There will be fewer episodes of Fair City, a delay to the new series of the Young Offenders and no Saturday evening entertainment show as part of RTÉ’s plan to cut €10m.
The national broadcaster’s Director General Kevin Bakhurst unveiled the station’s strategic vision plan earlier this month.
As part of that, he stated that €10m would have to be saved across the organisation in 2024.
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Adrian Lynch, the station’s Deputy Director General, confirmed how these savings would be made in an email to staff on Thursday afternoon.
Fair City will be cut from four to three episodes a week from January 4 2024. This will be done to “allow for a pause in production in July and August”.
“We will continue to produce four episodes per week but will air three,” Mr Lynch said.
RTÉ in-house Sunday evening summer factual programming will not be produced in 2024.
It will also not produce an in-house Saturday evening entertainment show in the Spring of 2024. This has cast doubt over whether or not Tommy Tiernan's hugely popular chat show will return as well as Angela Scanlon's Ask Me Anything.
Production of a third season of The Money List, presented by Baz Ashmawy, will be deferred until 2025. A second season which was produced in 2023 will air in 2024.
The transmission of Young Offenders will be deferred until 2025
The budget for acquired programmes will be reduced in 2024, while additional savings will be delivered through production savings in News and Current Affairs and Sport
Mr Lynch said: “We are today confirming the following reductions to planned content for 2024.
“The purpose of these deferrals is to help achieve a reduction in planned expenditure of a minimum of €10m, while simultaneously making available the production resources required to deliver the Olympic Games, the European Football Championships, local and European elections, and other special events.
“We have spoken to those directly impacted by these cuts and deferrals, which span a range of genres and will encompass both the production of in-house programmes and the timing of broadcast of some commissioned and co-produced content.”
Mr Bakhurst previously announced plans to reduce the number of staff working in RTÉ by 400 by the end of 2028. This will start with an initial and limited Voluntary Exit Programme next year to deliver a headcount reduction of 40. This will be funded by the 2017 land sale proceeds
The recruitment freeze will continue, while the station will maintain tight controls on discretionary spending.
A range of capital and strategic projects will be postponed, including the postponement of a planned brand refresh and the postponement of planned podcasting and short-form content units.
Mr 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. However, they will not only assist us in achieving the required savings, but allow for proactive 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.”
“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 announced earlier this month that RTÉ will receive interim funding of €16m this year. Another €40m of funding will be delivered next year but will depend on reforms being implemented by RTÉ.
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