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Themedia in Northern Ireland are closely linked to those in the rest of the United Kingdom, and also overlap with print, television, and radio in the Ireland.
Broadcasting in Northern Ireland is areserved matter and as such it is the responsibility of the United Kingdom'sDepartment of Culture, Media and Sport andOffice of Communications (Ofcom). Media development and production is supported by various organisations including theArts Council of Northern Ireland andNorthern Ireland Screen.
Northern Ireland Screen is the national screen agency purposed with promoting the development of a sustainable film, animation and television production industry in the province.
Several media groups, such asIndependent News & Media have "digital" departments selling their own online advertising, while Green Beans Media represents a number of smaller independent publishers with Northern Ireland audiences.
In Northern Ireland, the main newspapers areThe Irish News, seen as supportingIrish reunification, and theUnionist-leaningBelfast Newsletter. TheBelfast Telegraph is the main evening newspaper in Northern Ireland. In January 2005Daily Ireland, which was somewhat supportive ofSinn Féin was launched. It contended (in line with its politics) to be an all-Ireland newspaper; however, its sales were far stronger in Northern Ireland and Dublin than the rest of the island, and it closed in September 2006.
Fortnight, a monthly political and cultural magazine was published from 1970 until 2012. TheUlster Tatler is a lifestyle and society magazine, alongside sister publicationsUlster Homes andUlster Bride.
Regional newspapers are also published byAlpha Newspaper Group, Belfast Media Group,Johnston Publishing,North West of Ireland Printing and Publishing Company and others.
Opinion on Northern Ireland is as diverse as that in the general public, ranging from the strongly anti-Republican line of theSunday Independent to the more sympatheticSunday Business Post.
Broadcasting in Northern Ireland is governed under United Kingdom law. TheBritish Broadcasting Corporation operates anational region in Northern Ireland, known asBBC Northern Ireland, and one member of theBBC Trust is designatedTrustee for Northern Ireland. TheOffice of Communications regulates the commercial broadcasting sector in Northern Ireland.
The first radio station to broadcast in Northern Ireland was2BE Belfast, owned by the thenBritish Broadcasting Company. Today, Northern Ireland has two national radio stations:BBC Radio Ulster, operated by the BBC, and the Ofcom-licensedDowntown Radio. The BBC also operates a local radio station in Derry,BBC Radio Foyle.
A number of local commercial radio stations (licensed by Ofcom) are also broadcast, includingQ101.2 FM West inOmagh,Q102 in Derry andCool FM- based in Newtownards andQ Radio 96.7 and 102.5 FM (Part of the CN Group) in Belfast. The five UK wideBBC Radio radio stations, as well as the three UK-wide Ofcom radio services (Classic FM,Talksport, andAbsolute Radio) are also available in Northern Ireland.
Independent radio includesDowntown Radio andCool FM owned byBauer Radio. TheAlpha Newspaper Group operates six radio stations throughout Northern Ireland.News Broadcasting owns the Greater Belfast stationU105.
There are also numerous part-time and community based stations throughout Northern Ireland.
TheBBC began broadcasting television programmes in Northern Ireland in 1953. This was the first regular television broadcast station in Ireland. In 1959 Ulster Television (now known asUTV) began broadcasting as part of theITV Network.
Northern Ireland currently has three analogue terrestrial channels:BBC One Northern Ireland,BBC Two Northern Ireland – both operated byBBC Northern Ireland – andUTV, the latter being theOffice of Communications Channel 3 licensee for Northern Ireland, and thus part of the UKITV network.
TodayBBC Northern Ireland operates two television channels with local content,BBC One andBBC Two.ITV plc still operates the same"ITV Ulster" licence.Channel 4 has broadcast to Northern Ireland since 1982 but (apart from advertisements) does not broadcast Northern Ireland-specific programming. As part of theBelfast Agreement the Ireland'sIrish language television stationTG4 has begun transmitting from a limited number of locations in Northern Ireland.
To date, Ofcom has licensed two local television channels. The first,C9TV (Channel 9 Television), started in 1999 and broadcasts toDerry and the surrounding districts ofLimavady,Coleraine andStrabane. InBelfast,NvTv (Northern Visions Television) started in 2004.
In Northern Ireland, the UK'sFreeview service is the DTT provider.
A significant amount of terrestrial transmission overspill exists between transmissions from north and south of theIrish border, with a large portion of the population of Northern Ireland currently able to receive digital terrestrial television and analogue television broadcasts from the Republic, and many in theBorder Region of the Republic and beyond able to receive UK Freeview transmissions from North of the border.
