Emerald - Ireland's first commercial television channel. It lanuched on March 2nd 1992, and broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. The channel mainly broadcasts entertainment programmes, such as reality television, game shows and dramas. It also broadcasts its own news service - Emerald News, which has 10 regional bureaus across Ireland. Emerald News uses content from APTN, Reuters, CNN and ENEX, as well as resources of Channel i News in UK.
News times:
Weekdays:
06:00-09:30 (every 30 mins, 4-6 min)
12:00-12:30 (27 min)
17:30-18:00 (27 min)
18:30-19:00 (27 min)
22:00-22:35 (32 min)
00:00-00:25 (20 min)
Weekends:
07:00-09:30 (every 30 mins, 4-6 min)
12:00-12:30 (27 min)
17:30-18:00 (27 min)
18:30-19:00 (27 min)
22:00-22:35 (32 min)
00:00-00:25 (20 min)
Nitro - a "premium entertainment channel" for a widespread audience. It is mainly targeted at males aged between 20 and 59. It lanuched on January 1st 2012.
The channel airs many old American series and films, but also first runs of some American series and original programming as well as an three-hour kids programming block from 7am to 10am.
EmeraldBE - female-oriented channel with an emphasis on lifestyle programming, as well as chat shows, dramas, and soaps. It lanuched on March 8th 2006.
iNews - Irish feed of UK's 24-hour rolling news channel.
The Sound - Irish nationwide radio station broadcasting rich blend of easy listening/classic gold music and entertaining conversation. It lanuched on September 4th 1989.
The station’s music format is easy listening, blended with a mix of credible news and current affairs, sports and entertainment.
The Sound is unique and original sound for Ireland – defined by personality presenters and easy listening/classic gold music.
The Sound is live 24 hours a day, and broadcasts custom-targeted news bulletins around the clock. With its unique, dedicated radio news centre, backed by the impressive news resources of UND Media, Irish radio has plurality in the national news market.
The Sound News focuses on stories of national and international relevance.
Each hourly bulletin lasts for 4 minutes. The Sound also includes 10-minute extended news bulletins at 7am, 8am, 9am, 12pm and 6pm, with an 8-minute bulletin at 10pm. 3-minute news bulletins are broadcasted at 6:30am, 7:30am, 8:30am, 4:30pm and 5:30pm and weekdays at 12:30pm, 1:30pm and 6:30pm.
All news bulletins typically include at least one major sports story. In addition, Sports Desk provides a 2-minute summary scheduled in each 6am, 7am, 8am, 1pm, 4pm, 5pm, 6pm and 10pm bulletin on weekdays.
At weekends, Sports Desk is scheduled in every hour from 6am to 7pm inclusive and at 10pm, with duration of 2 minutes.
Mix FM - targets and serves 15-34 year olds in the north-east, midlands, north-west and west with a compelling mix of music and speech currently unavailable on any local or regional station.
Mix FM broadcasts live 24 hours a day, every day of the year, providing a consistent mix of music, news and information day and night.
Mix FM plays a consistent and demonstrably popular mix of music, majoring on current top-20 hits but also featuring a significant proportion of older music.
Mix FM broadcasts news every hour of the day and night, live. News is sourced locally through Mix FM’s own newsroom, nationally and internationally through Emerald newsroom.
Mix FM's vision is ... Intelligent, Creative Entertainment ... for people under-35s. In fact this highlights the need for balanced, lively output which is just as appealing to young families as it is to those of late school or early college years.
In terms of music, Mix FM plays just as much music as any rival - the space freed up for more meaningful content being created by a radical curtailment of vacuous presentation content rather than any short-changing of music needs.
The Mix FM's creative challenge is to synthesise contemporary music-driven entertainment with a new style of “real-life” presentation and content.
Entertainment is at the heart of the Mix FM programming mission. Our emphasis on topicality doesn’t mean that we are going to be preachy or unduly serious. People love music, fun and good company and Mix FM delivers this in a style which is always good-humoured and lively.
At iceFM we break the mould in the provision of national and international news by drawing on the resources of Emerald News. We believe our listeners want a refreshing voice in the provision of news but one that is well resourced, reliable, trustworthy - and with a national reputation for producing quality news and information in a relevant and contemporary style.
In addition to this great resource we produce our own unique 24-hour regional local news and information at the Mix FM studios in Maynooth, staffed by news reporters who have on-the-ground local knowledge of the broadcast area, collecting and breaking a full range of stories of relevance to our target market.
Uniquely, Mix FM provides its news service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - a commitment unparalleled to date in our independent local radio sector. Along with our full schedule of “live” presentation this provides an “always there” buzz to the radio station which we see as a key point of difference and an important aspect of compelling “full-time” rather than “part-time” broadcasting.
Mix FM is “always there” for listeners with a full service of both information and entertainment.
Mix FM has the capacity to broadcast live at the scene of breaking national news stories across Ireland using Emerald's news gathering trucks which travel the length and breadth of the country every day of the year. Major foreign news stories are also covered by Emerald News staff.
With national and international news comprehensively covered and sourced from Emerald, Mix FM News brings a localised relevance to our listeners with the resources of our dedicated team of local editors and reporters based at our studios in Maynooth. Our reporters spend most of their time out on the road covering local stories across the region and feeding their reports back into the station’s newsdesk where local content and Emerald- sourced content is compiled and read locally as mixed bulletins.
Our local reporters work from the newsroom at our central studios in Maynooth and from our offices in Cavan and Athlone, where they source local and regional stories, conduct telephone interviews and provide travel, weather and other regional information to our on-air presenters. We’ll also encourage our listeners to call us, text us or e-mail us with any local news stories from their part of the region for possible inclusion in our news updates once the stories have been checked and verified.
No matter how hard any news organisation may try – it can never be in all of the places all of the time when a big news story breaks. That’s why we have an extra layer of local and regional news coverage provided by a team of established freelance journalists and court reporters spread across the region. These news stringers are retained on an on-going basis to provide back-up cover to our team of staff journalists.
The 7-day Mix FM news schedule is consistent across the week. For optimum reliability from the listener’s perspective 5-minute “live” news is always broadcast at 55 minutes past the hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. At 06:45, 12:45, 17:45, 18:45 and 23:45 each day the Mix FM extended Update incorporates leading stories and issues in greater depth, concluding (again for reliability) with a five minute summary at 55 minutes past the hour. 3-minute Breakfast headlines are scheduled at 0625, 0725, and 0825. At 1225, 1725, 1825 and 2325 brief headlines provide a preview of the “News Brief” twenty minutes later.
Unquestionably, sports news is a major component of a quality news and information service for listeners throughout the region. Mix FM brings a fresh and dynamic approach to this aspect of speech content not just during peak hours but through the night as part of our unique 24 hour news service.
For national sports events, iceFM draws on the resources of Emerald Sport with its fully staffed team of journalists who cover major stories and events 7 days a week. But locally, and throughout our franchise area we deploy our own news staff to cover the big sports stories that matter to our listeners - most notably Gaelic games, rugby and soccer.
Whilst our research clearly shows a desire and a need for sports news, our core demographic of 15 to 34 year olds are also quite forthright in their views that sports news should not overtake the principle function of a music-based station. Simply put, they want the big sports stories, both local, national and international encapsulated in a sharp, snappy and professionally presented package which forms part of normal news coverage each and every hour of the day – that’s what they’ll get from Mix FM.
Mix FM sport forms part of our scheduled news service 24 hours a day, unique and unlike other local, regional and national independent radio operators. Content will include local reports from staff reporters and stringers and international sound bites and audio reports from the resources of the Emerald sports department.
The service is concise, with all the information that sports fans need, but without the level of detailed analysis and debate that has sports-haters and sports-sceptics reaching for the “off” button. This reflects a balanced view of our research findings.
All sports news is scheduled as a part of “The Update” - our branding for information bulletins containing news, sport, weather and travel news.
Our regularly scheduled current affairs is programmed under 4 themes:
The Update is our main news and information “branding”. The Update sequence delivers news, sport, weather and travel with each bulletin structured to be impactful and well produced to bring bulletins within the overall station sound. By incorporating sport, weather and travel into the same sequence we will achieve thorough information provision while avoiding excess clutter interrupting music flow. The Update is a “live” 24-hour commitment providing the region’s only dedicated “always there” news service.
Bulletin Board is our hourly community information and social action bulletin, including charitable and voluntary sector information. We cover a full range of issues targeted for relevance to an under-35 audience. Ensuring relevance across the 15-34 age group and geographically across the region, the agenda will include but not be confined to the conventional “youth” issues of the 15-24s and 15-19s particular. The region is a diverse market and we are just as interested in adult education, young family matters, agricultural issues and rural deprivation as we are in the standard “sex and drugs and alcohol” issues which deserve coverage but are just a small part of the broader under-35 agenda. As with news and speech content generally, contemporary production values and crisp, clear writing is a priority to ensure that we are responsive to our local communities but without slipping into parochialism.
LiveGuide is our regular “what’s on” service, broadcast “live” throughout programming, day and night. We are looking for the broadest possible range of entertainment events ensuring that music of all kinds, comedy, film, arts and culture are covered in the definitive guide to the region. If it’s happening in our patch, we’ll be talking about it with a minimum target of 40 events on-air every day from every corner of the region. Big events in Dublin will also be part (but not the focus) of the agenda, with much of the region within easy or reasonable travelling distance of the capital.
Your Shout is our content theme exploring “user-generated” content and listener involvement generally. Whereas programme production in the past has been dominated by the broadcaster, the “digital native” generation expects the more responsive Internet based philosophy of participation and even provision to “broadcast yourself”. To remain relevant, radio needs to catch up fast and break down some of the barriers between producers and consumers. Often radio lags behind in this process. Potentially our listeners are not just our eyes and ears in their own local and cultural communities - but also maybe tomorrow’s home-grown stars. And if they can’t become part of the production process then increasingly they may wander off towards new media where they can be involved.
From a starting point of traditional vox pops, text polls, phone comment lines, and on-air phone participation, we aim to move rapidly towards a more listener-led philosophy developing local personalities as part of the on-air family. For compliance reasons, all user generated content is either recorded or delayed on transmission to ensure it is both legal and decent.
LiveCity is a personality driven talk radio station and a credible news service, which is targeted at all adults with its core being 25 to 44 year olds. LiveCity is characterised by the excellence of its local, national and international news and information, as well as lively and entertaining talkback radio. Our priority is to establish the truth. Thereafter, we seek to react speedily and to provide credible sourced content based on accurate evidence.
Our philosophy is to know our listeners and to serve them. All top-class media is about service.
Ultimately our listeners want their lives to be enriched by listening to our station.
This isn’t a grandiose aspiration. Rather it is an acknowledgement of the fact that our listeners live in a world where multiple voices and opinions compete for their attention.
Our aim is to take these voices and opinions – and the vested interests that they represent – and distil the “babble” into cogent, crisp and defining discussion for Ireland.
LiveCity's newsroom is the engine room of the station. News is a crucial element of the overall service and it continues to occupy a pivotal role. Consistently high standards will be demanded from our dedicated and experienced team of journalists.
We cover all major news events and will inject news updates and analysis to all programmes across the LiveCity schedule. The news team prepares edited packages and interviews, with high production values, throughout the day.
Our schedule allows the flexibility to replace existing programmes with breaking news.
Our aim is to serve the listener, to deliver every hour and day the sort of news, analysis and comment that informs, entertains and is relevant to the listener.
Our daily programme schedule features inputs from a wide variety of sources, politicians, trade unionists and the ordinary person on the street. The news team will take every relevant comment from these potential newsmakers and insert them into our bulletins. The flexible nature of our programming schedule, allows us to get all major news makers to air faster than our competitors.
In summary, the relationship between news and programming staff works two ways:
- Stories broken during programmes will be carried in news
- Interviews and reports conducted by news room reporters will be broadcast in programmes.
LiveCity provides a fresh mix of National, Regional, Local and World news 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Sport and weather is included in every bulletin.
There are 48 daily bulletins on the hour and half hour.
:00 - 5-minute (3-minute 45-seconds News, 45-second Sport headlines & 30-seconds Weather)
:30 - 4-minute (2-minute News, 2-minute Sport bulletin)
We also include 90-second news headlines on the quarter hour from 5am to 9am and 3pm to 6pm, along with extended 15-minute news bulletins at 1pm and 6pm.
We broadcast traffic updates before the news at the top of each hour and during headlines on the half hour at breakfast and drive-time.
LiveCity offers listeners fresh insights on big global issues and trends in international politics and business. It brings the listener a new take on entertainment and sports. It opens up debate in an objective but lively way. It enters a world of new ideas in a non-judgemental way.
Today is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on June 1st 1950. Today is published every day except Sundays.
Today is a significant national broadsheet newspaper for Ireland challenging conventional choices. It offers a vital, refreshingly objective approach to national and international news and current affairs with journalists who are recognised experts in business, finance, politics, law, technology, property, sport, culture, health and topics of general interest.
Today enjoys a unique reputation for the quality delivery of news to our readers in Ireland and beyond.
Delivering national and international news from the readers’ viewpoint.
Local, National and International sport, the number one source of Sports coverage in Ireland
The Paper is independently owned and speaks independently. Within Ireland the title is recognised as a quality newspaper that reflects the full range of life in Ireland today.
A varied team of columnists and contributors from across the entire political and social spectrum express their views through the Irish News each day.
The paper is involved in reconciliation work between the communities in Ireland and has been honoured for its outstanding contribution to the newspaper industry. Today's impartiality and balance have been singled out for special mention.
Today, on a regular basis, publishes specific advertising supplements which, due to their focused content, act as an ideal conduit for potential advertisers to reach their target market.
Supplements:
Thursday - Farming Diary: 32-page farming and agribusiness supplement
Property: covers the nationwide market for businesses and investments on the move.
Friday - GoodShape: covers health and lifestyle issues with the female reader in mind.
Money&Business: key business events as they happen, supported by economic and industry experts who provide comment on the broader aspects of the domestic, international business and economic scene.
Saturday - Today Magazine: 40-page magazine - life and soul of the weekend. Your weekly guide to TV, Radio.