Head of Tech, Media and Telecoms at Bank of Ireland Paul Swift provides an overview of the sector.
Ireland’s technology, media and telecoms (TMT) sector accounts for about 13pc to Ireland’s GDP, contributing over €45bn annually and growing year on year.
The sector also accounts for 26pc of Irish exports and is the second largest exporter of IT services in the world. From an employment perspective, Technology Ireland (Ibec) estimates there are over 210,000 people directly in employed across the digital sector.
When broken down the TMT sector consists of many different subsectors, types of businesses with different business models and nuances.
Technology
The technology sector refers to companies that produce software or mobile applications for both individuals (B2C) and enterprises (B2B) and also included IT Services or Managed Services Providers that largely resell software, hardware (laptops, desktops etc) and infrastructure.
Media (and Entertainment)
Media companies develop, produce, and distribute multimedia content for TV, print or online. Television networks, cable TV providers, production studios, and social media companies are all in this subsector.
In recent years Ireland has become a global powerhouse in the animation sector and is also building significant capacity for future growth of the Live Action (Movie/TV sector). As Apple and Disney roll out their streaming channels, greater demand is being placed to generate content to make available over these platforms which augurs well for Ireland’s media sector.
Telecoms
Telecoms companies focuses on communications-related businesses such as phone, broadband/wifi, TV, and Internet Service Providers (ISP). The pandemic has brought a renewed focus on the telecoms providers as their importance was never more evident than when key telecoms infrastructure such as broadband ensured people could work from home while also keeping day to day communications in operation.
