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Special Feature: Industry Discusses Irish Language TV |
| 02 Sep 2010 | With the launch of Irish broadcasters’ Autumn schedules IFTN spoke with broadcasters and producers of Irish language programmes to get their (often varying) take on the current issues facing programmes in our native tongue. |
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RTÉ Drama Seeks New Projects |
| 02 Sep 2010 | TV Drama and feature film submissions are currently being accepted by RTÉ Drama. The deadline for receipt of applications is Friday, September 17th and the broadcaster intends to review TV dramas and feature films that have a resonance for an RTÉ One audience for the next BAI round - closing 5th November 2010. |
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RTÉ Launches Storyland 3 |
| 01 Sep 2010 | RTÉ is today holding a briefing session to introduce the third installment of its commissioning competition, StoryLand. StoryLand 3 is a competition for online drama series that sees eight series and 21 episodes of new drama commissioned by RTÉ and the audience. |
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'His & Hers' Hits €300,000 at Irish Box Office |
| 01 Sep 2010 | Ken Wardrop’s ‘His & Hers’, which was released in Irish cinemas on June 18th, has now reached a gross box-office of over €300,000 making it the highest grossing documentary released in Ireland since Michael Moore’s ‘Farrenheit 911’. This is a fantastic result for the Irish documentary, which was made on a micro budget of just €100,000. Opening on week one on just €40,000, the power of word of mouth means the film has now grossed 7.5 times this amount. |
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UTV Interim Revenue Up 9% |
| 31 Aug 2010 | UTV Media PLC has released its interim results for the first half of the year. The findings in the report see group revenue up by 9% to £59.2m (2009: £54.4m) and Pre-tax profits up by 17% to £9.4m (2009: £8.0m) It’s further reported that an improvement in the UK airtime market in the first quarter of 2010 was not matched in the Irish marketplace but the second quarter brought growth in both the UK and Ireland. |
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Interview: Stokes Passing SPI Torch to Galavan |
| 26 Aug 2010 | Sean Stokes’ handed over the role of CEO of the Screen Producers Ireland (SPI) to Barbara Galavan on Tuesday, August 24th. Having come to the end of his term as CEO Stokes has taken up his new position as MD of Sports and Media Rights International Ltd. IFTN spoke to both Sean and Barbara to talk about the Stokes’ time with the producers representative group and the challenges now facing Barbara. |
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Barbara Galavan is New SPI Chief |
| 25 Aug 2010 | The Board of Screen Producers Ireland has announced the appointment of its new Chief Executive, Barbara Galavan. Barbara replaces Sean Stokes who is leaving to head up Sports and Media Rights International Ltd a company providing advice and solutions for sports and media rights consumers. |
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TV3 Unveils Autumn Schedule & Three Year Plan for Production |
| 19 Aug 2010 | TV3 today launched its autumn schedule of programming. The broadcaster reported that home produced programming will increase by 10% to 40%, with a three year aim to exceed 50%. The schedule will be formally launched on air on ‘Ireland AM’ live from Galway on Friday August 20th |
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BAI Reviewing Irish Broadcasting Market |
| 16 Aug 2010 | Multimedia production and consultancy company, Athena Media is continuing work on a review of the Irish broadcasting market for the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. The company was appointed at the beginning of June following a tender competition and is led by Athena Media's MD Helen Shaw. |
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Govt. Assessing Free-to-Air Sports Proposals |
| 13 Aug 2010 | Communications Minister Eamon Ryan announced recently that he has appointed expert consultants to examine the proposal on the revision of the list of sporting events available as free-to-air. Following a month-long tender process, Indecon International Economic Consultants has been chosen to study the proposal and prepare a report on the Review of Designated Events and the Designation of Events of Major Importance to Society under the Broadcasting Act 2009. |
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GFD Inks Non-Theatrical ‘Secret of Kells’ Deal |
| 13 Aug 2010 | GFD Film Library has announced that it has secured the exclusive distribution of Cartoon Saloon's Oscar nominted feature, ‘The Secret of Kells’ for Non-Theatrical Screenings on DVD in Ireland. |
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TG4 Changes Commissioning Application Guidelines |
| 12 Aug 2010 | The deadline for Irish broadcaster TG4’s latest commissioning round is October 1st. The commissioning guidelines have been changed somewhat in the areas of both the documentary and entertainment genres in that applications should be for longer running series, mini series etc. than before. |
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ILBF Increases Irish Language Requirement |
| 12 Aug 2010 | Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund (ILBF) has announced that it is raising the minimum language requirement in funded programmes from 60% to 70%. The decision was taken at a recent meeting of the ILBF’s Investment Committee and will apply to all new applications for funding. |
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BAI Announces New DTT Introduction Plans |
| 11 Aug 2010 | The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) has repeated its displeasure that its chosen groups have failed to work together in the orchestration of bringing commercial Digital Terestial Television (DTT) to Ireland. The group has thus decided not to reactivate a commercial DTT multiplex licensing process until after the Analogue Switch Off (ASO). RTÉ has selected MHEG as the interactive middleware for the rollout of its national DTT service. |
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Work Begins on National Film School Building |
| 29 Jul 2010 | Work is to begin in two weeks on the site of IADT's new National Film School. The project, which has been awarded €5 million by Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan TD, will see the building of Ireland's first HD television studio. The building is to open for Sep/Oct 2011. |
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£22m Return in NIS Financial Report |
| 28 Jul 2010 | Northern Ireland Screen‘s annual report for the year 2009 - 2010 has been published and shows a return of £22 million to the local economy through the group’s main production investment fund. One of the biggest success stories for the group was ‘Your Highness’ which brought in £11.78 million of this. |
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UK Film Council to be Abolished? |
| 27 Jul 2010 | John Woodward, CEO of the UK Film Council has today announced that the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has informed him of its intention to abolish the UK Film Council. The decision comes in the wake of Britain’s Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt proposing the closure of the group. |
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Rebecca O’Brien Talks Co-Production |
| 26 Jul 2010 | As part of this year’s Galway Film Fleadh Media Antenna’s Irish contingent, fronted by Eibhlín Ní Mhunghaile, hosted a co-producers’ dinner. Rebecca O’Brien (who has produced twelve of Ken Loach’s films since ‘Hidden Agenda’ in 1990) was invited to make a key note speech after dinner; her key points are reproduced below: |
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State Assets Review Group Target RTÉ & TG4 |
| 23 Jul 2010 | Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan has established a specific Group to examine state assets and liabilities and to advise him on how the assets can be better used or disposed of to support economic growth and national investment priorities. The Group, chaired by co-author of last year’s so-called ‘Bord Snip Nua’ report, has already begun its task of examining selected public-sector assets, including commercial State companies such as RTÉ, ESB and TG4. |
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Windmill Lane Opens 'Lock Out', 36 VFX Jobs Created |
| 16 Jul 2010 | Irish post house, Windmill Lane Pictures is currently creating a new film visual effects production facility in Sandyford in order to carry out post production work on 'Lock Out’ [working title], a new sci-fi feature film that is to start shooting in Belgrade towards the end of the year. Windmill Lane will produce all the visual effects its new Dublin facility. |
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