RTÉ pledges rise in production of home-made shows

RTÉ’S licence fee will be frozen at the current rate of 150 if the station fails to fulfil its commitment to provide more than 160 extra hours of home-produced programming this year.

The national broadcaster yesterday published its first “statement of commitments”, which lock RTÉ into a significant increase in Irish-made programmes across its range of TV and radio channels.

The main thrust of the TV package will see an increase of over 150 hours in home-produced material on RTÉ1, including several new programmes covering drama, news, current affairs, music and entertainment.