Sir, It was pointed out on the recent Derek Davis show (RTE May 29th) that RTE's annual income was now IR £150m. In response to this comment, David Blake Knox of RTE stated that RTE's television programme production expenditure was currently running at IR £45m. This represents less than one third of RTE's total income and begs the question on what is the remaining IR £105m (70 per cent) of its total income spent every year?
David Blake Knox in mentioning the IR £45m being spent on television programme production expenditure, pointed out that IR £9m of this figure RTE is currently projecting as expenditure on drama television production, i.e., 20 per cent of television programme production expenditure. Robert Cooper of BBC Northern Ireland pointed out that expenditure by television broadcasters in the United Kingdom on drama alone now exceeded IR £500m a year.
Based on this and even on a ratio of population basis (three million people in Ireland, 60 mild lion people in the UK RTE should be spending at least IR £25m a year on television drama production alone. Surely some of the IR £105m currently allocated for RTE's activities other than television programme production expenditure ado the radio stations, the RTE Guide and the orchestras really cost that much could be redeployed towards drama production. Yours, etc., Chairman Broadcasting Sub Committee, Film Makers Ireland, Eustace Street, Dublin 2.