Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

In respect of Senator Norris's point about radio advertising, the same principle applies. Radio has an even more powerful effect. The connection to the radio in our kitchen, car or bedroom is far stronger in many ways. It goes right into one's mind and is a connection that is particularly important to the Irish people. In every house in this country throughout the day and evening, people return to radio as a key communication in their lives.

It is appropriate for us to define and limit the advertising input, not because I am against advertising, but because it breaks that communication. The one thing about radio advertising that irritates me is when the advertising break is too long. I get deeply frustrated because I want to get back to the communication for which I am looking. It could well be in the short-term interest of a particular station to apply such a policy but it is not in the long-term interests of radio in this country. It is our job as regulators to set the long-term interest.

I imagine that there is a world of difference between radio advertising between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., and 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. If I was an advertising manager and was given complete freedom, I would stack my advertising between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. because my audience is much larger. Perhaps I would not do so if I was the controller of the station in the long run. I do not want to hear more than ten minutes of advertising while I am putting toast on, feeding the kids and am in a hurry. In such situations I want the content and the connection. In those circumstances, it is right for us to put a limit on advertising in the long-term interests of radio and television in this State. We must recognise that there is a limited pool so that those stations that are the best and get the largest audiences will get the higher price for an advertising slot to make them commercially viable. Simply spreading it out into larger and more flexible mechanisms will not necessarily expand the pool of advertising that is available.

I appreciate the chance to speak on the concept of the film channel in respect of this amendment. It is a new channel in a new broadcasting era. We have what is known as the long tail in communication terms. Previously the vast majority of the population's broadcasting viewing, listening or reading was concentrated on a small number of channels and outlets. This is changing radically with the development of the Internet where one can access a range of different channels and supplies of books. One is not limited to one's local bookshop anymore because one has a huge choice available on the Internet and through different providers. One's interest might be in a very small and specific niche area but it can now be served.

This is a similar concept in terms of the development of the film channel. We are not necessarily looking for a mass audience. Within such a channel, we will often look for niche audiences that might not otherwise be served in a commercial television world. We have the opportunity with such a channel to show world cinema. This might be of real interest to certain immigrant communities in this country.

Senator Mullen asked whether we would have programming with a religious content. We could look for something that some people might consider to be an utterly non-commercial niche area in which nobody is interested. With this channel, we could have a slot where one could show such a film that might be of interest. I do not want to restrict the editorial freedom of the organisers of this channel by putting commercial advertising into that mix. As sure as night follows day, that would colour some of the editorial decisions one would make in terms of what niches one wants to serve, whether it is commercial or what sort of viewership one will get.

It is far better for us to create a new public service channel that will be very creative in how its resources can be used. Advertising will not pay for such a channel but the channel could take advertising revenue from some of the other channels that are already dividing up that pie. This channel will not be expensive to run. The reason one gets this long tail development is that the cost of digital platforms is a minute fraction of what it cost previously to broadcast a television channel. This is particularly so when one is dealing with something like film where one has long sections with the material already available so one does not have to do considerable production or processing work with it.

As a State, we have already invested hundreds of millions of euro in tax breaks for the film industry and other support measures we have given to studios. We have hundreds of films gathering dust in the archive that will never be used unless we take them out, convert them to digital form and give them a platform. The costs are minimal. We are talking about a small studio space that allows a simple introduction facility and gives viewers a short history of a film, for example, that it was made in 1950 in Waterford. Perhaps only 5,000 people will watch it. Perhaps only Waterford will tune in that night but that is a great service to the people there. One goes to the Waterford newspapers and says "Do you know what is coming up next week? A picture made here back in 1950." Otherwise, the film will not be shown but it will be of interest to those 5,000 people and would be a real service. Perhaps 5,000 Chinese people would watch a Chinese film in the afternoon. Perhaps we will go to the colleges involved in making all sorts of short films and productions and tell them they can put them up on our film channel. Perhaps only 1,000 relatives, friends and college mates of the people who made that film will watch it, but they will be proud because their work has been shown.

Those are the possibilities we have in this new long tail broadcasting environment. More than anything else, film fits into it because it is an hour and a half of production that is already available to us. We will not be making films; we will show them. This can be done very cheaply and is better without advertising because it gives us real freedom to be creative and innovative and to provide thinking television.