Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s what happened
This week was budget week. There wasn’t a massive amount for independent radio stations, but let’s look at some of the stuff that was announced for the wider media industry.
- The BAI has been allocated €7.5 million in order to fund the transition to the new media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán
- €6 million is available for a new courts reporting scheme. It seems media organisations can apply for this much like Sound And Vision funding, but it will be available on a platform neutral basis, so not just radio and TV.
- RTE is getting €15 million in recognition of the increase in over 70s who don’t pay for a tv licence, as well as the recommendations from the Future of Media Commission
- TG4 has got its biggest ever budget increase of €7.3 million. This will help fund a new Irish language kids TV Channel that they plan to launch in 2023.
- Finally the big one, Zero VAT on newspapers (physical and digital). From a radio point of view it will be interesting to see if News brands invest in podcasts more now that they have a more stable funding stream. We’ll need to wait and see.
So overall not too bad, of course one could always want more, but at the same time this was fairly okay as budgets go.
The increase in the budget for RTÉ will hopefully give a boost to their radio stations, and the fact that we are getting a new kids TV channel can only be good news.
It will be interesting to see if someday we get zero vat on radio ads, we can dream.
Let us know what you thought of the budget by tweeting @RadioLandIRL on Twitter
Everyone knows that movies and musicals have some great music, but often that music is never heard on radio. Movies & Musicals with Aedín Gormley on Lyric FM is an exception though, and it’s now available for sponsorship. So how much does it cost?
Well, the show is 3 hours each Saturday, and has an audience of 64,000 people. If a brand wants to be a part of that, they will have to pay…
- €11,000 for 3 months, a relatively low price for a brand wanting to find its feet in Radio sponsorship
- €18,000 for 6 months, that’s just 3 grand a month.
- €30,000 for the year. Really not bad value considering the listenership
The sponsorship also includes some promos across the station which will give the brand further reach.
This really is the perfect sponsorship for a streaming service or cinima chain. Your hitting a hard to reach audience without paying an insane price.
I look forward to seeing who the next sponsor for the show will be, I’d imagine this could be sold fast given the shows niche.
As we mentioned earlier, the BAI will soon be replaced by a new regulator, Coimisiún na Meán. The Irish Examiner had an article this week questioning how the complaints process might work for this new commission.
As of now the BAI is responsible for regulating Irish radio and TV broadcasters, but the new regulator will also be responsible for online platforms such as social media.
Could giving the public the ability to report content directly to Coimisiún na Meán result in an avalanche of complaints two big to handel? And how would this impact the regulation of traditional media organisations?
It’s an interesting thought, we are likely about to see a lot of changes in how media is regulated and funded in ireland, so it’s going to be a really interesting time ahead.
I’d recommend reading the article linked below. We’ll need to wait and see where all this lands in the next few months and years.
Quick Bits
A community station in County Clare returned to FM Broadcasting
96FM and Live95 presenter Shane Bucks has got engaged
Today FM are giving away shopping at Lidl
A new radio documentary on Dundalk FC aired its first episode on Dundalk FM this morning
The BBC have launched a podcast telling the story of a Dublin murderer
The Irish Times had a very detailed interview with the 2 Johnnies
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.