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Updated at 2pm
THE FUTURE ROLES of several reporters and newsreaders at UTV is unclear this afternoon, after Communicorp’s announcement that it will be taking over the broadcaster’s radio network service.
UTV Media Plc, which is due to launch a new TV station in January under the ‘UTV Ireland’ brand, currently runs the radio news service based at Macken House, near the East Link Bridge in Dublin.
Two of the media group’s Irish stations — FM104 and Q102 — are also headquartered there, and a team of reporters and newsreaders are employed by the service to send broadcast material out to a network of stations around the country, including 96FM in Cork and Live 95 FM in Limerick.
Five of the service’s full time news staff are moving to the new TV station before the end of the year. It’s understood UTV bosses made the decision to bring in Newstalk as a radio news provider as a money-saving option.
FM104 and Q102 will continue to have dedicated full-time newsreaders, but full-time and part-time staff employed to cover weekday and weekend reporting shifts have been left in the dark on the broadcaster’s future plans.
“This is all being done very casually,” a source close to one of the affected reporters told TheJournal.ie.
We don’t know anything at the moment, but tomorrow they said they might know more.
A number of “panicked decisions” had been made by radio bosses at the company in recent weeks, the source said.
Eight workers
It’s understood that eight people who are on casual or probationary deals will be affected by the decision. Most are part-time staff, and the nature of their contracts means they wouldn’t be entitled to redundancy.
Another source familiar with the situation said staff members had been given “vague” indications that some work may be available in the new TV set-up, but were being given no indication as to what would happen to them after this month.
The roster has been done up to the end of October, after that there’s nothing.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, UTV Radio Ireland CEO Ronan McManamy said there would be no redundancies as part of the move.
“In addition, individuals who currently provide services to the newsroom on a shift basis have been advised that their services will continue to be required going forward,” the statement said.
However, our sources said that the affected workers – some of whom work five days a week – had been given no promise of any employment past the end of next week.
They’d been given indications that there wouldn’t be enough work for them, once the change-over took place, one source said.
Reporters in local UTV stations outside of Dublin will be unaffected by the change.
Media group
UTV Media owns a total of six Irish radio stations and a number of stations and websites in the UK, including national broadcaster talkSPORT.
It also owns UTV Ireland, the soon-to-be-launched TV channel. The launch of the new station, which will also be based at Macken House, was announced in November of last year, with the promise of 100 jobs.
Interviews for news roles and other jobs at the new channel have been ongoing for the last number of months.
Network
Newstalk currently operates a network news service for 25 commercial stations around the country — including stations like 98FM, Red FM, Galway Bay and Radio Kerry.
Scripts and audio clips are sent out to the stations from the Dublin newsroom, to be read by in-house newsreaders who also add local detail to their bulletins.
In the evening, a newsreader based at Communicorp HQ in Marconi House reads news and sports bulletins on the hour, which are carried live by the local stations.
An identical service is run by UTV Media — however in that business model, all the local stations that use the service are directly owned by the media group.
An independent national news network, INN, closed down five years ago this month — prompting a competition between the two news providers to take over the service.
Communicorp won over the bulk of the stations in that battle, and media experts have speculated in recent years that UTV could eventually decide to close its service and sign-up with the Denis O’Brien-backed option in order to save on staff costs.
However, in his statement, the UTV Radio CEO insists:
We took the decision to move our national radio news provision to Newstalk to benefit from the collective strength of independent radio across Ireland.
The addition of the UTV group means Communicorp will be the sole news provider to every radio station operating in Ireland outside of RTÉ — 31 in total.
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Am I right in thinking that this means the news service for Newstalk, Today FM, FM104, Q102, UTV radio, Corks 96FM and LIVE 95 in limerick will now be controlled by Denis O’Briens company (and thats not even mentioning his control of the indo, herald, sunday world etc.)
Thank fcuk for social media.
Apologies for dupe post.
Thank fcuk for alternative media !
I’m starting to believe he owns rte as well at this stage!!
@Trevor
Alex White, a former employee of RTE is now the Minister for Communications. See my post below.
I’m sticking with IrishCentral.com and An Phoblacht for my news. Hopefully they remain free and independent.
Denis O Brien , the more you try and control the media the more people are finally waking up , so please please keep the good work up . You are all over out radar now like a rash , in what way do you think this is going to end well for you ?
Because like it or not our radio is now controlled by two heavily intertwined bodies! The Govt. and Dennis O’Brien! Media bias doesn’t come close to describing this new arrangement. Guess the reporting of the water debacle will be fairly sparse on the radio.
Where is Alex White on this? DOB is moving in on every media angle possible – newspaper, radio and now TV. I would be interested to know about any shareholding he has in social media stocks also. If you mention his name in a negative light at all, he sues you. In fact, he’s creating his own “Irish Firewall” which will censor any comment on him that doesn’t portray him in a good light.
I’ll be e-mailing him (alex.white@oir.ie) to ask him what the hell is going on. Feel free to do the same, even just to see what his response will be.
I’d sue too if I had his money and legal team. Why would you let people defame your name?
DOB is a credit to the media industry, investing in Irish talent and keeping stations such as newstalk and phantom/txfm going at a loss.
Get a grip Joe!
Phantom?
Well you are certainly delusional or on his payroll….
Dennis obrien trying to rule the north too
Am I right in thinking that this means the news service for Newstalk, Today FM, FM104, Q102, UTV radio, Corks 96FM and LIVE 95 in limerick will now be controlled by Denis O’Briens company, as well as his slew of newspapers?
Thank F*** for social media.
Were Jammin, you should be pleased.
This gives Sinn Fein another reason to shout about “anti Sinn Fein bias in the media”.
I doubt O Brien has much involvement in the day to day running of these media outlets. He is too busy running Irish Water.
Look what happened to Sam Smith at TodayFM
Sam Smith was going to be retired soon enough either way, and replaced with some young fella. That’s the nature of the business. Surprised they didn’t get somebody out of Westlife.
Would have been aiming too high.
They had to settle for Terry Prone’s son, Anton Savage instead. A great otucome for driving enthusiasts everywhere. A disaster for anybody interested in current affairs broadcasting
Sam Smiths ratings were in decline and the show was stale. Anton is decent and I wouldn’t hold the fact that he’s Terry Prone’s son against him. He did his time doing bit and pieces long before the sunday gig.
Replaced by FG spin doctor
Dennis o’brien creates 1000′s of direct and indirect jobs in this country. In many countries he would be praised. In ireland he is treated as if he is the devil incarnate
How many Irish Workers installing Water Meters for Sierra SiteServ
Thats true, but if you follow that logic then the same applies to google, facebook, intel etc. They have an international workforce in ireland. The only reason these companies are in ireland is for the low tax rates. They can employ the same people in a different country if they want
Is Dennis a Tax exile?
And this is important why?
Because you now have a certain billionaire and FG donor controlling even more of what news items make it onto the airwaves, and (more importantly) which ones DON’T make it onto the air.
Because company does thing to save money. No jobs are lost. Can’t you see why this is news?
Something Something Something Dennis O’Brien. #massiveconspiracy
You’re right, but how can someone “control news” in this day and age? Seriously. It’s incumbent on each of us to fully inform ourselves, by widely reading articles, opinions and editorials; to then critically analyse the content; before arriving at a reasoned conclusion as to the “truth” of the point in question. If all one does is listen like a dope to myopic, shallow and biased radio stations, regardless of how many they number, then God help us. Heard of Reuters, RT, France24, Bloomberg, Economist, Forbes, NewYorker, Spectator, etc etc? Do you even know what biases to expect from any of these, and how to recognise them? You only choose to let others “control news.”
Look what happened to Sam Smyth and his removal from Today FM if you wonder about how someone controls the news.
@Frederick
Not everyone has access to alternative news feeds, such as the elderly, hence the numbers that have signed up to IW. I was always raised on the theory, money isn’t power, information is!!
True, but everyone should have the ability to think critically.
Not when Denis O’Brien CONTROLS OUR THOUGHTS!
(somehow)
He’s doing a good job controlling yours Alan .
another crop of businesses run by ‘irelands murdoch’ to be boycotted then !
Denis the Menace.
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