RTÉ spent €40.9m on independent programme commissions in 2014

RTÉ spent €40.9 million on commissions from independent production companies in 2014. This was up fractionally on 2013 and came in ahead of its statutory requirement to spend €39.4 million on commissions from the sector last year.

RTÉ worked with 77 independent production companies in 2014, down from a total of 97 companies the year before, the RTÉ Independent Productions annual report shows. Some €16.3 million, or 43 per cent of the value of new television commissions, was shared between six companies.

“Independent producers played a considerable role in RTÉ’s success in 2014, and we look forward to strengthening our partnership with the independent sector,” the broadcaster says in the report.

The Irish independent production sector was hit hard during the recession as RTÉ slashed its budgets in response to a collapse in advertising revenue. In 2007, RTÉ’s spend on independent commissions, at €80 million, was almost twice as high as it was in 2014.

RTÉ has said repeatedly that if it can secure more public money through the licence fee or any future replacement for the licence fee it will spend 50 per cent of the additional finance raised on independent commissions.

New commissions

In its review of its new commissioning activity in 2014, RTÉ says it received 970 proposals for television programmes and commissioned 132 of them. Some 90 of the television commissions were from Dublin-based companies, while 17 were from Northern Ireland, 23 from the rest of Ireland and two were from Britain.

Of the television programmes commissioned, completed and developed last year, some 60 hours related to Highflyer Productions’ horse racing coverage for the broadcaster – the rest of its sports output is produced in-house.

Other prolific companies were Coco Television, which made 44½ hours of programmes, including RTÉ's St Patrick's Day coverage and 10 hours of Crimecall, and Screentime Shinawil, which produced 35½ hours, most of which relates to talent contest The Voice of Ireland.

Radio proposals

Almost all of RTÉ’s independent commissioning spend relates to television rather than radio. RTÉ received 22 radio proposals and commissioned 12 shows last year. Most of this commissioning was by RTÉ Radio 1, with Lyric FM accounting for the rest.

In the annual report, RTÉ says the recommissioning of Radio 1's The Business, The Book Show and its broadcasting of religious services, all of which come from outside producers, is "a clear vote of confidence in the independent radio sector".

The review also shows that RTÉ commissions received €4.4 million from co-funding partners such as the BBC, BBC Northern Ireland and ITV.

They also benefited to the value of €2.8 million from the Government’s Section 481 tax break and €4 million from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s Sound and Vision fund.