With its finances getting more meagre, RTÉ would have given any hostage to fortune to obtain a licence-fee increase, writes Wesley Boyd
It is no coincidence that the Draft Public Service Broadcasting Charter published last week by the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Dermot Ahern, and the Statement of Commitments for 2003 issued some time ago by RTÉ should be on the same broad waveband.
The national broadcaster with its finances getting more meagre by the day would have given any hostage to fortune in its hunger to obtain an increase in the licence fee, and it is small wonder that it committed itself to what may prove to be an over-ambitious programme of change.
The Minister's declaration that RTÉ would operate under a charter "as part of the package of measures agreed last December in the context of the decision to increase the level of the television licence fee", is merely another way of saying the Government is insisting that the station must raise its performance and operate within its means.
The "package of measures" that is now emerging in the draft charter and RTÉ's statement of commitments will have resulted from a flurry of confidential exchanges between the Department and the broadcaster.
Accordingly there is much common ground, but the expectation and the delivery may not meet in a neat parcel at the end of the exercise. The principal challenge to the incoming Director-General, Mr Cathal Goan, will be to achieve all of RTÉ's stated objectives within the budget available to him.
He will also be required to assuage the enduring animosities that exist between the Government - and politicians generally - and the national broadcaster. Leinster House still has a deep suspicion that programmes, particularly in the news and current affairs areas, are controlled by Dublin 4 anti-establishment effete liberals who would not know a cow from a sow.
Mr Ahern obviously subscribes to that view. He listed as the first "key element" in the press release which accompanied the draft charter: "The assertion that RTÉ news reporting and public affairs coverage shall be undertaken from a variety of perspectives; events should not be assessed and reported from a Dublin perspective alone." Yet RTÉ has more outposts throughout the country than the Minister's own sprawling Dublin-based Department which controls the sea, forests, mines, harbours and the marine emergency services.
RTÉ News maintains correspondents, camera crews and studios in seven regional centres. In addition it recently appointed a correspondent in the north east (of the Republic) - where, conveniently, the Minister's constituency happens to be - and another one to cater for the neglected Dublin region.
To accuse RTÉ of being Dublin-orientated because its main base is at Donnybrook is like saying the Irish Farmers' Association, the GAA, the Irish Countrywomen's Association and the Irish Naturist Association, to name but a few, lack rural dimensions because their headquarters are in the capital.
In pursuit of the rise in the licence fee and in anticipation of the Minister's charter, RTÉ has committed itself to an adventurous programme of increased output on its two television channels at peak time (1800-2330) before the end of this year.
On RTÉ 1 drama (a highly expensive element) is to be increased by 15 per cent, news and current affairs by 10 per cent, music by 12 per cent, factual and historical by 8 per cent and entertainment by 14 per cent. Over on Network 2, news and current affairs is to be increased by 7 per cent, entertainment by 8 per cent and music by 6 per cent.
More home-produced programmes are also promised for young viewers and subtitling of programmes is to go up by 25 per cent. The 35,000 hours a year of programming on radio (Radio 1, 2fm, Raidío na Gaeltachta and Lyric fm) is to be enhanced rather than increased.
The Minister and RTÉ make the traditional obeisance to the Irish language. The draft charter enjoins RTÉ to reflect the bilingual nature of Irish society by actively supporting the use of Irish language in everyday life through the production of suitable programming.
The national broadcaster endorses this sacred aspiration by pledging to increase (by an unspecified amount) Irish language and bilingual output.
In the meantime Nuacht has been moved from its prime time viewing slot and shares the afternoons with the likes of Telly Bingo and Spin City. Strangely, in the light of their expressed concern for the Irish language, neither the Minister nor RTÉ makes any reference to the increasingly bilingual TG4, which used to be known as Teilifís na Gaeilge.
If it were not for the support that RTÉ is obliged by the Government to give to the Baile na hAbhann operation, the Donnybrook balance sheet would have a much healthier look.
Mr Ahern says he will now initiate a public consultation on the draft charter by inviting submissions from interested parties and the general public and is setting up "an on-line forum" on the Department's website. RTÉ went to the public also over the past couple of years with a travelling roadshow.
The outgoing director-general, Mr Bob Collins, and his senior executives went to public meetings all over the country to listen to the views of listeners and viewers. Nothing much changed as a result of their travels. When Mr Ahern wades through the submissions from all the usual pressure groups he will probably find there is little need to tamper with his draft charter. The charter and RTÉ will be judged by the only real test of public opinion - the audience ratings.
RTÉ has promised that its increased output will be qualitative as well as quantitative, as "more does not always equal better".
Even for a broadcaster without money troubles, meeting the commitments in such a short period of time would be a demanding task. For RTÉ, with its limited budgets and depleted staff, particularly in the technical production area, it may well be Mission Impossible.
Yet to fail to meet its own targets would be damaging to its credibility and its relationship with the Government.
Wesley Boyd is a former Director of News at RTÉ and was a member of its Executive Board for 20 years
