Radio NOVA is preparing to take legal against Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the operator of the Dublin Port Tunnel over the fact its programmes cannot be heard in the Tunnel.

Only seven radio stations are broadcast in the Port Tunnel due to limitations in its current system. Radio NOVA is not one of them.
 
NOVA is in the final stages of preparing injunctive procedures and also intends to sue the state agency for damages. 
 
NOVA wants Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to either include it in the line up of stations carried or remove all FM radio services in the Tunnel. NOVA is also claiming that the Port Tunnel's system for communicating with motorists in the event of emergency is "fundamentally flawed" and that it has shown favouritism to Denis O' Brien's Communicorp in the broadcasting of his radio stations within the Tunnel. 
 
Radio NOVA says the restriction is in breach of EU competition regulations and the 2002 Competition Act and is "inherently unfair and damaging" to its business. They have also raised concerns about the 'leaky coax' system used by the Port Tunnel to rebroadcast FM radio signals, claiming that in excess of 25% of radio listeners using the Tunnel do not hear emergency announcements as they are not listening to the one of the 7 stations carried.

The Port Tunnel carries RTE Radio 1, Today FM, Newstalk, FM104, 98FM, Spin 1038 & Q102.
 
Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has accepted that its technology "has limitations" but said that the seven radio stations broadcast are selected on an entirely objective basis on the back of listenership figures. 
 
Chief Executive, Kevin Branigan said, "The situation is fundamentally unfair. Their decision to carry only seven radio stations on account of limitations in their own technology is distorting the radio market within the Tunnel and causing us loss and damage on daily basis.

"We've spent 5 and a half years trying to engage with them and have got nowhere. We are no longer prepared to accept a situation where our competitors FM104, 98FM and Today FM are carried in the Tunnel and we are not." 
 
He added, "It is not just that we are disadvantaged for a 5-minute journey. Thousands of cars drive into the Tunnel listening to NOVA every week and drive out listening to one of our rivals. We have firm feedback that many listeners actively change the station from NOVA as they approach the Tunnel as they know they will loose us - and it can sometimes take people several days to retune to us."

Source: www.businessworld.ie