5% Funding Increase for Lyric FM

5% Funding Increase for Lyric FM

Audiences decrease for RTÉ Orchestras, Quartet and Choirs.

According to RTÉ’s recently published Annual Report for 2015, RTÉ Lyric FM, Ireland’s music and arts radio channel, received an increase in funding of €0.3m (5%) to €6.3m.

Commenting to The Journal of Music, Aodán Ó Dubhghaill, Head of RTÉ Lyric FM, said:

The increase in licence fee funding attributed to RTÉ lyric fm, a modest € 360,000 increase on 2014, was attributed to RTÉ’s investment in the service. In 2015 the station’s output continued to grow with renewed emphasis on accessible cultural content and on commissioned and in-house features and documentaries on The lyric Feature as well as music commissions. More than 48 hours of cultural comment and review were broadcast on the daily Culture File slot during the year. The lyric Concert broadcast eight hours of interval talks and features.

The report states that the station achieved its goal of achieving ‘a wider, more diverse listenership by reaching out to listeners under 50’.

Lyric received the smallest increase of all four main stations. RTÉ Radio 1 received a 9% budget increase, bringing its total to €35.4m; RTÉ 2FM received an 8% increase, bringing the total to €12.1m; and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta received an increase of 7%, bringing it to €11.3m. 

RTÉ Orchestras
In the report’s section on the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, RTÉ Con Tempo Quartet, RTÉ Philharmonic Choir and RTÉ Cór na nÓg, it states that the groups collectively performed 217 concerts but did not achieve their goal of maintaining total audiences at more than 180,000.

Whereas in 2014 the orchestras, quartert and choirs performed 239 concerts and reached 180,133 people, in 2015 they performed 217 concerts and reached audiences of 156,337. The report states that this was as a result of

a reduction in the number of public performances in 2015 (fewer external hires) and lower than anticipated box office sales.

The most largest drop was for the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, which performed 79 concerts and reached 65,330 people in 2015, compared to 101 concerts and 94,358 people in 2014.

To view the complete report, see below.

Published on 9 August 2016

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