From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Published on
Open for submissions from
Submissions closed
Last updated on
Consultation is closed
Under EU Regulations, member states are allowed to designate certain sporting and cultural events as being of major importance to society and to ensure that they are available on free to air television service on a live or deferred basis. The list is reviewed every three years to consider if the designated events still meet the criteria for inclusion and to examine the possibility of adding other events.
The first designation was made in March 2003 and the list has been reviewed three times since then. In both the 2006 and the 2011 reviews the list was unchanged. The outcome of the 2017 review was the inclusion of two additional events, the All Ireland Ladies Football and Camogie finals. The potential inclusion of Ireland’s games in the Six Nations on a live basis was also considered but it was decided to retain these on a deferred basis only as the event was available on a free to air basis under a deal between Virgin Media and the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) until the end of 2021.
To be considered for designation under the EU Regulations the event must satisfy at least two of the following four criteria relating to how important the event is to society:
In addition, the EU has minimum TV viewership criteria which must also be met. To achieve a designation the EU requires audiences of 5% of audience share for an event.**
Live:
Deferred:
The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media commenced a review of the listed events on Thursday 19 November 2020 and is inviting submissions from stakeholders and interested parties. The closing date for receipt of submissions is 14 January 2021.
Respondents are requested to provide responses to the questions set out in the online survey:
Responses can be submitted to the department via:
Respondents are asked to note that in responding to the consultation, where supplied consent is given to their name being published online with the submission. The department will redact personal addresses and personal email addresses prior to publication.
Please note that responses to this consultation are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2014. Confidential or commercially sensitive information should be clearly identified in your submission, however parties should also note that any or all responses to the consultation are subject in their entirety to the provisions of the FOI Acts and may be published on the website of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
* *Audience share is measured using Average Minute Rating from Television Audience Measurement (TAM) Ireland. TAM Ireland is made up of the majority of commercial broadcasters operating in Ireland and the main Irish media buying agencies. The average minute rating is calculated using the average number of TV viewers over each minute during the broadcast of an event expressed as a percentage of the population of Ireland over 4 years of age. For example, the GAA Senior Inter-county Football and Hurling Finals had an audience share of 21% and 17.7% in the period 2010-2015 while the Irish Grand National and the Nations Cup at the Dublin Horse Show achieved viewership of 5.2% and 4.2% in the same timeframe.