Separately, the broadcaster declined to confirm why three of its workers had refused the offer of full-time contracts after an investigation by consultants Eversheds Sutherland declared they had been misclassified as self-employed. Ms Flood said “where relevant or useful”, research from the department is made available to Operation Transformation’s production team “to ensure that the content is as informed, relevant and accurate as possible”.
Some €561,000 has been given to the show in sponsorship via Healthy Ireland over the course of the past two years. Meanwhile, Ms Flood told the PAC in her correspondence that Operation Transformation, RTÉ’s flagship health programme which has faced criticism from advocacy groups that it promotes body shaming, is sponsored by Healthy Ireland, an initiative of the Department of Health. “We do not have the resources or money of some of the streamers or the likes of Channel 4, which has invested significantly in this,” Ms Forbes told the PAC on January 20. She said the ways in which the consumption of media has changed in recent years requires that “we have to be at the table in this space”, and said that, assuming the funding was provided, improving the player would be “top of our agenda”.Īt the same hearing Ms Forbes bemoaned the “scale and resources” of the largest commercial streaming services such as Disney and Amazon, and compared it to the diminishing returns of RTÉ’s budgetary commitments over the past decade. Nevertheless, she said, in order for on-demand players to deliver parity of service with legacy broadcast services “which have been in operation for many decades”, “extensive investment and infrastructure” would be required.Īt a recent hearing of the Oireachtas media committee, RTÉ’s director general Dee Forbes said the broadcaster had spent “a lot of time and resources” improving the performance of the player for live broadcasts, adding RTÉ “almost broke the internet” in terms of the numbers of people streaming the Euro 2020 tournament via the player last summer. She said in order to put a precise figure on how much would be needed, “further product technical scoping and benchmarking” would be necessary.
Ms Flood said “further evolution” of the player would necessitate the acquisition of “additional specialist skills which will require increased operating expenditure”. However, RTÉ’s version has come in for consistent criticism due to its perceived instability and unreliability in recent years, especially in terms of live sporting events with large audiences, with its performance highlighted repeatedly at RTÉ’s two appearances before the Oireachtas last month. Such a player is a standard offering for broadcasters in modern times.
The RTÉ Player allows streaming of RTÉ exclusive content and syndicated programming, together with live broadcast streams, for those viewing online.
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