Content Update – March 2020
The outbreak of Covid-19 has seen people turn to RTÉ on TV, Radio and Online, for informative news and current affairs, and distracting entertainment. However, as a result of Covid-19 RTÉ will experience some disruption to its schedules. Our Content and Channels teams are working hard to replace any content that will be missing from the schedule. Please see below changes to the RTÉ TV schedule:
| Fair City |
Fair City will only play on Sundays and Thursdays. We will stop showing episodes on Thursday April 16th. |
| EastEnders |
EastEnders will only play on Mondays and Tuesdays. It will run to the end of May and then stop indefinitely. |
| Angela Scanlon’s Ask Me Anything | This inventive new show has been postponed due to its reliance on a live studio audience. This will be put back in the schedule when restrictions around large gatherings are lifted. |
|
GAA All-Ireland Championship |
The GAA has confirmed that due to the current uncertainty created by the Covid-19 pandemic, the start of the All-Ireland senior football championship has been delayed. Once we receive confirmation of dates from the GAA we will then publish our Advertising Offer. |
| UEFA EURO 2020 | This competition has been rescheduled until next year due to Covid-19. |
| Tokyo Olympics 2020 | This event has been postponed until next year due to Covid-19. |
We are working hard to bring the best content to our audiences and audiences have responded to this. This is seen in some of the figures since this crisis began:
- The Late Late Show has had an audience of 723,700 and 685,000 on 13th March and 20th March respectively.
- The Dancing with the Stars Finale was watched by 690,500, as Lottie Ryan took first place in the celebrity dancing competition.
- The second series of Great House Revival got off to a good start with 498,000 and 474,000 on March 15th and March 22nd
- The first episode of the new series of All Round to Mrs Brown’s was watched by 449,300 on Saturday 22nd
Source: TAM/Nielsen, Individuals, L+V (as consolidated not available for all programmes)
As our lives are changing everyday with the onset of Covid-19, RTÉ is working to make sure that our content is relevant and informative in our current situation. We will be keeping you up-to-date on new programming coming into the schedule such as the Operation Covid Nation.
In these uncertain times that we find ourselves in Operation Covid Nation is coming to RTÉ One in April 2020.
The team from Operation Transformation have a plan to help people stay healthy, in mind and body, as people are having to live apart from family and friends and the normal routine of everyday life.
Kathryn Thomas and the team of experts Aoife Hearne, Karl Henry, Dr Eddie Murphy and Dr Sumi Dunne will be helping households deal with the reality of isolation and how we can all play our part in supporting the most vulnerable by our own actions.
We want to hear from households from across the country to capture how they are coping behind closed doors since Covid-19 arrived in Ireland. Whether you are living alone, in a house share, working from home, adapting to home school your children and have chosen to self-isolate our Operation Transformation experts want to support and help you.
Four households will be chosen for this series. The production will install unmanned cameras in your home to see how each household is living day to day. Each household will be paid an appearance fee for participation in the series.
The strict social distancing guidelines will be followed by all production team members to avoid any contact with the household members.
There will be more new programming announced in the coming weeks. Please check our website for any updates.