It was a long-running drama with all the twists and turns you would expect from a soap opera. But now RTE and the cast of Fair City have settled a two-year dispute over rights to broadcast the series online.
An agreement has been reached to pay actors an extra €10 for every half-hour episode shown on the RTE Player. Details of the deal were released after a Freedom of Information Act request.
RTE began screening Fair City online in early 2010, but the station was forced to withdraw the service after only a few weeks following objections from cast members. They were unhappy at not getting an extra payment, as soap stars in other jurisdictions have done.
The cast of Fair City, first broadcast in 1989, has a history of conflict with RTE management. When it switched from three nights a week to four in 2001, industrial action was narrowly averted because management compensated staff for “greater productivity” in a “more pressured work schedule”.
The cast also went on strike in 1995 for better pay, forcing RTE management to suspend the series for several weeks.
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During the latest dispute, RTE argued that it could not afford to pay the actors anything extra, given the broadcaster’s dire financial situation. Last week Noel Curran, the director-general, said the organisation needed to reduce its annual expenditure by €25m.
Equity, the actors’ union, forced the station to remove the show from the RTE Player in early 2010, resulting in protracted negotiations.
It is thought that the cast sought three additional payments: one for the rescreening on the RTE Player, a second for broadcasts on an international player, and a third for screenings on RTE One +1, a timedelayed rebroadcast channel available on some television packages.
Bryan Murray, who plays Bob Charles on the show, said the cast accepted the €10 payment in acknowledgement of RTE’s difficulties. “The agreement certainly took a while, but we’re only catching up in this country with deals for new platforms,” the actor said.
Murray described the soap’s screening on the RTE Player in 2009 as a trial, which was agreed only on the basis that the station was not making any revenue from the online platform. “Then they started showing ads on the player and generating income from Fair City, so we withdrew our permission,” he said.
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Murray said a €10 fee for a 30-minute broadcast represented good value for the state broadcaster. “It’s about one-third of what we should be entitled to,” he said. “In other countries, actors would be paid extra for the show being broadcast on Plus One-type stations.”
Actors who do not appear in particular episodes do not get the extra €10, Murray pointed out. “People might presume we’re well-paid, but any one cast member will work for only about 22 weeks a year and many work for only about eight to 12 weeks.”
Fair City attracts 500,000 to 600,000 viewers per episode. Last year, it entered into its first product-placement deal, allowing Spar, a retailer, to take over Christy Phelan’s corner shop. The deal is worth €900,000 over three years.
Despite Fair City being Ireland’s longest-running soap, none of the cast was on a full-time contract, Murray said. “We don’t get holiday pay or redundancy,” he said. “And we only get paid for the weeks we work.”
A spokesman for RTE said the new agreement would stand for two years. Murray said the cast accepted it partly because they were keen for the show to be broadcast online. “We’re all very proud of Fair City and want it to get out to the widest possible audience.”