Saturday, May 04, 2013

RTE spent €194,000 covering change of Pope in Vatican

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSvoewZWc6WaumMYQWCtVOwAz4E5BcfmQos9iaAM2R6SPQU8nCVRTE clocked up a €194,000 bill for covering the resignation of Pope Benedict and the election of his successor Pope Francis.

This included €11,400 on 32 flights for 22 journalists and producers from its news and current affairs, television and radio divisions, a group that included news anchor Bryan Dobson, Miriam O'Callaghan, Joe Little and Sean O'Rourke.

No individual breakdown was given for accommodation, expenses and taxis. A combined figure for these expenses came €56,300.

They serviced programmes across its online, radio and television platforms, including 'Prime Time', 'Morning Ireland' and 'Drivetime'.

The number of people in Italy providing coverage included 19 for RTE News and Current Affairs, one of whom was already based in Rome, two for RTE Television and two for RTE Radio.

Last month, the broadcaster's head of news and current affairs, Kevin Bakhurst, said the overall cost of covering both events was €167,000.

He said that one-third of the figure was used to pay for satellite feeds out of Vatican City and the provision of satellite trucks and engineering.

However, documents obtained by the Irish Independent under freedom of information rules reveal an additional €27,233 was actually spent on both its television and radio coverage, bringing the total spend by RTE on its coverage to €194,710.

The costs were broken down as €167,477 for RTE News & Current Affairs, €23,311 for RTE Television and €3,922 for RTE Radio.

Apart from the costs of flying out journalists and producers, RTE faced a host of additional costs, including the hiring of freelance crews in Rome, and the rental of broadcasting workspace and live positions for TV and radio. 

The resulting coverage gave RTE a peak audience of 992,000 on its 'Six One' bulletin and generated huge traffic on its website.

RTE said the level of personnel and resources was "fully justifiable" given its volume of coverage and the degree of public interest in the events.

The former head of the BBC News Channel, Mr Bakhurst said it was "crucial" that RTE provided "world-class coverage of major news stories" and particularly of events that had "such a direct impact on Ireland and many of our audience".

He said: "There were five days of major events; the coverage of those, and the news stories in between, commanded huge audiences. The costs are not small but, given the level of public interest and the international significance, are justifiable."