Radio rivals could share content for listeners' benefit, says RTÉ director

RTÉ EXPERIENCED a fall in broadcasting revenue which was “the most extreme in Europe”, its director general Noel Curran said last night.

In a speech to the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland, Mr Curran said he understood the financial pressures faced by independent radio because RTÉ was facing the same pressures.

Outlining the reasons a further €25 million in cuts to RTÉ’s budget next year, announced last week, Mr Curran said the national broadcaster had been faced with the sudden loss of €70 million in annual commercial revenue from the middle of 2008.

As a result RTÉ was forced to cut costs by €82 million, or 18 per cent of its cost base, while the rest of the semi-State sector reduced its costs by an average of 6 per cent.

RTÉ also suffered a “substantial reduction in public funding” in the budget of December 2010, on top of a further fall in commercial revenue.

He told the audience of rival broadcasters in the independent sector that RTÉ’s funding position meant “harsh choices” would have to be made, though he acknowledged that RTÉ had the “privilege” of the licence fee which brought with it more obligations and more regulatory oversight.

He also held out the possibility that RTÉ could be a “media hub” for all Irish media organisations.

He announced that RTÉ had almost finalised a series of new agreements with newspaper groups to showcase its content on newspaper websites.

He said that when RTÉ showed its willingness to share content with print media it was dismissed as a “PR stunt”, but audiences would shortly see the results of these discussions online.

He also expressed a wish that RTÉ could complement the independent radio sector, not just compete with it.

To that end RTÉ had already pioneered RadioGAUGE with the independent sector, which gave advertisers an indication of how effective their advertisements were on radio.

He also held out the possibility that RTÉ could take a lead in training radio producers, in sharing radio documentaries and in sharing resources and content in the coverage of local and national elections. The station could also share studios across the country. He cited Radioplayer in the UK, which involved the BBC and independent radio stations setting up their own internet listening portal to share costs, as the type of initiative which could be copied in Ireland.

He asked his audience: “Can we identify areas where we can produce unique content together, areas of true innovation across schedules?

“What is the sum of our skills and how would that be expressed for the benefit of our listeners”.

Mr Curran praised radio as the “purest” of broadcasting mediums which suits the Irish as an oral people.

He said 85 per cent of people listened to radio for more than three hours per day. “This compares with, despite all the hype, just 5 per cent of all adults who use Twitter, and those that do, only use it for two minutes per day.”