The BBC’s recently released ‘first look images’ of the ‘upcoming’ series of ‘The Young Offenders’ have given the politicians who control the health of Irish television a chance to watch Irish broadcasts pass by unnoticed. It was a quiet shock.
Although a broadcast date has not been confirmed, the BBC says the fourth installment will be “coming soon to BBC One and iPlayer”, with the BBC further confirming that The Young Offenders will be in the hearts of viewers around the world. He praised it as a “cultural phenomenon” that captured the world.
I’m happy for viewers all over the world. But what about viewers at home?
The Corkset series was commissioned by the BBC “in collaboration” with RTÉ and is a triumph for Irish comedy. The film was produced by Irish production company Vico Films and features a celebration of Irish acting talent, and was produced by Vico’s Peter Foot, who wrote and directed the original 2016 film.
It’s great that the BBC wants to be a major funder. The bad news is that RTÉ’s finances are so tight that it won’t be broadcast here until next year.
If you’ve heard this before, please stop. Program costs are recorded in the broadcaster’s account during the period the program is being transmitted, not at the time the money is spent. This means that one of the ways RTÉ could save costs was through deferrals, as soon as he was obliged to cut costs by 10 million euros in 2024 alone.
The cost-cutting bullet point states that “The broadcast of The Young Offenders has been postponed until 2025,” which means the BBC’s “beloved characters will return for more hilarious and heartwarming adventures.” I think we can all agree that the announcement that “I’m coming” is not that far-fetched. ” in this show’s “Big Lottery.”
This practice of delaying the broadcast of already produced programs for accounting purposes is not new to the television industry or to RTÉ.
We never found out what happened to Amber, the girl who went missing in the RTÉ drama 10 years ago. The Oireachtas Commission was unable to determine where she went. What we do know is that the mystery that ended in obscurity was due to air in 2012, but RTÉ’s deficit ballooned that year as advertising revenue plummeted and one voluntary redundancy plan financed one. That is to say. Amber was at a loss.
It was removed from the autumn 2012 schedule, but its absence in 2013 helped RTÉ achieve a rare profit that year. The film was finally released on RTÉ One in 2014 after being distributed and shown in several countries overseas.
It’s here again, only this time, The Young Offenders appears to have the distinction of being accessible to a large Irish audience for the foreseeable future through its broadcast on BBC One.
With so much content available to your audience, it may make sense to space out your commissions. Virgin Media Television, which last year shared the expensive rights to broadcast the Rugby World Cup with RTÉ, is behind Baz Ashmawy’s drama Faithless, which premiered in 2020, and stars India Mullen and Allen Leitch. ‘s Irish crime drama ‘Vanishing Triangle’ in 2023. US platforms Sundance Now and AMC+ in October.
This is “to give them the love and attention they need,” Virgin said. That love and attention will soon be felt by Faithless, with a six-part series set to air on Virgin Media One and Virgin Media Player later this month.
Perhaps due to scheduling conflicts with the Rugby World Cup, RTÉ decided to air the first episode of Ashmawy’s other project, The Money List, rather than release its first episode to kryptonite ratings. It would have been better to wait until this year. As it stands, the second series of Quiz is being filmed with an unconfirmed broadcast date, while production on the third series has been postponed as part of his 2024 cut.
The market downturn has added urgency to one element of RTÉ’s five-year plan: to prioritize digital advertising as a key growth area.
But when it comes to the habit of phased releases of can shows, the current market leader is crisis-hit Channel 4.
Alice and Jack, a romantic drama starring Domhnall Gleeson, Andrea Riseborough and Aisling Bea, may be celebrating St Valentine’s Day, but the advertiser-funded industry is in awe of the British public broadcaster. is not very popular these days. Production companies supplying this product have had to deal with numerous launch date postponements and slowdowns in commissioning.
The main catalyst for this was the collapse of traditional British TV advertising in 2023, with Channel 4 chief executive Alex Mahon describing the estimated 14% plunge as the realm of “market shock”. .
The woes of Ireland’s TV advertising market are not as severe, but they are not entirely absent. According to Core estimates, traditional TV advertising revenue fell by 5.8% last year to €244.2 million, and this year is expected to be another weak year, with the marketing group expecting a further decline of 3.9% to €234.7 million. ing.
The market downturn has added urgency to one element of RTÉ’s five-year plan: to prioritize digital advertising as a key growth area. In doing so, it will consciously emulate the strategy of the UK’s leading broadcasters, including Channel 4, which has set a target of reaching 30% digital advertising by 2025.
Channel 4 is on track to achieve that goal, but perhaps not in the way expected. The broadcaster video-on-demand advertising market is moving in the right direction here, but RTÉ’s digital revenue as a percentage of total commercial revenue will still be in the single digits in 2022, making it too difficult to emulate. There’s a long way to go. Channel 4 in this department.
No performance postponement is as dramatic as what’s happening in Hollywood. Warner Bros. Discovery wrote off unreleased projects for tax reasons in a move now known as “Batgirling.” However, these uncertain times are repeated over and over again. The fragile broadcast environment suggests more TV shows will be left on the shelf.