Press Releases 2008

 

 

FRIDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER

 

 

BCI AWARDS AWARDS €4M TO SOUND AND VISION TELEVISION SUBMISISONS

 

 

 

The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has today (Friday 12th September) announced funding of approximately €4.1m for television programming in the sixth funding round of Sound & Vision, the Broadcasting Funding Scheme.

83 eligible television applications were received from the sector, requesting a total of €17.7m. This represents an increase of 31 or €6.7m in comparison to the previous round.  82 of the submissions received were deemed eligible for consideration and following the extensive assessment process, 29 of the submissions received have been awarded funding.

Once again funding support for adult literacy, Irish produced animation and home produced drama/feature featured strongly, with €1.39m in funding. Other genres which received funding included documentary, factual, sports and lifestyle.  26% of the total fund available was granted to Irish and bi-lingual programmes, and 61% of programmes funded will be shown on public service broadcasters, while the remaining 39% of programmes will be aired on a mix of commercial and community television.

Commenting on the announcement, Chief Executive of the BCI, Michael O’Keeffe, said: “The BCI is delighted to allocate a further €4.1m through ‘Sound & Vision’ to fund programmes dealing with Irish culture, heritage and experience. To date the Commission has allocated €45.3m to the television sector, through the television rounds. In addition to this, Special Schemes funding has provided €1.1m to 8 projects bringing the total investment in television programming to €46.4m since 2006.”

 

The funding awards were approved at a meeting of the Commission on 8th September last, following consideration of recommendations made by the assessment panels. The panels are comprised of external experts from the television sector, subject experts from the relevant thematic areas and BCI staff members. The BCI will now begin the process of contract negotiations with all successful applicants.

An appendix to this press release details all the television programmes that have been recommended for funding.

 

-Ends-
Media Queries to
Suzanne Sullivan                           or                    Aoife Clabby
Q4 Public Relations                                               BCI
01 4751444/086 3797291                                      01 6441200

 

Media queries to:
Aoife Clabby                                                or                        Suzanne Sullivan
BCI                                                                                             Q4 Public Relations
01 6441200                                                                             01 4751444/0863797291