Bauer Media Audio says it is "extremely excited" to enter the Irish radio market from today.
The company has now expanded its operations to eight countries.
It comes after it acquired Communicorp Media, which includes brands like Newstalk, Today FM, and Off The Ball as well as local stations 98FM, Spin 1038 and Spin Southwest.
The company already operates radio stations the UK, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Denmark and Finland.
Their Irish operations will now be called Bauer Media Audio Ireland.
Paul Keenan, President of Bauer Media Audio, spoke to Breakfast Business.
He said: “We’re extremely excited to be coming into the Republic of Ireland… to build on the fantastic business that we see that is Communicorp today and will be Bauer Media Audio Ireland from here on in.
“We think Ireland has fantastic prospects economically… we can see this will be a really good place for us to do business. We can see Ireland’s future growth will be among the strongest in Europe.
“Secondly, we look at the radio market… and we see just how radio connects with people in Ireland… and what a phenomenal job it can and does do for advertisers. We think that’s a very solid foundation on which we can build.
“Lastly, and really importantly, we think the Communicorp business has got the most phenomenal brands - national distribution, strong regional presence, really good relationships with advertisers, and very strong relationships with listeners."
Mr Keenan said Bauer believes radio is an “intrinsically good business” to be in over the medium and long-term - saying it reaches around 90% of the adult population each week, so remains a medium which is “hugely relevant”.
He said: “We think this broadcast platform is a great place from which to explore the wider universe of audio.
“We’ve seen you’ve done that at Communicorp so far. We’ve seen how you’ve developed Off The Ball, GoLoud... how you're developing AudioXi… so we think this is a very exciting constellation.”
The Bauer executive said he accepts that younger listeners have more choice, but that’s a challenge they’re prepared to meet.
He said: “Maybe we have to get way more creative with how we bring what we do to those audiences… and get them excited about that.”
With most Bauer stations focused on music output, Mr Keenan said the firm is “totally, absolutely” committed to Newstalk - which is now a talk radio station in the company's portfolio.
He explained: “We think it has got a great future, and we think we’re going to bring some learnings that we have from other markets… but also that you’re going to teach us some stuff that we currently don’t know.”
For the last several years, Irish Times journalists have not appeared on Communicorp stations following the publication of an article by columnist Fintan O'Toole.
Mr Keenan said Bauer Media Group has made the decision that it isn’t a politically affiliated group, and doesn’t have any bias in the way in which it approaches its markets.
A decision on whether to now allow Irish Times employees or contributors on-air will be made locally by the local management team, he added.
