The Last Post

Matt Cooper: More drama is as much about income as it is about entertainment value for RTÉ

The state broadcaster has announced more than 40 hours of original Irish drama in its autumn schedule – but how will it fare against the seemingly bottomless budgets of content behemoths like Netflix and Prime?

RTÉ stars at the announcement of the national broadcaster’s autumn schedule last week. Picture: Andres Poveda

It’s good to see that RTÉ appears to be making a substantial financial commitment to the production of new television drama. At its autumn schedule release last Thursday, it announced that it plans to broadcast more than 40 hours of original Irish drama in the months ahead, an increase of more than half on the previous year.

There’s a strong argument that for RTÉ to legitimise its existence as a publicly funded broadcaster, it has ...