RTÉ Junior to Commission Programming
The use of the word outsource was a misuse by RTÉ. RTÉ have commitments to Independent Producers meaning that a certain amount of TV must come from outsourced material. The vast majority of TG4's output is commissioned, even Ros Na Run is a independent production produced for TG4. In 2015 RTÉ spent just under €10million on Youth programming.
Year | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
Spend in Millions | 10 | 10 | 12.6 | 14 | 17 | 16.5 | 15.4 | 10.8 | 12.3 | 8.7 | 8.1 | 8.2 | 9.4 |
The question is more about how will RTÉ make cost savings. In reality it looks like RTÉ's Young People's Department is going on a break in order to save money. According to some news reports the Department will not have commissioned productions ready until 2018, meaning repeats for 2017. While Children's TV relies heavily on repeats its unusual for no new production to happen in any one year.
RTÉ's Young People's department also has a limited budget and it is possibly the last part of RTÉ you would go after for cost savings. Not only because it is a fundamental part of any public service broadcaster but also because in this case RTÉ has consistently under funded Children's TV.
We also believe that RTÉ will only save money due to programming not airing until 2018. This is due to only broadcast programme costs being part of the RTÉ annual report, those shows produced for example in 2017 but not aired until 2018 will not feature in 2017s annual report. (We have sought an RTÉ confirmation on this).
The other issue is for Independent Producers. RTÉ have commitments to Independent production companies. It looks like many of those commitments will be made via Children's TV, which is usual cheaper to produce. (We have also contacted RTÉ and the Screen Producers of Ireland for confirmation of what those commitments are). A result of this is that RTÉ could reduce their spend on independent productions, which in turn is bad for the industry.
Add This