Media & Marketing: RTÉ management, buoyed up by the licence fee increase announced before Christmas, will be further cheered by the television viewing figures for 2002, produced by Nielsen/Mediaworks, which have been sent to advertising agencies.

RTÉ programmes dominate the top 50 for 2002, with sport, soaps, and, somewhat surprisingly, politics, the most successful formats.

While TV3 finds itself in the national broadcaster's slipstream in some areas, the advent of a new TV3 chatshow on Friday nights, hosted by that enfant terrible Eamon Dunphy, gives the station a chance to wrest the initiative back.

It is understood that planning for such a show is at an advanced stage. However, a spokeswoman would only say yesterday that all options in relation to a chatshow format were being studied.

TV3 claims it is number two in the most important slot - prime time. It also claims that approximately 60 per cent of RTÉ's audience is over the age of 45 and, consequently, finds it easy to build up strong numbers. TV3 is a station for 15 to 44 year olds and has been upfront about that from the start, says Mr Pat Kiely, director of sales and marketing at TV3 yesterday.

But RTÉ breezed through last year without taking too many commercial knocks.

One of the surprising things was the success of political coverage on television. For instance, the Prime Time leaders' debate finished at number one, with 804,000 viewers. Other political programming also performed strongly. However, among the young (classified in this case as those aged between 15 and 34) the opposite was true, with political programmes barely registering on the radar in many cases.

In that age group, EastEnders (on RTÉ) and Coronation Street (on TV3) took the top slots. The Late, Late Toy Show, Popstars, Friends and an array of Hollywood movies were also strongly represented.

What united all age groups in 2002 was sport. Advertisers, once reticent about pouring funds in sport programming because of its alleged male bias, are increasingly seeing sport as something that cuts across the whole population.

The Ireland-Spain World Cup match finished second but, when pub viewers are taken into account, most agree it would be ranked number one. The tense and compelling interview by Tommie Gorman with Roy Keane during the World Cup was also a major ratings winner pulling in almost 700,000 viewers.

The pleasing thing from everyone's viewpoint is that all of the top 20 programmes in 2002 were Irish produced, except EastEnders and Coronation Street.

However, some advertisers remain somewhat concerned about RTÉ's ability to target younger viewers. But, in 2002, RTÉ1 and Network 2 continued to attract the highest audiences in the 15 to 34 age group. The almost patriotic adherence to domestic programming is clear in the figures, with viewers of all ages preferring to watch EastEnders and Coronation Street on Irish stations rather than on BBC or ITV.

Any media, advertising or marketing news or comment, please email eoliver@irish-times.ie

• Super Bowl: advertisers get ready to play ball

When things are going bad, the advertising industry tends to clutch at any straws in the wind. With industry leaders looking for any signs of recovery, the annual Super Bowl extravaganza has become this year's touchstone event in the US.

USA Today summed it up recently. "Madison Avenue is hoping the biggest ad event of all - the Super Bowl - will kickstart the dormant industry for 2003."

According to advertising chiefs - if Super Bowl slots sell well it is going to be a good year. Based on that, 2003 is going to be so-so.

While Super Bowl slots, sold by US network ABC, are going for $2.2 million (€2.08 million) per 30-second slot, they have not been selling at their usual fast pace. As recently as a fortnight ago, ABC was still trying to shift some slots in the third and fourth quarter of the game, which is believed to reach half of all Americans. In the late 1990s, these slots were sold off before Christmas.

However, the slots are 15 per cent more expensive than last year, which shows the market is still growing, however marginal it may be compared to previous years.

The big brands are also back in the Super Bowl this year. Anheuser-Busch (makers of Budweiser) is taking a slot, as is Pepsi Cola.

The half-time show also provides a platform for big-name entertainers to place themselves in front of about 134 million Americans. This year it looks like being a real patriotic carnival, with no doubt the show piece being a potentially toe-curling rendition of God Bless America by Celine Dion.