Individual Owners

Ownership is predominantly in the hands of men. The sample features 27 men as direct owners and a further five as heads of boards, as opposed to five women as direct owners and two as heads of boards (RTÉ & TG4). 

While some owners have a background in media, be it in an editorial or managerial role (like Lois Kapila, Sean Ashmore or Tom Lyons), others have no background in media beyond financial investment (like Enda O’Coineen, Derek Butler or Johnathan Harmsworth).

The considerable number of non-Irish ultimate beneficial owners featured in the database, comes as a result of acquisition of Irish companies by larger internationally operating media groups.

In some cases, media outlets are not owned by natural persons. In the case of the Irish Times DAC, the Board of Directors and the Trust stand in as owners, just like respectively the Board of News Corporation, and the Board of Reach PLC. In the case of public service media, the RTÉ Board stands in for RTÉ, the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission for Oireachtas TV, and the TG4 Authority for TG4.