Late Late Show and Fair City to be made outside RTÉ in post-Ryan Tubridy plan

The RTÉ Player will work properly and half of the programmes that are not live will be available online first so you won’t have to wait to watch them on TV.

But there will be 400 jobs cut from the national broadcaster as part of the post-Ryan Tubridy payments scandal recovery plan.

The moves on Fair City were on the grapevine last year, but RTÉ management was saying no decision had been taken.

Now, RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst has confirmed the long-running soap opera and the flagship talk show will be produced off the Montrose campus, possibly by the independent sector.

The surprise, though, was the inclusion of the Late Late Show on the list for outsourcing.

Mr Bakhurst described Dancing with the Stars as a new model for the Late Late Show. Staff working on those shows will be able to take a redundancy deal and seek a job with the new companies.

But the details on the outsourcing of some of RTÉ’s biggest programmes are unclear, with no timelines or financial details being provided. RTÉ staff have already expressed concerns about the move.

As far back as last November, senior figures in Government were saying that outsourcing of big shows was being examined, with Fair City at the top of the list.

Actors in Fair City have complained that they feel “expendable” and like “second-class employees” as filming is set to stop this summer to free up technical staff to cover sports events. Fair City actors have only recently become RTÉ employees, but do not have a contract of indefinite duration despite some working on the show for more than 20 years.

But the station is planning to outsource far more of its programming by “directing significant investment into the independent production sector”.

Spending on independent programming will rise from €47m in 2024 to €70m a year from 2026.

Mr Bakhurst was talking at an RTÉ staff meeting to discuss the broadcaster’s strategy over the next five years.

RTÉ plans to invest €40m in its digital products, including new RTÉ news and RTÉ audio apps and upgrades to the much-maligned RTÉ Player. A new sign-in for all RTÉ Player users will be introduced to improve personalisation features.

Ultimately, the plan is for half of all non-live RTÉ TV content to be made available on RTÉ Player first and pre-broadcast, “giving the audience choice on how they watch RTÉ”.

The plan is to develop RTÉ Player as the “flagship channel” and a competitive destination for streaming video content.

The Government has approved another bailout of €20m for RTÉ. But the wider question of funding is still up in the air. The Coalition is due to make a decision at the end of next month on what to do with the TV licence.