Communicorp Media is a media holding company based in Ireland, owned by the Irish billionaire Denis O'Brien.
History
Communicorp Group Ltd was formed by Denis O'Brien in 1989. It launched its radio operations in Ireland that same year and entered the Czech Republic in 1992. It later added stations in Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland and Hungary. Based in Dublin, the company now owns radio stations including Ireland's Newstalk, Today FM, 98FM, SPIN 1038 and SPIN South West. O'Brien owns both of Ireland's independent national radio stations. O'Brien's Communicorp was the highest bidder for Emap's Irish operations when that company decided to sell its radio stations, buying FM104, Highland Radio and Today FM on 14 July 2007. In October 2007, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland approved Communicorp's proposed takeover of Today FM and Highland Radio, but not FM104. The deal was completed by January 2008. Due to a Competition Authority decision, Communicorp was required to sell-on FM104, which it did immediately upon its acquisition. O'Brien offloaded Highland Radio in mid-2008. On 21 July 2008, a joint bid from Boxer TV Access and Communicorp, supported by BT Ireland, were successful in obtaining three digital terrestrial televisionmultiplex contracts from the BCI. Boxer DTT Limited withdrew from its agreement to provide a DTT platform on 20 April 2009. The group divested its assets in Latvia, Finland and the Czech Republic in 2012; Hungary in 2013. On 6 February 2014, Communicorp announced it would be acquiring eight UK stations from Global Radio, subject to review by Ireland's Competition Authority. The stations were required to be sold off by the Competition Commission following Global's acquisition of GMG Radio in 2012. The formation of Communicorp UK on 1 April 2014, headquartered in Manchester, allowed Communicorp UK to be operated as a standalone entity. The Bulgarian stations were sold in 2018.
Communicorp have an interest in the digital and PR agency ICAN, and previously also operated the online marketplace AppliancesDelivered.ie. The latter began as a magazine called 'Buy & Sell', and changed ownership several times, before being acquired in 2015 and rebranded in 2016. AppliancesDelivered.ie ceased operations in 2019.
