Mr. Paul Farrell:

I will answer the first two questions, after which my colleague, Ms Ní Chaoindealbháin, will address the issues of local television and the international opportunity in technology and how those issues might play out. On funding and building and the point Mr. Esslemont made in that regard, my feeling is that not much more funding is required, if we are honest. What is needed is better management of the existing funding and how it is approved and delivered efficiently. That brings us back to the issue of transparency and accountability. As Mr. Esslemont said, if we add together the existing funding pillars in respect of Screen Ireland, the BAI's sound and vision scheme and the licence fee, with other money coming from the levy, a healthy model could be created which would allow local newspapers and radio stations to work together with television stations to create content that would resonate not only in Ireland but globally. Ms Ní Chaoindealbháin will address that matter in more detail.

On advertising, Virgin Media was about 30% down on normal revenue at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in mid-June. That meant we were going to lose a great deal of money given the nature of our business, which is fully dependent on the advertising market. However, it seems there has been a significant recovery in October and November, and December has been better again. November and December were the first two months in which the decline in revenue stopped and we had some growth year-on-year. We will still lose money this year but the decline will be approximately 20% compared with what we were seeing in September when it was estimated it would be between 25% and 35%. That is a positive change. We are expecting something of a bounce next year because of the estimated savings of around €12 billion in the market and the general momentum that will result from the confidence generated by the vaccine, whenever that is realised. Next year will be a little distorted, therefore, because we will get some degree of a bounce.

The reality for all media is that there is structural decline. Facebook and Google now account for 50% of the advertising market, and 80% of the digital market. There is a structural decline in traditional media, therefore, which means that advertising revenue will not grow. Once we come out of next year's bounce, we will start to see an annual decline of 1% or 2% as that money moves to digital. That is a challenge. In that context, we have spoken about a collaboration partnership and a move to digital and shared platforms. We have seen that in the form of BritBox in the UK, so there is no reason Irish content cannot find a way to come together in a similar way. As Mr. Esslemont said, we all spend a great deal of money supporting platforms, which is probably not the best use of that money. If we all came together, perhaps it would be easier for people to find the information they seek on a standard platform and the money saved could go into content and the existing ecosystem.