Dr. Eddie Brennan:

I thank the Chairman and the joint committee for giving us this opportunity to address it in the context of forthcoming legislation. I am the chairman of Dublin Community Television, DCTV. I am joined by Mr. Ciaran Moore, the former manager of DCTV, and Ms Marilyn Hyndman, the manager of Northern Visions TV in Belfast.

The activities of our colleagues involved in community radio predate ours and we learned much from them. They raised points about the need for reliable funding. Funding that recognises the need to cover training and mentoring, as well as the cost of content production, is an essential part of supporting community media. In this presentation I will quickly outline our view of community television and its social significance. To further the benefits to be gained from community television, we propose two ideas to be considered by the committee in the context of forthcoming legislation. The first concerns the creation of local funding for community broadcasting. The second concerns the delivery of a national community channel alongside three other Saorview channels.

I will speak briefly about the social benefits of community broadcasting. For almost a century, broadcasting has helped to integrate local and national communities. For example, the papal visit in 1979 and the 1990 World Cup created a sense of a shared experience and identity. Today, such shared media events are rare. With a multiplication of channels, platforms and viewing options, people now share very few media experiences. The media ties that have helped to bind local and national communities are unravelling. Social media like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook allow people to voice opinions, offer arguments and showcase their creativity. They allow them to speak as active producers, rather than remaining passive consumers, as in the case of old media. People now commonly expect media to be participatory and give them a voice. Unfortunately, these platforms can also tend towards atomisation and a polarised cacophony of opinion without any real debate. Social media allow everyone to speak. However, they offer no guarantee that one will be heard. Community broadcasting offers a compromise position between people being integrated but passive, as in the case of traditional models of broadcasting, and active and atomised in terms of new social media.

DCTV has worked hard to make engaging, well produced programmes. It is important to mention that, as in the case of community radio, DCTV is owned by a co-operative. It is owned by its members. Its key objectives are empowerment, diversity and participation. The process of making television, training people and building skills and confidence in local communities is central. It is often more important than the popularity, critical reception or technical polish of the finished product. Over six years, more than 3,000 people were involved in producing hundreds of hours of television with DCTV. We have included a list of notable productions in supporting material for the committee's consideration. While this television may have had varying production values and audience appeal, we tried to ensure it was "good television" in the sense that it empowered those who made it. This raises a key limitation in policy and funding which, to date, has been guided by an understanding of "good television" that is limited to programmes as they appear on screen. Policy has effectively been blind to the benefits of engaging people in production, training them in media literacy and making them active producers rather than passive receivers of media content.

With this in mind, we offer two proposals. The first concerns local funding. DCTV believes local funding can facilitate an alignment between community broadcasting, education and community development. Community television needs support, training and mentoring to be built into its costing model. We believe there is an opportunity for a local fund to accompany the national broadcasting fund to be managed by existing structures at local level. Media for social benefit should form an important part of the new local economic and community plans for each area. We propose that a local public service broadcasting fund be created, keeping a percentage of the public service broadcasting charge in the area in which it is collected. This would help to build media skills and develop community and local broadcasting all over Ireland. When combined with the local community development programme and Leader funding, this would offer a way to build digital and creative skills in all of our communities.

I now turn to our proposal for an all-island community channel. DCTV has followed the creation of digital terrestrial television, DTT, with interest. The Broadcasting Act 2009 set out that two digital channels would be devoted to the Oireachtas and film. These have not materialised - in large part because of carriage fees that must be paid to RTE Networks, now 2rn, to recoup the cost of building a digital transmission system. Ironically this means that Ireland's expensive DTT infrastructure is badly underused. There are only eight channels on Saorview, unlike international averages of more than 40 channels on national digital platforms. As community broadcasters, we propose that more imaginative use be made of money from the broadcasting charge to cover the cost of four new Saorview channels. In addition to the Oireachtas and film channels mentioned in Chapter 6 of the 2009 Act, we also advocate the creation of a community channel and an arts channel. Based on the Department's review of the cost of the Oireachtas channel, we believe an allocation of €5 million per year from the public service broadcasting charge would see four new channels added to Saorview. This would strengthen the service availed of by more than 350,000 people and create space for innovation and community development. Already, a consortium made up of Northern Visions in Belfast and DCTV, with support from Cork Community Television, has submitted a combined expression of interest in establishing an all-island channel to the BAI. This was favourably received. Such a channel would offer an exciting opportunity for communities all over the island of Ireland. An all-island community channel would empower communities by carrying their programmes. It would also ensure their voices were heard by providing national television coverage on Saorview, Freeview, cable and a range of mobile and digital solutions. This facilitation of grassroots discussion and debate would be a valuable contribution to local democracy and civil society on the island of Ireland. It would also support the ongoing efforts under the Good Friday Agreement which addresses relationships within Northern Ireland and between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

I would like to reiterate that community television contributes to society by representing and empowering diverse communities. We would suggest to the committee that a combination of local funding and a national community channel would best realise the opportunities that community television presents. I thank the members of the committee for their time and we will respond to any questions they may have later.