Fair City down to three nights a week as part of drastic €10m RTE cut in costs
Director general Kevin Bakhurst said 2024 will be a ‘challenging year and one in which we will have to manage our cost base carefully’
RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst is implementing cost-cutting plans. Photo: PA
RTÉ has announced a range of cost-cutting measures in order to reduce expenditure planned for next year.
The national broadcaster said it will implement a minimum of €10 million in cuts in an effort to control costs.
Fair City will be cut from four nights per week to three nights from January 4. RTÉ will continue to produce four episodes per week but will air three.
RTÉ’s in-house Sunday evening summer factual programming will not be produced in 2024.
The national broadcaster will also not produce an in-house Saturday evening entertainment show in the Spring of next year.
Earlier this year, RTÉ confirmed that The Tommy Tiernan Show, which airs on a Saturday night, will return to our screens in January.
The Irish Independent previously revealed that the national broadcaster’s GAA television programme, The Sunday Game, will be produced externally next year.
Production of a third season of The Money List will be deferred until 2025 (a second season, produced in 2023 will air in 2024).
The transmission of Young Offenders will also be deferred until 2025.
The budget for acquired programmes will be reduced in 2024 and additional savings will be delivered through production savings in News and Current Affairs and Sport.
In a statement issued this afternoon, director general Kevin Bakhurst said 2024 will be a “challenging year and one in which we will have to manage our cost base carefully”.
“These deferrals of production and transmission, along with reduced production budgets, are hard choices,” he said.
“However, they will not only assist us in achieving the required savings, but allow for pro-active cost and resource management in the delivery of essential special events in 2024.
"With these temporary reductions and deferrals, we are seeking to maintain and preserve RTÉ’s schedules and public service delivery as much as possible.
Read more
“With the launch of the new direction outline plan, my hope, as I have said before, is that we will enter 2025 armed with a robust strategy that makes the best use of the monies available to fund our national media service, monies we will invest as wisely and strategically as possible to improve the invaluable contribution of public service media to life in Ireland.
“Those monies, of course, depend upon a decision on the future sustainable funding of public service media in Ireland.”
The Government recently announced the provision of €40m in interim funding for RTÉ in 2024, subject to the implementation of further reforms.
The statement added: “As outlined to the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and New Era, RTÉ’s overall running costs will rise in 2024 due to a number of special events and other inflationary pressures.
“Therefore with a continued decline in sales of TV Licences and with commercial revenue projected to be broadly level year-on-year, RTÉ must implement a range of cuts to planned expenditure.”
Initially, RTÉ will implement a minimum of €10m in cuts to expenditure planned for 2024 in order to address "immediate and significant financial challenges”
These will include, cuts to and deferrals of content, an initial and limited Voluntary Exit Programme, to deliver a headcount reduction of 40.
"This will be funded by the 2017 land sale proceeds,” the statement added.
"The ongoing freeze on recruitment, maintaining tight controls on discretionary spend, the postponement of a range of capital and strategic projects, including the postponement of a planned brand refresh, and the postponement of planned podcasting and short-form content units.”
