RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst has told a meeting of staff this afternoon that production of programmes including Fair City and The Late Late Show are to move off site over the next five years.
Staff at the broadcaster heard from the Director General this afternoon in a meeting to discuss the organisation’s new strategy document, entitled ‘A New Direction’.
Mr Bakhurst said that the independent sector will in time be invited to discuss the possibilities of producing ‘Fair City’ in a way that is successful for everyone involved.
In the case of ‘The Late Late Show’, Mr Bakhurst said that it is a more complex editorial programme and that it could possibly be produced by an in-house team in conjunction with an independent company.
The focus of the meeting then moved onto the ‘New Direction’ document, which is the strategy that will guide the organisation for the next five years.
Among the key points in the strategy are a growing focus on the independent production sector and how it will become more central to RTÉ’s output.
There is much detail about this and how RTÉ will protect content spend. Commissioned spending will rise from €47 million in 2024 to circa €70 million per year from 2026 – an increase of over 60%.
Over the strategy’s time, RTÉ plans to invest in excess of €340 million with Ireland’s independent production sector.
In terms of staffing, the reduction of 20% is confirmed with a reduction of headcount by 400. Funding this targeted voluntary exit programme is likely to cost circa €50 million.
The document states that “we will also invest in training and development to ensure RTE has the right skillset to deliver this change.”
The aim is for RTÉ to have a “world class digital portfolio”.
Other new plans include the launch of the new RTÉ Audio app and RTÉ News app by 2025, both offering, it states, enhanced content and user experience.
The strategy also states that by 2027, 50% of all non-live RTÉ TV Content will be made available on RTÉ Player first giving the audience the choice on how they watch RTÉ.
The plan also lays out more detail about the focus on commissioned programming and it says that the goal is RTÉ will increase its commissioned spend by 50% by 2027 across video and audio.
Reducing the scale of RTÉ’s internal production to focus primarily on live programmes will enable this fundamental shift to a hybrid production model it states.
More to follow…
