Does TG4 warrant its significant funding?

Mr Pseudonym

Not being an Irish language speaker, TG4 and what it broadcasts rarely invades my conscience. That being said, I did see a documentary about Irish academics in Oxford, and found it enjoyable and well made.

I am aware that TG4 receives a lot of praise, and frequently hear comparisons between RTE’s often lousy output, and the supposedly superior content on TG4. The suggestion is that TG4 over-performs.

However, it appears that TG4 is incredibly well funded, especially considering its ~3% audience share. It receives €32m in ‘Exchequer current funding’ (i.e. directly from, I imagine, the Dept of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaelthact). As well as that, the RTE Annual Report appears to show that a share of the License Fee (€8m) is also contributed. (I am confused regarding that License Fee contribution, as it is not shown in the TG4 accounts, yet a breakdown of how it was spent is given in RTE’s. It is possible that it is included in the €32m figure.)

If it is the case that total non-commercial funding equates to €40m, this minority channel receives almost two thirds of what the flagship RTE 1 does (from the License Fee). The full picture, however, is that, while RTE made close to €70m from commercial activities (advertising), TG4 made only €3m.

Do you think the quality of what TG4 produces is superior to that of RTE? Do you think such state funding is justified for such a small audience?


TG4 Annual Report 2011

RTE Annual Report 2012 (relevant account on pg. 93)


Edit: 'Exchequer state funding' received from Dept of Communications
Edit: As corrected by JohnFalstaff, below, TG4's operating budget totals €32m, and not €40m ("The McCarthy Report recommended that TG4 should be partially funded directly from TV Licence Fee Receipts, thereby reducing the direct Exchequer subvention" -- Source)

flazio

If it's making or buying excellent programming then yes of course it's worth the funding.

July Rain

As a public service broadcaster it deserves funding a lot more than RTE TWO does.

JohnFalstaff

The €8 million from RTE is included in TG4's operating budget of €32 million for 2011.

TG4 punches above its weight in terms of the quality of programming it produces on budgets that, on a case by case basis, are much smaller than those allocated to RTE's productions. It has a proven track record in terms of its output and provides a valuable service. Last night I watched an excellent documentary on TG4 about the 1916 Rising that was of as high a standard as I have seen broadcast on any station, either at home or abroad.

And one crucial element you've overlooked is that for the year 2011, RTE ran up losses totaling some €70 million. TG4 was the only television station in the country to generate a gain for that year, generating €109,000 from their operating budget of €32 million. A small profit admittedly, but better than the €70 million loss returned by RTE, who are now looking to plug the hole in their finances by increasing the license fee. If anything more public funding should be sent TG4's way as they seem able to make it go further.

Good article here on RTE's finances from the ever reliable Nama Wine Lake:
http://namawinelake.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/just-how-bad-are-rtes-finances/

Mr Pseudonym

Thank you for your post. I have mentioned, in my OP, your correction regarding state funding.

JohnFalstaff wrote: »

And one crucial element you've overlooked is that for the year 2011, RTE ran up losses totaling some €70 million. TG4 was the only television station in the country to generate a gain for that year, generating €109,000 from their operating budget of €32 million. A small profit admittedly, but better than the €70 million loss returned by RTE, who are now looking to plug the hole in their finances by increasing the license fee. If anything more public funding should be sent TG4's way as they seem able to make it go further.

That RTE deficit includes a sizeable one-off restructuring charge. I'm not an RTE cheerleader - in fact, I deplore almost everything except Radio 1 - but I will defend them by saying that TG4 did not lose a sizeable chunk of its operating budget in the form of a ~40% reduction in commercial revenue.

Mr Pseudonym

So, after a bit more research, I think I have a conclusive breakdown of TG4's direct and indirect funding.

It receives a subvention from the Dept of Communications, Energy, and Natural Resources. From 2011, it was decided to reduce this grant, and have the shortfall be made up from the Television License Fee takings. In 2012, the subvention equalled ~€22m, and the License Fee contribution equalled €9.2m. There exists a legacy arrangement from when TG4 was set up: RTE provides one hour of Irish-language content per day. This cost RTE €7.75m in 2012. The channel also has ~€3m in commercial revenues.

From TG4 Annual Public Funding Review 2011, a report for the BAI:

"Although TG4 are not in direct receipt of funding for the production of commissioned programming, the broadcaster facilitates the applications available to the industry for specific productions. The source of this funding is the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) Sound and Vision Initiative and also the Irish Language Broadcast Fund (ILBF). Total funding secured for TG4 commissions in 2011 totalled €9.5m."

Put simply, some productions which TG4 broadcasts received a total subsidy of €9.5m.


With all that in mind, it's difficult to say that TG4 - a station with an audience share of 2.1% (2005: 3.2%) - isn't well funded.

What is TG4's role? Is it to cater for Irish speakers, or ought it to be directly involved in promoting Gaeilge?

An Coilean

Mr Pseudonym wrote: »

However, it appears that TG4 is incredibly well funded, especially considering its ~3% audience share.

Not sure why its audience share is supposed to be significent, TG4 is quite well up in terms of audience share considering that it is an Irish language station.

At a glance, 3% may seem low, but comparative to other channels its not bad at all. RTÉ 2 for example get about 6%. Sky 1 gets less than 2%

waggs

I do not think audience share should be the sole consideration when looking at funding. Value and worth have to be measured other ways. Otherwise we would fund things like Im a celebrity and Xfactor and never make documentaries. I for one am happy with the funding TG4 gets even if I only tune in occasionally.

Elmo

Personally I would like to see TG4 have a larger role and in some way increase its commercial funding.

TG4 for a TV station is not well funding S4C for example gets £90million from British government with some programming such as News coming from the BBC. (Similar audience to TG4).

Scrape the Dept of Comms funding for TG4.

Give TG4 40% of the licence fee
Give RTÉ 40% of the licence fee
the rest divided to the BCI and to the RTÉ performing groups.

Remove RTÉ Two, 2FM, 2XM, Pluse from RTÉ and give them no licence fee.
Separate 2rn (the network) from RTÉ
Give TG4 children's TV (One English Lanuage Service and One Irish Language service) and the proposed Film Channel (see broadcasting act 2009)
Insist that RTE News Now carry NI news from BBC NI and UTV (memorandum of understanding between British and Irish governments).
RTÉ and TG4 should also swap 1 hour of programming per day.

RTÉ| New Company | TG4
RTÉ One| RTÉ Two | TG4 (Irish/English)
RTÉ Gold (Archive and Docs)***|Second Channel | IFB Channel (Mixed)*
RTÉ Oireachtas*** | |CULA4 (Irish)**
RTÉ News Now| |RTÉjr (English)*
| | Second Youth Channel (Irish/English)**
Radio 1| 2fm|RnaG
Radio 1 Extra | 2xm|Radio RiRa
GOLD|PULSE|RTÉjrRadio (English/Irish)
Choice| |TRTÉradio (English)
Lyric ||

***timeshare
**timeshare
*timeshare
This would help to increase investment into both animation and film, while helping with economies of scale that are apparent with TG4 and other services.

OP TG4 also provides some interesting US programmes that RTÉ and TV3 tend to ignore e.g. The Wire, Oz, Breaking Bad, Boss etc

Mr Pseudonym

I don't think the comparison with S4C is legitimate, because, by comparison with the BBC, RTE isn't well-funded either. £90m seems a preposterously large amount for S4C. But, the audience share you mentioned is deceptive as it's as a percentage of the UK as a whole. As Welsh is far more spoken in Wales than Irish is here, perhaps it's justifiable.

Do you propose giving 40% of the License Fee income to TG4 in its present guise (i.e. Irish language broadcasting)? I think support for TG4 would dry-up pretty quickly if they received the same amount as RTE.

2FM was previously self-funding, so if it can be returned to that, I see no reason for its removal.

I must confess to not really understanding your table; could you clarify, please?

Elmo

S4C gets the same number of people watching as TG4, not percentage. My point is TV is expensive to make.

The table above outlines what the broadcasters would be responsible for, e.g. TG4 would not just be responsible for TG4 it would become the national broadcaster for Irish language, children's tv/radio and film.

Mr Pseudonym

Elmo wrote: »

S4C gets the same number of people watching as TG4, not percentage. My point is TV is expensive to make.

The table above outlines what the broadcasters would be responsible for, e.g. TG4 would not just be responsible for TG4 it would become the national broadcaster for Irish language, children's tv/radio and film.

Having done a little searching, it wouldn't surprise me if S4C were being viewed by fewer than TG4. I'm amazed that it receives so much.

Certainly, having two state-funded networks competing with each other (while co-operating to take advantage of economies-of-scale) sounds sensible.

However, I don't want for half of my license fee to go towards Irish-language programming.

Elmo

Mr Pseudonym wrote: »

However, I don't want for half of my license fee to go towards Irish-language programming.

The new TG4 would continue to support TG4 with the same amount it currently gets from the Exchequre (though reduced by around 5m) the remainder would go towards Irish Film and Children's programming evenly. e.g.

~80m = 30m to TG4, 20m to new Irish Film, 20m to children's programming and 10m to Radio. (not mentioning advertising revenue and other commercial income).

Economies of Scale = TG4 provide a range of films (westerns, foreign film and some blockbusters already), TG4 and the IFB already fund short Irish Language Film, RTÉ already provides TG4 with news, TG4 and RnaG would use the same newsroom, Animations produced in Ireland can be dub into Irish and English, new Irish Film (in English) can air on both the IFB channela and TG4.

So no I am not suggesting that all of the funding goes to Irish Language but that it is used to fund programming making.

In thousands (in fairness to S4C they did not have any rugby on this week)

Top Ten TG4 programmes w/e 01/12/2013

GAA Beo - CC Peile Uladh 98
Rugbaí Beo - Laighin v Scarlets 90
Heartbreak Ridge78
GAA Beo - CC Iomána Laighean 77
Opry an Iúir 76
Peil na mBan Beo - CC Craobh Club 66
A Fistful of Dollars 57
An Jig Gig 52
Fáiscthe as an Talamh 42
Jockey Eile 39

Top Ten S4C programmes w/e 01/12/2013

1 DECHRAU CANU DECHRAU CANMOL (SUN 2001) 42
2 POBOL Y CWM (THU 2002) 38
3 POBOL Y CWM (MON 2001) 37
4 POBOL Y CWM (FRI 2001) 35
5 POBOL Y CWM (WED 2001) 35
6 FFERM FFACTOR (WED 2029) 34
7 JONATHAN (FRI 2202) 30
8 POBOL Y CWM (TUE 2001) 29
9 Y CLWB RYGBI (SAT 1905) 26
10 PINGU (THU 0901) 21

Mr Pseudonym

Elmo wrote: »

The new TG4 would continue to support TG4 with the same amount it currently gets from the Exchequre (though reduced by around 5m) the remainder would go towards Irish Film and Children's programming evenly. e.g.

~80m = 30m to TG4, 20m to new Irish Film, 20m to children's programming and 10m to Radio. (not mentioning advertising revenue and other commercial income).

Economies of Scale = TG4 provide a range of films (westerns, foreign film and some blockbusters already), TG4 and the IFB already fund short Irish Language Film, RTÉ already provides TG4 with news, TG4 and RnaG would use the same newsroom, Animations produced in Ireland can be dub into Irish and English, new Irish Film (in English) can air on both the IFB channela and TG4.

So no I am not suggesting that all of the funding goes to Irish Language but that it is used to fund programming making.

What you are proposing, then, is a complete overhaul of national broadcasting in Ireland. As I said in my previous post, I like the idea of there being two state-backed companies competing (there are potential downsides, however: they may do so by broadcasting low-brow content (maybe having ad income transfers between the two could counter that)). But, there would need to be a substantial reshaping of TG4: it would be inappropriate if the Irish-language ethos that all of the employees share dominated the station.

I fear that, through a lack of knowledge, I can't debate with you on the specifics that you mention. Thank you for sharing your considered, though.

Elmo

If we assume that the government are serious about the Irish Language then a strong irish language media provider is required. At very least it makes no real sense that RnaG and TG4 are 2 separate companies.

Your possible not a person who cares much for the language, and to me that is another debate.

We need a strong and focused broadcasting sector TV3 and RTÉ have never provided this, and the government and the industry has a narrow view of trying to retain the status quo.

I am looking at this from the point of view that over the last 18 years TG4 has been able to prove that another broadcaster can commission quality TV and Film. Why not reward that broadcaster?

I don't look at it from the view that TG4 are purely an irish language TV station because clearly it is bi-lingual, that understands that all irish tv channels will have a certain amount of foreign programmes.

What my suggestion is about is providing more Irish TV services from a greater number of broadcasters. One a straight public service broadcaster and another taking care of children's programming, film and irish.

Think about it 60m worth of advertising leaves this country each year because RTÉ and TV3 bicker between themselves.