Was RTÉ’s decision to appoint Ryan Tubridy as presenter of its flagship programme entirely surprising? Tubridy has proven a safe pair of hands in the ratings stakes during his tenure at Tubridy Tonight. This is, afterall, the same route Pat Kenny took almost 10 years ago albeit with a different objective.

Kennys primary task was quite unforgiving: to replace the irreplaceable. His critics have been harsh but the numbers don’t lie. If Kenny is to be judged on this criterion then the ship is steady, if a little bit rusty.

Tubridy’s objective, according to his news interview on the 11th May, is to “bring a 21st Century twist” to the oldest running TV chatshow of all time. However, he hastened to add that he was “not going to tinker with the format too much”.

Which is it going to be Ryan?

Providing the Late Late with a 21st Century makeover is no mean feat. It’s a gradual process. Bending barriers rather than breaking them (just ask Tommy Tiernan’s lynch mob).

With RTÉ currently nearly €70 million shy of advertising revenue targets, a lot is riding on this decision. Even if RTÉ do hit the right tone with the “new” Late Late Show, they’ve surely left a void in their Saturday night schedule. Given that viewing figures for Tubridy Tonight are only 10% below that of the Late Late show and that RTÉ are in the red, it will be interesting to see if Tubridy Tonight will be replaced at all, never mind who could fill Tubridy’s shoes.

Maybe 21st century twists are better suited to Saturday nights.

Who knows how this will all turn out?

We wouldn’t be caught dead watching it…

In a period of unprecedented deflation in the media marketplace RTÉ has taken a decision to fix their pricing in order to stabilise the TV market and stem the loss of revenue they have been experiencing since July 2008.

While we agree that the net impact of this move by RTÉ is that the TV marketplace will once again see some stability in pricing, the impact on clients’ business is very much dependent on how agencies predicted pricing in the first place.  

Each year agencies predict the cost of RTÉ airtime based on the supply (viewing) and demand (money). So for example if an agency predicted that RTÉ would see slight inflation in the second half of 2009 then their clients will benefit from cost savings.  

Right now all deals are being re-examined in light of this new development, and the likelihood is that RTE will have a stormy few months ahead. The expectation is that some advertisers will opt to pull airtime from the State broadcaster in the short-term.  

If this move by RTÉ is successful it will mean that the quality and quantity of home-produced programming on the station is kept to the high standard we have come to expect from the state broadcaster.