Cuideachtaí Meán

Establishing global ultimate ownership of media is relatively straightforward due to regulatory support for publicly accessible ownership databases. However, there is less transparency regarding concentration due to the inconsistent availability of financial data across different media. While there are no legal obligations for companies to make their annual reports and financial statements publicly available online, some do so voluntarily.

While some companies are pure players, most of them conduct business beyond media. Some venture in small advertisements - like the Irish Times with myhome.ie and recruitireland, Distilled. in daft.ie, doneDeal.ie and gumtree.ie, or Mediahuis in Carzone or switcher.ie.
> Read more in the Findings on Advertising and Journalism

Other companies venture in services related to the media industry - like Bauer's radio news wire and digital marketing services, or Mediaforce's / Formpress' advertising and printing business.
> Read more in the Findings on Hidden Market Concentration

While almost all companies have a legal entity in Ireland, many have parent-companies abroad (e.g. DMG Media Ireland is the Irish subsidiary of the British Daily Mail and General Trust,  Bauer Media Audio Ireland is the Irish subsidiary of the German Bauer Media Group Ltd.). Exceptions are News Corporation’s unclear set-up of ‘News Ireland’ / News Group Newspaper Limited and Sky Television (which is not part of the sample).

Four of the five largest print groups are domiciled overseas. As of 2023, the only Irish-owned media groups of scale are effectively limited to the state-owned Public Service Medias and the Irish Times Group. Out of the 29 companies featured in the sample, seven are completely, one partially foreign-owned. However, this is not representative for the number of media owned, as those groups all own more than one media outlet in the Irish market.
> Read more on Internationalisation of media ownership and content in Ireland