The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (“BAI”) has today, 10th October 2012, announced funding decisions from the latest round of Sound & Vision II – the Broadcasting Funding Scheme. A total of 79 projects have been offered funding.
Round 15 of the Scheme accepted applications for both Television and Radio projects. 216 applications requesting €12.7 million were received.
A total of €4,514,398 has been offered to broadcasters and independent producers to support the production of 64 Radio and 15 TV projects. 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:
- An increase in the amount of drama being funded on both radio and television with 11 projects supported on this occasion;
- The round also includes funding for adult/media literacy projects and animation projects;
- €1.4 million is being allocated to fund 7 Irish or bi-lingual projects;
- 34 of the projects will be broadcast on Commercial broadcasting services, 29 will be broadcast on Community broadcasting services while 16 will be broadcast by Public Service broadcasters.
Speaking about the announcement, Michael O’Keeffe, Chief Executive of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland said: “This round was particularly noteworthy for the high level of qualifying applications that were received. In order to partly address this, the BAI made an additional €1 million available in the round. However, given the competitive nature of the Scheme, it was inevitable that some very worthy projects did not make the final cut on this occasion.
The allocation again represents a significant investment of funding, financed by the Television license fee, directly to the broadcasting and audiovisual production sectors in Ireland. To date in 2012, funding totalling €13.4 million has been offered by the Scheme to 185 radio projects and 60 television projects. The provision of such funding will result in an increased range of high quality television and radio programmes being made available to Irish audiences.”
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 received over 200 applications for funding under Round 16 of the Scheme which closed in September. It is envisaged that the outcomes of this round will be announced before the end of the year. The BAI expects to announce details of closing dates for 2013 in November.
Media Queries to:
Brian Furey Catherine Heaney
BAI DHR Communications
01 6441200 01 4200580 / 087 2309835