“TV Is Not Dead, It Is Having Babies” Say RTE

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Orlaith.Blaney

In a hugely well attended breakfast meeting yesterday morning, the TV heavyweights were out in force.

RTE’s Geraldine O’Leary, TV3’s Daragh Byrne and Deirdre Macklin and Richard Kelly from Sky all lead precise and punchy presentation decks to tell us about the powerful nature of TV. Jonathan Joyce from Magna lead the session and new’ish boss at Initiative, Paul Farrell opened the proceedings. We are big fans of the power of television in the Irish market. And those who say TV is a dead medium could not be further from the truth. TV content is phenomenal source of conversation on twitter and the Nielsen numbers prove its power. Yes. We’re watching, tweeting, on the laptop during TV broadcasts and we’re multitasking but that doesn’t mean we aren’t paying attention. It is all about content and critically it is all about Irish content. 13 of the Top 20 programmes on TV3 were Irish content (well done TV3)– not imports. RTE’s Top 20 has 19 home produced programmes.

The demand for relevant Irish content continues to grow. Sky have a global view of things and most striking is their potential to stream in different ads, to different homes, depending on who lives there. So the families get a family car ad and the young singles get a run around car streamed to their homes. Powerful stuff. Richard Kelly can be very proud of what has to be one of the strongest media brands and ideas ; ‘’believe in better’’. What Sky lack in Irish content and Irish stats for the breakfast’s audience they more than make up for with their vision of how a media brand can use really powerful branding for leadership, confidence and stature. If you’re not on telly in 2012, put it on your ‘’to do’’ list and call us – or, at least think about it. If you want more information of the presentation, Laura Rickard at Initiative can help you with that and the final word to Geraldine O’Leary ; ‘TV IS NOT DEAD, IT IS HAVING BABIES”

Paul Farrell of Initiative with Ann Corcoran of limetree

TV3’s Daragh Byrne and Deirdre Macklin

RTE’s Geraldine O’Leary and Dara Meaney

Orlaith Blaney and Mary Reynolds

Ryan Tubridy bags the Late Late Show

Posted on May 12, 2009 by Jonathan.Joyce

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”.

ryan-tubridy

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…

RTÉ – fixing the market.

Posted on May 1, 2009 by Martina.Stenson

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.