MAGAZINES
Around 320 indigenous titles are published in Ireland, all of which compete against UK titles. UK magazines capture around 75% of the market, with gossip weeklies providing stiff competition. The past year has seen a number of launches, including The Gloss, a new women's style magazine backed by The Irish Times. Another development is Harmonia's U magazine changing from monthly to fortnightly.
Richard Power, chairman of PPA Ireland and managing director of Image magazine, has seen 19.4% year-on-year circulation growth for the title, where substantial management and editorial improvements have been put into place over the past 18 months. According to UK publisher statements for July 2006, Image now outsells Vogue, Tatler and Harper's Bazaar combined. "Most Irish titles outsell their UK counterparts in every sector, but they have to fight to retain space at retail level," says Power.
The 2,000 retail newsagents in Ireland are soon to become involved in a major push for Irish magazines. Vincent Jennings, chief executive of the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association, believes that "in most instances, Irish-published magazines are best suited to Irish customers".
However, Tony Cantwell, chief executive of the Commercial Media Group, claims his company has altered the way b2b is perceived in the construction sector - the largest industry in Ireland - through its market-leading magazines and websites. But he adds: "The Irish b2b magazine market is still very fragmented and has a poor image."
RADIO
In radio, the biggest news is that Emap is likely to sell its two Dublin stations, Today FM and FM104, as well as Highland Radio in Co Donegal. Existing consolidation has seen players such as UTV relaunch its Dublin station, Q102, while Newstalk, which previously covered just Greater Dublin, now has a quasi-national licence.
Ann Corcoran, managing director of Dublin media agency Limetree, says: "It's great to have Newstalk on the pitch; it is hungry, offers good value and will do well. More competition is good for advertisers, as over the past eight months the ball has very much been in the suppliers' court. Radio campaigns now have to be booked six to eight weeks in advance."
RTE has reformatted 2FM and has made major changes to Radio 1; it is also planning to launch digital radio in Ireland, currently on test in the Dublin area. Commercial radio stations are also keen to join the digital revolution.
UK national commercial stations, including Classic FM, are available in Ireland. One of these national stations, TalkSport, is owned by Belfast-based UTV, which is offering local opt-outs in Northern Ireland for local advertisers. UTV also launched a new station for Belfast last year, Q105, which now has a weekly reach of 72,000.
Antony Whittall, commercial director, RTE Radio, claims Ireland's radio listenership is among the highest in the western world, with 85% of adults tuning in each weekday and all three of RTE's main radio channels showing listener growth. Ad revenues are also continuing to increase, not just for RTE Radio, but for all radio: 9% of all adspend in Ireland goes to radio, compared to 5-6% across Europe.
NEWSPAPERS
Perhaps surprisingly, the advance of the internet has not sparked a decline in either newspaper circulation or advertising: national press still accounts for almost half of the entire adspend in the Republic. However, apart from the Irish Independent, there has been no rush to switch broadsheets to tabloid size, as has happened in the UK market.
In the daily market, the catalyst for competition has been the Irish Daily Mail, where Ted Verity, editor-in-chief, is pleased with reader reaction, with sales of around 70,000 per day. Sales have been at the expense of other tabloids, most notably the Irish Sun, which has seen a 16% year-on-year fall in circulation. The Daily Mirror has lost sales in the Republic and gained sales in the North, taking its overall sales to around 133,000 per day, while sales of the Irish Daily Star have slipped slightly. Verity says: "Readers seem to like the papers we're offering - they're a bit edgier."
At Independent News & Media, the main player in the daily market, chief executive Vincent Crowley says: "We are pleased to be holding our own, with stable circulations for the Irish Independent, the Evening Herald, The Sunday Independent and the Sunday World. There has been no decrease in property and recruitment advertising, despite the slowdown in the property market and a general slowdown in the economy."
Recent innovations have been the appointment of Ian Byrne in the new role of managing director of Independent Digital, and the group's new £20m print plant in Newry.
Over at The Irish Times, considered by many readers and advertisers to be the only quality indigenous broadsheet in the market, circulation slipped slightly in the last six months of 2006, but has held steady this year, with double-digit growth in advertising over 2006 and into the first quarter of 2007. One new project at The Irish Times is a monthly business magazine called Business Ireland, launched in February.
Aside from the Irish Daily Mail, major influences on the market include Dublin's two freesheets, Herald AM, which distributes around 90,000 copies per day, and Metro. Lee Thompson, chief executive of Metro, says: "Despite Independent News & Media launching a spoiler product on our launch day, Metro has carved out a position as greater Dublin's quality free newspaper, with 70% of advertising booked through agencies."
While much of the competition has focused on the daily market, the Sundays are equally dynamic. The Irish Star on Sunday seems to have finally turned the corner, while the Irish Mail on Sunday is selling around 130,000 copies per week, having made a seamless transition from the former Ireland on Sunday. At the quality end of the market, The Sunday Times continues to perform well, selling around 110,000 copies weekly, with its cover-price hike having had little effect, unlike in the UK.
The Sunday advertising market is equally competitive. Limetree's Ann Corcoran cites the case of The Sunday Times magazine, which she claims recently offered a spot with a full rate-card value of EUR1,600 for just EUR200. She says: "The increase in press competition has had a downward effect on rates. This increased competition is good for advertisers and has shocked newspapers into working harder for their money."
OUTDOOR AND CINEMA
Last year, Ireland's outdoor market was worth EUR176m, with just over EUR133m of the ad spend in the Republic. Growth in the outdoor sector this year is expected to be between eight and 10%.
Traditionally, beer, cider and soft-drink brands have been most active in outdoor; however, over the past couple of years, telecoms and the financial sector have been growing steadily. According to Adrian O'Farrell, marketing director of Titan Outdoor Ireland, which holds the Coras Iompair eireann franchise (Dublin Bus, Bus eireann, Irish Rail and Dublin Area Rapid Transport), transit advertising is the fastest-growing outdoor category, with sales up 35% last year.
Outdoor's evolution to out-of-home advertising is helped by developments such as ultraviolet light. Grainne McMenamin, marketing manager of JCDecaux Ireland, says: "Advertisers are increasingly interested in what new technologies have to offer."
The recent general election in the Republic, held on 24 May, saw a spending spree on advertising of about EUR3.5m, around two-thirds of which benefited outdoor, with the rest going on press ads. Radio and television cannot take political advertising.
Cinema is another important medium in Ireland, with some of the highest levels of admissions in Europe. Since 1990, the number of cinema screens in Ireland has grown from 171 to 413 and ad revenues are growing strongly, up 11% on 2006. Next year, Ireland is due to become the first country in the world to convert all its cinemas to digital.
Cassandra Joyce, client sales account manager at Carlton Screen Advertising, which controls more than 90% of the market, says: "Digital projection will help advertisers, further reducing production costs and lead times. Cinema is developing strongly, not only among 15 to 34-year-olds, but also older family audiences."
TELEVISION
The main issue for Irish television is airtime inflation at RTE. Limetree's Ann Corcoran explains: "Media inflation at RTE Television ran at 42% in April and is forecast to hit 49% in May. Clearly, RTE has too much demand." Despite increased competition and the growth of digital platforms in Ireland, RTE increased its share of viewing and ad revenues last year. Like most other broadcasters, it is constantly reviewing the mobile, IPTV and video-on-demand markets, both in terms of content and commercial opportunities.
At TV3, now owned by private equity group Doughty Hanson, which also backs Setanta Sports, the mood is buoyant, with advertising sales showing growth "above expectations". Pat Kiely, director of sales and marketing, says: "Following the buyout last year from CanWest, ITV and the original shareholders, our first task was to finalise long-term agreement for ITV shows such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale. TV3 is now number two in the Irish market, after RTE 1."
TV3 is also looking to expand its Irish-made programming; it has won the exclusive terrestrial rights in Ireland to this year's Rugby World Cup. Under the station's new chief executive, David McRedmond, TV3 is planning to diversify into the radio market, and it has opened its own London sales office in Great Portland Street. "After eight years working closely with ITV, we decided the time was right to deal directly with our clients there," Kiely explains. A candidate to run the new office will be named shortly.
In addition, TV3 started handling sales in Ireland for Living TV in October last year. Living TV had been available in Ireland for some time, but was able to launch itself as an opt-out channel after it secured carriage rights on NTL analogue. Since then, according to Gavin Johnson, communications manager at Virgin Media sales house IDS, "the channel has gone from strength to strength in Ireland". Johnson does not rule out the possibility of launching another channel from the Virgin Media TV or UKTV portfolios in the near future.
Another success story is Setanta Sports, now available in half the homes in Ireland. Unlike other channels, the broadcaster's income is based largely on subscriptions, rather than advertising. Setanta has broken RTE's hold on Irish sporting events and is rumoured to be gearing up to be the exclusive online broadcaster of the 2012 Olympics.
But despite the structural changes to the market, Initiative Dublin's research manager Louise Fitzpatrick says TV advertising is still "not competitive enough". She adds: "The market is still dominated by RTE, which accounts for two-thirds of all TV ad spend, but only half of all commercial impacts. The smaller stations are fighting for an ever-decreasing share of the market, with more stations scrapping for the bottom 10% of revenue."
CHANNEL 6 COMES OUT FIGHTING
Channel 6, a terrestrial channel launched in March 2006, has entered into furious rows with both Nielsen and Sky.
According to Nielsen, Channel 6's share of the 15 to 34-year-old audience is just over 1%. However, Pat Donnelly, chairman of Channel 6, claims that Nielsen shows the channel's audience share has been declining, instead of increasing.
He says: "We've reached the view that the Nielsen audience measurement system is wholly inappropriate to the Irish market and as a relevant planning tool for advertisers, it is effectively junk."
However, Fred O'Connell, general manager of AGB Nielsen Media Research, Dublin, says independent audits of the service show it is very good, although the industry would like a bigger panel. "We've all finally agreed on the new panel size, so we are champing at the bit to put it in place."
Donnelly's gripe with Sky is that the broadcaster is offering disproportionate discounts to its market share. He claims that, in Britain, Sky sells its advertising at 55% of the rate charged by the market leader, ITV, whereas in Ireland it sells its commercials for 15% of the rates charged by the market leader, RTE. Sky is the fourth most expensive platform in the marketplace, after RTE, TV3 and TG4.
A spokesperson for Sky said: "Ireland is a different market to the UK, so we have to charge differently. Airtime costs are about 50% of their UK equivalents and press ads cost more than TV. To suggest that we should behave in the same commercial way as the UK is ludicrous."