The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (“BAI”) has today, 18th December 2012, announced funding decisions from the latest round of Sound & Vision II, the Broadcasting Funding Scheme. A total of 104 projects have been offered funding on this occasion.
Round 16 of the Scheme accepted applications for both Television and Radio projects. A total of 264 applications had been submitted under the round, requesting a total of €14.1 million.
Grants totalling €4.477 million have been offered to broadcasters and independent producers to support the production of 84 Radio, 19 TV projects and one project that will be broadcast on TV and Radio. When completed, the funded projects will be broadcast by a range of community, commercial and public service broadcasters across the country. All of the projects being offered funding will explore the themes of Irish culture, heritage and experience.
Highlights of this funding round include:
The funding of nine drama projects, seven of which will be broadcast on radio.
The funding of two animation projects for broadcast on television.
€1.3 million is being allocated to fund 12 Irish or bi-lingual projects.
39 of the projects will be broadcast on commercial broadcasting services; 45 will be broadcast on community broadcasting services; and 20 will be broadcast by Public Service broadcasters.
The allocation also includes funding for a range of documentary, adult literacy and entertainment format projects.
Speaking about the announcement, Michael O’Keeffe, Chief Executive of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland said: “Today’s announcement marks another significant injection of funding to the broadcasting and independent production sectors from the scheme which is financed by the television license fee. The scheme continues to deliver on its objective of providing an increased range of high quality television and radio programmes for the Irish audience. This is the fourth and final allocation of funding from the scheme this year. The BAI has assessed 857 applications to the scheme during 2012. A total of 350 projects have been offered funding to the sum of €18.3 million this year.”
The BAI will now commence contract negotiations with all successful applicants. A full list of the projects being offered funding is available here.
Meanwhile, the BAI has announced the closing dates for the receipt of applications to the Scheme in 2013. The dates and updated application guidelines are available on the Authority’s website: www.bai.ie
Media Queries to:
Tony Heffernan/ Emily Kelly
DHR Communications
01 4200580