While a great deal of attention has been paid to the top-line details in RTÉ's New Direction document, including salary caps, redundancies, more work commissioned from independent production companies and the disposal of parts of the broadcaster’s Donnybrook campus, the 34-page report contains a multitude of plans that could radically reshape the organisation.
Many of the proposals are ambitious and, if implemented, would allow RTÉ to embrace more fully the digital world in an age of disinformation and appeal to a younger cohort who may not now consider it central to their lives.
RTÉ is promising to “transform” how it delivers news and current affairs with an enhanced news app and broader distribution across social to allow it grow younger audiences and it will put more emphasis on streaming.
The document also makes a commitment to “commission and produce high-impact television and audio documentary series that create and facilitate national conversations ... underpinned by our journalistic, editorial and storytelling skills, in partnership with the independent production sector and third-party funders”.
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All going to plan, a souped-up radio app will, by 2025, provide “easy access to our live radio stations ... as well as on-demand audio content for both adults and children” with the aim of offering audiences “a single place to listen to all RTÉ audio, with quick access to favourite stations, easy browsing through RTÉ's audio on-demand catalogue, and recommendations on content of interest”.
The app will be accessible on all digital listening devices including on smart speakers and in-car and will provide a platform for the launch of new services such as a potential new digital Irish language radio station targeting 15-34 year olds.
It is also planning to launch a new RTÉ News app in 2025 with enhanced features and a broader range of stories to “allow more sophisticated use of text, video, images and other digital story-telling devices”.
The investment in digital services will sound the death knell for the “timeshift” channels RTÉ One +1 and RTÉ2 +1 by 2028, with the document suggesting that the closing of these services will allow it to reduce the cost of traditional broadcast distribution. It will also mothball RTÉ Radio 1 Extra, RTÉ 2XM, RTÉ Pulse and RTÉjr radio in 2024, offering on-demand playlists and podcasts via the new app.
It says it will “embrace RTÉ's role in countering the negative impacts of disinformation through a new disinformation correspondent role” and will roll out a new “fact-checking mark and verification service for local, national and international stories” with a view to making a contribution to improving public trust in these sources of information”.
It plans to increase the Irish language programmes across its platforms and “will embrace and normalise the Irish language across our video, audio and text content. It is also considering the launch of a digital Irish language radio station for listeners aged between 15 and 34.
It wants to focus the money it has to spend on “national cultural events and coverage, bringing arts and cultural experiences to the widest possible audience” and promises to “continue to harness the potential of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and to grow the audience for Lyric FM”.
It will retain a focus on the provision of a “varied mix of live action and animated video and audio in both English and Irish, created primarily by Ireland’s independent production sector” and will “ensure that content for this diverse and growing group is available where children and parents wish to access it”.
It plans to dedicate resources to a new podcast unit and produce more content for children aged 14 and older, including exploring commissioning a drama for teenagers.
To ensure its archive continues “as a resource for the nation”, RTÉ Archives will continue digitising legacy recordings. Audio material is expected to be completed by the end of 2024 and video material completed by 2027.
It has reasserted its commitment to free-to-air platforms and will continue to operate Saorview as it develops a “next-generation service” to provide an expanded choice of free channels and on-demand content, combining digital terrestrial television and broadband with the plan being to launch the service in 2025 subject to regulatory approvals.
