Cantillon: Change the buzz word at RTÉ as executives depart

"Change can be disconcerting," Dee Forbes wrote in a note to RTÉ staff yesterday, "but ultimately I have always believed that change is good; with it we challenge ourselves, our thinking and our ways of working."

It was the new director-general’s way of letting the troops know that she is not concerned by a hat-trick of recent senior departures from Montrose.

To lose one executive may be regarded as a misfortune. Does losing three in the space of five weeks – Glen Killane, Bill Malone, and this week Kevin Bakhurst – look like carelessness?

Not in this case. As disappointed candidates for the director-general’s job, it was to be expected that Killane and Bakhurst would be interested in other opportunities.

Self-regulation

Bakhurst's decision to take up a role at UK communications watchdog Ofcom brings him back into the British industry at a time that is highly politically sensitive for his former employers at the BBC. Its self-regulation is set to end, with Ofcom taking on the role. It is indeed "an exciting time" to join the organisation, as he noted on the statement issued by his future employer.

Killane, the former managing director of television, has married his previous experience in negotiating sports rights for RTÉ to the chance to build something from the ground up at Eir. His move to the telecoms group was certainly eye-catching as it symbolises something of a power shift from traditional broadcasters to converged communications groups with broadband networks at their heart.

Popular instinct

Malone is the more junior of the three, but his defection to become director of programming at TV3 Group has the potential to wound RTÉ in the short term because its newly-flush rival is in a mood to chase after RTÉ viewers and Malone has the right popular instinct to help it do it.

Changes in personnel, however, are not the only changes afoot. Incoming executives looking to bagsy parking spaces will be aware that the Montrose campus itself is likely to slim down in future: RTÉ has invited tenders from property agents to manage the valuation of its portfolio of sites with a view to flogging off “under-utilised” parts of its valuable Donnybrook base and raise millions to upgrade its infrastructure and make investments in digital.

The contract is expected to be awarded in October, meaning come Christmas more visible change may be in the offing at RTÉ.