Programme quality is the bottom line in multi-channel land

Irish viewers are more likely to be concerned about the quality of television programmes rather than whether they are produced…

Irish viewers are more likely to be concerned about the quality of television programmes rather than whether they are produced inside or outside RTÉ, argues David Blake Knox.

When I joined RTÉ, a little over 20 years ago, I was sent - along with 10 other would-be producer/directors - to the station's Training Centre for six months of training and assessment. In the first week one of our lecturers projected a large pie chart on to an overhead screen.

This pie was intended to represent the division of the Irish television market, and it was cut into just two slices. One of these stood for "multi-channel land" and the other for those parts of the country that could only receive RTÉ. The larger slice, by far, belonged to the latter. In fact "RTÉ-only" viewers made up more than 70 per cent of the picture.

Close to the heart of the station at that time was its Outside Broadcast Division. Every week OB vans and trucks criss-crossed the country, carrying RTÉ into every corner of Ireland, however remote. OB units also delivered some of the major broadcasting occasions of the past 40 years: State visits, great sporting events, innumerable election counts and, of course, a succession of Eurovision Song Contests.

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Back then there were not more than a dozen independent producers and directors working in Ireland. The overwhelming majority of Ireland's producers and directors worked inside RTÉ, across the wide range of programmes in the station's schedules.

Since then the broadcasting landscape in Ireland has changed, almost beyond recognition. The vast majority of TV producers and directors now work in the independent sector, and produce almost every type of TV programme. RTÉ's Training Centre has been completely demolished, and all the station's OB units are about to be sold off. The division of the broadcasting market has also changed radically. "Multi-channel land" now encompasses almost the entire country, and the proportion of viewers who can only receive RTÉ is negligible.

These and other changes may seem dramatic, but they are not unique to RTÉ. In fact, similar developments have been experienced by most other public service broadcasters throughout Europe. In the case of RTÉ, however, they have coincided with an acute and endemic financial crisis. This has led, in turn, to an unprecedented questioning of the meaning and value of public service broadcasting itself.

It is against this background that the Minister, Ms de Valera, has announced the establishment of a special Forum on Broadcasting, which is to make recommendations on its future in Ireland. It would prove fairly easy for this forum to come up with a literal-minded interpretation of what public service broadcasting constitutes.

According to one perspective it simply involves those programmes which commercial broadcasters do not want to make. Such programmes may lack popular appeal, or cater for minority tastes, or require too great an investment of resources - without sufficient commercial return.

However, experience tends to show that public service broadcasting works best when it is interpreted in broad, imaginative and flexible terms. When Gay Byrne stepped down from The Late Late Show was a widespread consensus that his show had been one of the strongest cultural influences in Ireland over the past 40 years.

Yet, throughout those years, the Late Late remained, primarily, a popular entertainment show. As such, it falls outside a narrow definition of what public service broadcasting should entail.After many years of confidence in its identity and long-term future, RTÉ is going through a period of profound uncertainty. Its culture, as an organisation, is changing rapidly and - no doubt for many RTÉ staff - in painful and disturbing ways. But these changes do not mean that the public service ethos of the station needs to be abandoned.

The review of RTÉ's operations by the KMPG consultants is reported to have set out a number of options for the station. The most radical of these would involve the transfer of all home-produced programmes to the independent sector, except in the areas of News and Current Affairs. For some RTÉ staff this proposal must seem like a direct attack upon their most cherished traditions of public service.

Yet there is no obvious reason why public service programming can only be produced inside the station. Indeed, many excellent examples of such programming have already originated from independent production companies. So long as RTÉ continues to exercise its proper editorial function, there is no reason why the existing standards should not be maintained.

Irish viewers have judged RTÉ over the years by its output, and that judgment has been largely favourable. They are a sophisticated and discriminating audience, with a great amount of choice, yet a high proportion of the most popular TV programmes watched in Ireland are still of Irish origin.

It is hard to believe that Irish viewers care greatly whether these programmes are produced inside or outside RTÉ. They are more likely to be concerned about their quality, and whether they engage with the issues and events that concern them, than with the credits at the end of each show. What is vital is that adequate funding is available to make new generations of programmes that will continue to meet viewers' tastes, interests and needs. RTÉ has a clear responsibility to use the present crisis to shift the balance of its finances decisively in the direction of programme-making.

At present there are so many fixed costs within the station that, when cuts have to be made, the making and commissioning of programmes constitute almost the only discretionary area where they can be effected. In the UK a publisher-broadcaster such as S4C is able to spend more than 90 per cent of its annual budget on programme-making.

However, there are other possible models for RTÉ, some of them nearer home, such as TG4. And, as KMPG has recognised, special consideration needs to be given to the station's news and current affairs output. Over the years those areas, now together in a single division, have won an enviable and justified reputation, not only for their professional competence and reliability, but also for their political independence from successive governments.

It is essential to the public interest that this independence be preserved, and it seems probable that, in order to do so, news and current affairs should continue to be based within RTÉ. This will ensure that they can continue to maintain the necessary scale of their operations as well as a proper distance from the whole political process.

Of course, RTÉ is not the only party responsible for the funding of TV programme-making in Ireland. The Government also has real obligations in this regard. The reality is that the Irish audiovisual industry as a whole is chronically underdeveloped. Many - perhaps, most - independent production companies in Ireland operate a few steps from insolvency.

There is little room to invest the proper resources in development, and there may seem to be little point in drawing up long-term business plans.

What makes this lack of funding particularly incongruous is that it coincides with a period of spectacular economic growth, and with the unprecedented recognition of Irish writers, musicians, film-makers and performers on the world stage.

This is a volatile and unpredictable time for broadcasters throughout Europe, as is evident in the recent placing of ITV Digital in administration.

Would it really matter to Irish viewers if the whole concept of public service broadcasting were to disappear entirely? I would suggest that it should be considered a valuable resource that, at its best, is central to the inclusive nature of any modern democratic society. I would also suggest that it is not in the interests of the independent sector that RTÉ be seriously weakened.

Irish broadcasting needs a strong and vital centre capable of sustaining and growing independent television production, of increasing the diversity of Irish programmes and of providing Irish viewers with more and better choices.

The changing nature of the global broadcasting industry means that it is becoming increasingly possible that smaller nations will lose their capacity to explore their own societies on television, to hear their own voices and to tell their own stories.

Viewed against this background, it surely does not matter a great deal whether good Irish programmes are made inside or outside the station, so long as they are good and so long as they are made.

David Blake Knox was RTÉ's director of production 1996-'98, then joined the BBC as executive director for special projects. Last year he co-founded an independent production company in Ireland, Blueprint Productions.