Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s What Happened
The Public Accounts Committee has levelled a number of criticism’s at RTÉ.
They were critical of RTEs gender pay gap, as well as the pay gap between those working through English and Irish. These have been issues for a long time, with many Irish Language staff not being paid as much as those working through English,
By far the biggest criticism of RTÉ though was their over reliance on state funding through the licence fee. RTE is a dual funded broadcaster, meaning they are part funded by a licence fee and part funded through limited commercial activities.
The problem is that RTÉ always gets more from the licence fee then from commercial revenue. The PAC were critical of this and argued that RTÉ were becoming increasingly reliant on the licence fee income.
A number of recommendations were made in the PAC report, but it’s reported that many of these such as getting Revenue to collect the fee have been rejected by government.
The Irish Times report RTÉ as saying it would give “due consideration to these findings in the coming days and will be liaising further” with the department in terms of the specific information requested.
They also welcomed the suggestion from the department that the report on the future of media should be published.
You can read the full details of the PAC report in the linked article from the Irish Times. There’s a lot to it, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens going forward.
Gamers might start hearing radio ads more often after Bauer announced a deal with AudioMob to become the official ad sales partner for Ireland. So, how does it work?
In its simplest form, it might mean audio ads in the menu, or it might mean audio ads on the bus as your character travels to the in game arena. in games with radio stations you might also start hearing some audio ads as you approach.
Those would be the clever implementations of the system, other potential risks are that the ads just interrupt the games soundtrack, with no input from the player. it all depends on how creative the game developer is honestly.
An Post are the first to buy ads with the new system. In their deal, ads only play if the user has volume over 30% so as to ensure the ad cuts through.
It’s a really interesting concept to think about, and it’s certainly cool to see a traditional broadcasting business like Bauer go down this road.
The down side is obviously increased competition for ears potentially hurting the core radio industry, but the impact is still unclear at this point.
Finally this week, the C103 studios in cork have been getting some extra usage.
Graham Norton has been hosting his Virgin Radio UK show from the C103 West Cork studios. Graham comes home to Cork each summer and it’s becoming tradition for him to record his show from Bandon.
C103 and Virgin Radio UK are ultimately owned by the same company, so this has likely made the collaboration easier. It’s the second year of this arrangement, with Graham hosting in the studios for the first time last year.
Graham explained to Newstalk that he’s hosted a few weeks from Cork, is now taking a break, and will then return to the UK hosting from the news Tower in London. Interesting to see how the bigger groups are using their Irish operations in this way.
Who knows what big names we’ll see hosting from Ireland in the future with these sorts of arrangements.
Quick Bits
Sinéad Hussey is the new RTÉ News Midland’s coraspondant
Hip Hop radio show the Plastic Attack has ended after 24 years
A new show called the Science Of Sence has started airing on RTÉ JR Radio
QRadio Belfast had some issues with their QTV studio camera’s
Former Director general of RTÉ Joe Barry has passed away. May he rest in peace
And that’s the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio news📻 and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for extra stories.