World Cup in winter is ‘nightmare’ for broadcasters, says RTÉ content boss

The winter timing of the Fifa World Cup is “a nightmare” that has obliged broadcasters to make multiple schedule changes to avoid “mad” clashes, according to RTÉ director of content Jim Jennings.

The tournament, controversially due to be staged in Qatar, is expected to draw “huge” audiences over the four weeks to December 18th but will disrupt the normal television calendar as well as the football one.

“Moving the World Cup to the most commercially lucrative period of the year is good for us. But that’s only one part of the commercial market in terms of the money that’s available. You need the other part as well, which is entertainment and drama,” Mr Jennings said.

[ RTÉ's new season: No worries but lots of drama with fresh current affairs and comedy shows ]

RTÉ will air 40 hours of drama this season – with “ambition” to increase this to 60 hours in future – but this year it will not run a flagship series on Sunday nights in late November and early December.

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“It would be mad to put one of your big dramas out on air when a World Cup is on. It would just make no sense.”

British broadcaster ITV will reportedly give I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! – an annual ratings magnet that also airs on Virgin Media Television – a late October start date, rather than its usual late November one.

Mr Jennings said it made no difference to RTÉ that Nancy Harris’s imminent comedy drama The Dry has been available to watch in the UK for the past three months because of its status as an original for ITV-owned streamer BritBox UK.

“Nobody in Ireland can see BritBox.”

RTÉ also has “high hopes” for the second season of gangster family drama Kin after its debut run achieved higher ratings than the first series of Love/Hate and tapped into a similar audience.

“There are particular demographics that are hard to get, and there are certain things that you can do to get them. Some we wouldn’t do, like I don’t think we would ever show Love Island,” Mr Jennings said of the ITV reality series broadcast by Virgin.

“We know Love Island hits a sweet spot in a particular demo that is really appealing to advertisers, but I don’t think we would ever go there.”

Despite the occasional scheduling headache, live sport is proving increasingly key in the battle for eyeballs and seen as “core” public service broadcasting, with RTÉ and Virgin making a joint bid for the rights to show the 2023 Rugby World Cup next autumn and RTÉ's negotiations for a fresh GAA deal “nearly there”.

The RTÉ content boss said there were “other areas that we know we need to do more of”, citing arts and culture and young people’s programming. RTÉ intends to build on efforts to restore Irish comedy to RTÉ2, he added, and is also in the process of developing a new television vehicle for Claire Byrne.

The tally of 40 drama hours does not include Fair City, the in-house soap opera to which RTÉ is “fully committed”. Soap operas still deliver an audience, notwithstanding Channel 5′s decision to pull the plug on Neighbours, which RTÉ had been airing.

Mr Jennings said it remained possible that another UK broadcaster might pick up the Melbourne-set soap, which recently wrapped after 8,903 episodes.

“I wouldn’t rule out Neighbours being back.”