Friday Miscellany

Quick observational blast for you because I’m a busy little bastard today:

• Was at a lecture on broadcast commissioning ethics in UCD last night, chaired by Fintan O’Toole, with Claire Duignan from the RTE and Guardian Columnist Steve Hewlett pontificating. Claire shared one interesting morsel from Monday night. Between 9pm and 10pm, 78% of Irish viewers were watching Irish-made broadcasting. And of that, TV3′s high-profile unreality TV cringefest The Apprentice got a measly 21%. The lion’s share went to Prime Time Investigates‘ great documentary on Traveller life. (A few weeks before the show started recording, Mr Cullen & Ms Lavin asked someone I know to come on board. They reacted like they’d just been asked to jump out of a plane without a parachute)
• In 1993, when the RTE’s mandate was amended to demand they source more material from independent producers, RTE spent IR£5million on 30 hours of external programming. In 2008, they will have spent €30million, receiving 1000 hours of external production material. That has gone from £160,000 per hour to €33,000 per hour, crudely calculated on the back of a napkin. How times have changed.
• The Irish Times yesterday had NO property supplement, just page 30, filled with features and ONE lonely sales ad from an estate agent (Knight Frank – Kinnity Castle is for sale, folks.), and one ad for a lovely loft office in Westland Row from Trinity Real Estates. Ad revenue plummeting much?
• If you havent’ bought a single album this year, just go and buy Fleet Foxes. That’s all you’ll need. If you’re happy, it makes you happier. If you’re wallowing in misery, it’ll make that feel okay too. It lulls you off to sleep and gently stirs you out of it at the far side of the night. It is all things to all men.
• The Blog Awards ’09 are live. Go register. YES, I WILL BE THERE. Stop salivating and go do some real work, you desperate internet sluts. (*)