Bauer Media Group is a prominent multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Germany, with a substantial international presence in radio, television, print, and online markets, and an annual revenue of €2.2 billion. Bauer Media Group is Europe’s number 1 magazine publisher with over 400 magazines, as well as the number 1 commercial radio broadcaster on the continent, with over 150 stations. They have the highest circulation and reach in Germany, The UK and Poland. The group claims to have 200 million readers and listeners worldwide.

Bauer Media Group's history dates back to 1875 when it was founded in Hamburg, as Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG, a printing business. The company has been family owned ever since, and is now in its 5th generation. Throughout the 20th century, the company diversified its operations and expanded its reach by venturing into magazine publishing and acquiring several popular titles covering a range of areas, including women’s weeklies (Bella, Take a Break, That’s Life), TV Guides (TV Choice, Total TV Guide) and film and music magazines (Empire, Q, Kerrang).

In the early 21st century, Bauer’s expansion was driven by a decision to enter the radio broadcasting industry through its subsidiary Bauer Media Audio. Bauer acquired popular radio stations across a number of countries, including the UK, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. 

Bauer Media Ireland

In the Irish market, the Bauer Media Group is operating through their subsidiary Bauer Media Audio Ireland. Bauer has established a strong presence through their acquisition of Communicorp, Ireland’s largest independent Radio group. The acquisition in June 2021 allowed Bauer to add several popular Irish radio stations to their portfolio: Today FM, Newstalk, 98FM, Spin 1038 and Spin Southwest (as well brands such as AudioXI, Go Loud, Off the Ball and Media Central). Since June 2021 Bauer has added two further stations to their group, Cork’s RedFM in November 2022 and iRadio in August 2023.

Through this acquisition Bauer Media Group also acquired the country's only national radio newswire, which provides national news services to 28 Independent local stations including iRadio, Nova, Mid‐West Radio, Northern Sound and Midlands 103, as well as the stations owned by the Wireless Group. As a result, Bauers content reaches 2.4 million people daily, almost double the reach of RTE.