.  Tense exchanges between e-scooter operators and the Department of Transport have included claims that proposed regulation will stop plans to launch scooter-sharing services in Ireland altogether. Meanwhile, France and the UK have both passed laws imposing the local minimum wage on ferries crossing the channel, some of which are operated by Irish Ferries.

Tom interviewed CircleRock founders Barry O’Neill and Conor Sharpe, who have invested €25 million on behalf of private investors in 14 European start-ups. Their individualised approach goes against the grain of the usual fund structure and the discussion of their business is well worth a read.