Media & Marketing/ Emmet Oliver: The summer months are traditionally lean ones for the big broadcasters such as RTÉ and TV3. The two stations, along with the national newspapers, tend to pull in the lion's share of their advertising revenue during the run up to Christmas and also in autumn.
But the success, so far, of RTÉ's Haughey series suggests that its summer schedule should easily pay for itself. Advertisers were tripping over themselves this week to comment on the high ratings achieved by the show.
Of course, the highly visible outdoor poster campaign, featuring a forbidding looking Charles Haughey, helped to soften the public up before the first instalment. Accompanying newspaper coverage also played a part in building up pre-show expectations.
Nevertheless, an average audience of 545,00 is no mean feat for a current affairs production.
Dublin agency AFA O'Meara noted that viewing of the programme actually peaked at 599,000 on the night. Predictably, the highest audiences were recorded among older age groupings, people who lived through the Haughey era.
Saor Communications described the figures as "colossal". It also pointed out that the programme was not just popular with men.
"The ex-Taoiseach hasn't lost his female fan base; over 56 per cent of adults watching were women," it commented.
Today FM Sky deal
Providing a news service on local and commercial radio will always be an expensive business in a small market such as the Republic. The decision many years ago by several local commercial services to set up Independent Network News was partly a reflection of this.
Because of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland regulations, most radio services have to provide some level of news and current affairs coverage, although many feel this is antiquated in the modern radio market with so many niche services. One of the most costly elements of radio news remains foreign coverage. During the last war in Iraq, RTÉ was the only Irish-owned broadcaster able to send its own correspondents for the duration of the war.
Today FM has now found a clever way of hiring in major foreign coverage by signing a deal with Sky News. Under the terms of the arrangement with Sky subsidiary Sky Radio News, Today FM will be able to use material from Sky News's string of correspondents around the world. The cost of the deal was not disclosed.
Concert ad space
Over the next few weeks, Dublin will host a procession of high-profile concerts, the most obvious being U2 next week in Croke Park.
With so many young people gathering for the various shows, advertisers refuse to be left out. Clear Channel, for instance, is offering space on giant screens at the REM and Meatloaf concerts at Ardgillan Castle this weekend.
The Coldplay concert in Marlay Park next week is also being offered to advertisers by the company. Space on the giant screen for REM and Meatloaf will set advertisers back €4,000, whereas Coldplay will set you back a more modest €3,600.
TG4 at Wimbledon
TG4 has secured the sole Irish broadcasting rights to the Wimbledon tennis championships this year. Last year, 93,000 Irish adults tuned in on the Sunday afternoon to watch the men's final on July 4th.
A larger audience, 99,000 adults, representing a 25 per cent share of viewers, tuned in the day before to watch the women's final on Saturday afternoon.
The regular evening broadcasts also attracted average audiences of more than 64,000 viewers during the last week of the run-up to the finals, Saor Communications pointed out this week. TG4 will no doubt hope to cash in on luring these viewers away from BBC.
Advertisers point out that tennis is one of the few sports which can boast of strong female audiences.
Audience research
Marketing magazine reports this week that the long-running row over TV audience research may be coming to an end. The row involves RTÉ, TV3 and TG4 on one side and companies such as Sky, Viacom (owned of MTV and Nickelodeon) and Channel 4 on the other.
The second group of channels in recent weeks threatened to set up their own audience research service at a cost of €1.8 million.
The British companies have long complained that audience research in the Republic is not sufficient and the fees are too high. The audience research figures are compiled by AC Nielsen.
The British companies have claimed they are paying more than 70 per cent of the research costs but not getting enough information.
It is understood that a complete audit of the service will be done to make sure there are no gaps. This should keep the warring parties happy - for now.
Emmet Oliver can be contacted at eoliver@irish-times.ie
